Create Your Own Literary Soundtrack

In grad school, I used to work in the same building that housed the college radio station. Whenever I entered or exited the building, I could hear whatever the station was playing, which made me feel like I was living in a movie. Everything works better with a soundtrack–including writing projects.

For most novels, I put together a playlist of songs that I associate with the characters and story. Most of the time it’s just a tone I’m looking for. I’ll set it to shuffle when writing and let the music fade into background inspiration.

One song that worked particularly well for Queen of the Air was Arcade Fire’s “Keep the Car Running.” It has a great momentum and touches on themes of wanting to escape. Check out the video below to hear the whole song.

What are your favorite writing songs?

0 thoughts on “Create Your Own Literary Soundtrack

  1. bumbas says:

    Hi Annie,

    I like the song a lot. I’ve tried to do the same thing – to add music to the words – and have pretty much completed a soundtrack CD to my novel. To avoid copyright problems, all the songs on the CD are eithr original compositions or traditional songs. I do nearly all the singing and playing, which is great fun to do in any case. My novel is already out, and I’m hoping to mrket the cd together with the book. It should be ready to go on my blog in another few weeks. It just so happens that my music and the novel’s storyline overlap. I thjink it’s a good combination.

    I’m thinking that in the future I could record music and text together on the blog, or intersperse songs into the pages of a Kindle text.

    Anyhow, good luck with it, and check out the bumbastories site.

    Steve

  2. anniecardi says:

    I love the idea of an original soundtrack! Just wish I were that talented. (Sadly, my musical skills leave a LOT to be desired.) I’ll definitely keep checking bumbastories for the upcoming cd.

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