DISCUSSION: Do You Listen To Music/Make Playlists For Your Stories?

[Welkamo]

Do you listen to music when writing your story? Do you have playlists to get into the "vibe" of your story? Do you associate certain songs with certain characters?

For Pokémon: Heroes and Villains, I have a playlist for writing/getting into the vibe that includes (but isn't limited to):

• The Beach Boys
• Kiyoshi Yoshida
• Uttara-Kuru
• Naoyuki Onda
• "On My Watch" (Kevin Yost and Peter Funk) (They played this in either Uniqlo or Club Cool at Epcot and I found it again while writing PHAV)
• "Veridis Quo", "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger", "Something About Us" (Daft Punk)
• "California Dreamin'" (both the José Feliciano and The Mamas and The Papas covers)
• "Another Day in L.A." (Indigo Swing)
• "Hotel California" (Eagles)
• "The Little Old Lady (From Pasadena)" (Jan & Dean)
• A lot of 80s movie soundtracks that use "spacey/atmospheric" synths (especially stuff by David Newman)
• Randy Edelman
• "Working for the Weekend" (Loverboy)
• "Summer Night City" (ABBA)
• The soundtrack for Saturday Night Fever
• The entire Spirit Phone album

I prefer listening to music without singing (it helps me focus), but sometimes the lyrics fit too well for what specifically I'm writing.

I also have ship playlists that I sometimes listen to when writing shipfics

 

[OrionTheAbsol]

Yes, but mine is mostly video game music of many different titles. Stuff from Assassin's Creed, Castlevania, Fire Emblem, Shin Megami Tensei and quite a few horror titles. No lyrics and a lot of ambient (and tense) stuff.

This is what I've been listening to on repeat (and low volume) for much of my current chapter.

 

[Welkamo]

Yes, but mine is mostly video game music of many different titles. Stuff from Assassin's Creed, Castlevania, Fire Emblem, Shin Megami Tensei and quite a few horror titles. No lyrics and a lot of ambient (and tense) stuff.

This is what I've been listening to on repeat (and low volume) for much of my current chapter.

I've never heard the soundtracks for these games! They're so cool!

 

[techitisJ]

It all depends on the day. Some days I can listen music with lots of singing in it and even lip-sing along with it as I write, without it actually affecting how I'm writing. Other days I can't even listen to music that doesn't even have lyrics without getting distracted. I find if I want to listen to something while I write, it's probably best to just put on a youtube video in the background. If I'm interested enough in what I'm writing, I can get into the zone of it and tune what I'm listening to out.

After spending my high school years in the theatre at least 1/2 of the time, I find that I headcanon a lot of my characters as singers or people who can sing, whether or not they like to do it in front of others. But, this actually rarely makes it into the stories, a lot of times because I have dropped the story, or because I just can't figure a way to get it in. So, when I'm out walking (which I usually use as my thinking time for writing), I'll listen to songs I think certain characters might enjoy singing.

Sometimes I'll find music that will inspire a particular event in my stories. For example, when I was coming up with ideas for the fantasy piece I'm working on right now, I happened to stumble on a song with flute music in my Discover Weekly playlist on Spotify (Spotify basically takes the songs you listen to and throws together a bunch that are like it). Listening to this song actually inspired me to make my character a traveling flute player, which becomes a big part of her story and her character arc, as she goes from being a lone piper who believes she can not be loved to realizing that she deserves a chance to be happy and make friends.

 

[Ryoma Maser]

I listen to music but I also listen/watch stuff in the background while I work. If you wondering how I do it with non-music related stuff like Critical Role for example, I've been doing stuff ever since I first bought myself IPod Touch when I was like seven and only expanded doing so since. It's become second nature to me.

What I listen to as of late is various types of Lofi, ever since the pandemic started in order to work on stuff for my personal works and my school works. But recently I have been listening to the Promare and Weathering with You OSTs since at the time I writing this I watched both for the first time last week.

 

[Daren]

I usually do, and have a playlist of "writing music" I use. I also use specific songs for the proper feel of certain scenes.

 

[Welkamo]

It all depends on the day. Some days I can listen music with lots of singing in it and even lip-sing along with it as I write, without it actually affecting how I'm writing. Other days I can't even listen to music that doesn't even have lyrics without getting distracted. I find if I want to listen to something while I write, it's probably best to just put on a youtube video in the background. If I'm interested enough in what I'm writing, I can get into the zone of it and tune what I'm listening to out.

I feel like I'm the same way. A lot of times, I need to be moving in some way to listen to music (and it's not the best idea to write and walk... sometimes. I can write while riding a car, though), but then I'll just listen to the song while walking and think "this SO fits my story!" (ex.: listening to Lemon Demon's Spirit Phone album, idk why) and then I'll think about the story and its plot and characters, which is helpful. I listen to Youtube videos a lot, but when I really, really need the vibe right (like when I need the "semi-hazy feeling of being in a room lit only by late night lights outside" vibe, I'll listen to music or even change where I write (like going to the the living room at night, using the street lamps outside as my only light, and listening to the soundtrack for the movie "Heathers", even if the scene is about something completely different. That soundtrack is really great for when I'm writing.)

(This sounds a little ramble-y in my head, so I'm sorry about that.)

After spending my high school years in the theatre at least 1/2 of the time, I find that I headcanon a lot of my characters as singers or people who can sing, whether or not they like to do it in front of others. But, this actually rarely makes it into the stories, a lot of times because I have dropped the story, or because I just can't figure a way to get it in. So, when I'm out walking (which I usually use as my thinking time for writing), I'll listen to songs I think certain characters might enjoy singing.

I relate to this 100%. All I want to do is write about the Pokémon League members making clubs for the sole purpose of making Steven sing "Send in the Clowns".

 

[LightningTopaz]

@Just a Torchic

I like to take that one step further and make the Pokemon cast actual actors--both Western style plays and musicals and Chinese opera/kabuki-esque productions with a sprinkling of Revue Starlight (a very interesting anime if you are interested in the world of the Takarazuka Revue/musicals in general)

 

[OrionTheAbsol]

I've never heard the soundtracks for these games! They're so cool!

You can pretty much pick any Atlus game and you'll always find a banging soundtrack.

I also got some ambient pieces from horror games, which really does help since I am also writing some horror scenes.

"Forbidden Tuna" - Lost in Vivo

"Chancel" - Amnesia: The Dark Descent

"Factory" - F.E.A.R.

"Little Boxes" - Lost in Vivo

"School" - Yume Nikki -Dream Diary-

 

[skywaffles]

YES DEFINENTLY. For my horror stories I use Tyler the Creator and Kanye West. But mainly Tyler. They both are a bit different and unique, which is sort of what my horror stories are as well. These songs get me in the mood the most though...
"Garden Shed" by Tyler
"Jail" by Kanye

 

[Jewel the Quaxly]

When I write stories, I find it easy to gain more inspiration by listening to music. More specifically, I let my imagination run to the music as I listen-and it usually works better when I am moving as opposed to sitting still.

For instance, I was stuck on deciding what the finale for one of my stories would be so I listened to some songs by Skillet, and bam! Inspiration came. I often find that whimsical songs help with writing fantasy or settings, heavy rock or metal with action scenes or serious plot moments, pop music with establishing characters and their personalities, and so forth.

I often listen to music before I sleep and let my thoughts brew overnight-I tend to remember most of my dreams, and many of my stories have even originated from dreams, so doing this helped my thoughts get rolling.

On a more specific note, I listen to two specific songs while planning out my current fic, Unknown: The Escape. And both helped me smooth out some future events in the story. One is Breaking the Habit by Linkin Park, and the other is kind of a no-brainer: Get Out Alive by Three Days Grace.

The type of music I listen to while writing basically stems from what type of story I'm writing, and on a more specific note, what kind of scene or future event I'm imagining up. A one-shot collection I have planned surrounding Ash's pokemon, for instance, has me listening to songs by Alan Walker or songs with a jumpy beat.

 

[Beth Pavell]

Rarely. I much prefer to have something to watch while I write - or rather, a visual medium to have on more or less in the background. It's invariably something I've seen a hundred times before, so it's not distracting but not completely boring either.

 

[tazmily menace]

yeah, i guess
here's some songs i listen to while writing:

DEUTSCHLAND
Porky Means Business!
99 Luftballons
Bombs for Throwing at You
Senbonzakura
Killed by BR8K Spider!!!!!!!!
It's Pronounced "Rules"
A CYBER'S WORLD?
NOW'S YOUR CHANCE TO BE A
BIG SHOT
#8 regret
storm
Good Enough
Beloved Tomboyish Daughter
Dummy!
Knock You Down !!
Attack of the Killer Queen
Bomb Rush Blush
Tide Goes Out
Calamari Inkantation

 

[silurica]

Been thinking about music today. I usually listen to music when writing, sometimes because it fits the mood, sometimes just as background noise. For the former, I make story playlists. Here are some songs from the playlist I've formed so far for Luceat Lux Vestra (that's not just Pokemon music):

Alexandrite - onoken
Dir - dai
Irrigo Below - Maribeth Solomon and Brent Barkman
Kaze no Oka no Higashi - Nekomata Master
Melody - xaki
Memories of Stardust - Hideyuki Ono
Noah's song - Noah Cantate (Jun Wakita)
Sacramentum:Unaccompanied Hymn for Torino - Mili
Sun Mother - Melodysheep
They Who Govern Reason - Yasunori Nishiki
Ubawaretamono - sasakure.UK feat. lasah

 

[TwinklingCupcake]

Considering how often my fics or fic chapters are named after songs... Yeah, I definitely listen to music while I write and have playlists or themes. 8'D

Like a Drum was conceived and written while listening to Gone Gone Gone, and it's pretty safe to say it's Fawn's theme song now.

And my in-progress Harvest Moon fic gets written while I listen to Song of the Sea and A Dream Worth Keeping.

I listen to a lot of movie and pop songs, I notice.

 

[LightningTopaz]

It depends on my mood, and what kind of writing I'm doing:

Fantasy? Bring on the Celtic instruments! (preferably without electric guitars and drums, but I do make an exception for music from Fairy Tail--the anime itself may be meh, but the music is EPIC!)
Martial arts adventure/ancient Japan adventure? Trad Chinese music and ancient Japanese music (as well as game tracks that evoke that area, such as the Okami OST)
Modern day? 80's/90's pop, new retro wave, light rock, and some jazz works well here. Depending on the story, I may go further back in the musical timeline, or further forward for a new classic I happen to like. (one of my earliest fics actually had a huge over the top tap dance routine set to the tune of the 50's song "Personality".--good luck getting it out of your head!)
Sci fi--more new retro wave and the Star Wars OSTs do nicely here.

 

[Welkamo]

I made a playlist of music I use for writing vibes. It's still a work in progress, but here it is:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuXABoFQCcQLu_ymun-QUBifag3wzT3cM

 

[MobiusKipper]

I mostly listen to video game music when I am making more nerdy stuff (dnd homebrew, fan fiction), I like to eat or drink something to remind me of what I am doing as well, so like, I'll eat a traditional sandwich for lunch when I want to make Earthbound stuff (skip sandwich!), or i'll eat empanadas for dinner when I am doing pokemon stuff (poffins)