Writing Playlists

- Writing

I don’t know how many of you do this. You know how it is when you’re working on a novel (or maybe you don’t) and you don’t have much free time. You need to get into the right headspace as quickly as you can. For me, the best way to do it is by coming up with a playlist of songs for each particular book.

I don’t always choose songs that fit thematically with the book I’m writing (I wrote one whole book listening a single song, Blind in Texas, by W.A.S.P. on repeat, even though neither blindness nor Texas featured in any way in the actual book.)

For the book I’m writing now, tentatively called The Mystery of Firelake Hall, though, I’ve come up with a list of songs which all, in some tenuous way at least, link in to the themes or events of the book. Here it is. Ten points if you can figure out the themes of the novel from this. (And what do points mean? Well, pretty much nothing. Have ’em anyway.)

The songs are:

  1. 7 Days to the Wolves – Nightwish
  2. Empire of the Clouds – Iron Maiden
  3. Coming Home – Iron Maiden
  4. Paschendale – Iron Maiden
  5. Beyond the Realms of Death – Judas Priest
  6. Tears of the Dragon – Bruce Dickinson
  7. Wish I Had an Angel – Nightwish
  8. Les Morts Dansant – Magnum

So, what do you reckon? And does anyone else use playlists?

Note: the image is of Ashton Court, Bristol, by Gillie Rhodes on Flickr. Used under a Creative Commons 2.0 License.