*♪♫ The Music of Life…and of Work ♪♫*

ByDeborah Raney
21 Comments

We watched a movie the other night that I can’t necessarily recommend because of some language and other elements, but oh, the music! I ordered the soundtrack while we were still watching the movie, and the music did not disappoint.

I’m always looking for good music, especially music to write by. I discovered around the fourth novel I wrote (eighteen years ago now!) that music is a huge inspiration to me as I write. I’m teaching a course for American Christian Fiction Writers this month, and this is what I told my student

 

 

I love to have music playing when I write. I choose the type of music according to the mood of the scene I’m working on. I have found that movie soundtracks are the BEST source of music-to-inspire simply because they were written not to be in-your-face, but instead, to enhance a visual scene and mood, and to be merely background sounds for the more important dialogue and visuals on the screen.

You may not have this problem, but when I’m writing there can not be vocals in the music or before long, instead of writing, I’m singing along or typing the lyrics instead of my story! Even an instrumental version of a song that I know the lyrics to will mess me up. :}

Below is a visual of my iTunes “Music to Write By” playlist. (Disclaimer: I’m not necessarily recommending all the movies these soundtracks are from. Some of them are fantastic, but a few I haven’t even seen the film and only chose the soundtrack because I love the composer. A few of the films are rated R and have material you may find objectionable, so you’ll want to vet them before deciding to watch. But the music in all of them is stellar and 98 percent instrumental!)

 

How is your life set to music? When and where do you most listen to music, and how does it inspire you? What is your favorite type of music to listen to?

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DEBORAH RANEY's first novel, A Vow to Cherish, inspired the World Wide Pictures film of the same title and launched Deb’s writing career. Forty books later, she's still creating stories that touch hearts and lives. Her novels have won RWA's RITA Award, the ACFW Carol Award, the National Readers Choice Award, and the HOLT Medallion. She is also a four-time Christy Award finalist. Deb is on faculty for several national writers’ conferences and served on the executive board of the 2,500-member American Christian Fiction Writers organization for 18 years before retiring in 2022. She is a recent transplant to Missouri, having moved with her husband, Ken Raney, from their native Kansas to be closer to kids and grandkids. They love road trips, e-biking, Friday garage sale dates, and breakfast on the screened porch overlooking their wooded backyard.

21 Comments

  2. Thanks for sharing your list! I remember you recommending this a few years ago, and I tried it and loved it! I’ll be listening to these and adding them to my collection.

    1. I’d love to hear some of your favorites, Carrie. Do you listen to classical? I always suspect that would be a good style for historical writers. 🙂

  3. What a lovely list! I, too, LOVE, instrumental music when writing or just going about our days. Some of my favorites are: the Poldark Soundtrack, newer Pride & Prejudice Sountrack, Outlander Soundtrack, Little Women Soundtrack, Lord of the Rings movie Soundtrack (have to be in a certain mood for that one…ha!), and I know their are others. I haven’t watched all these shows either, but I sure love their music.

  4. It has to be classical music, all the time. I wrote my first novel with the soundtrack of Prokofiev’s “Cinderella” in my head, and my most recent novels, all set in England, are written to the compositions of Sir Hubert Parry, Gustav Holst, and Ralph Vaughan Williams. Wonderful, wonderful stuff. (The music – the jury’s still out on my writing.)

    1. I love classical music too. Many of these soundtracks have a piece or two of classical on them. I’ll have to check out the composers you mentioned. Thank you for the suggestions!

  5. I hear you on music. I’ve got to have music playing all the time. Yes, even when I’m sleeping. (Well, it sort of acts as ‘white noise’ for me then, and my sleep playlist has changed to be very calming. lol I’m also single, so I can get away with this!)

    Soundtracks are my FAVOURITES. I love classical music, so in general they have to be of that ‘style’, but yeah, I love how the music often tells a story of it’s own, not necessarily linked with the movie or game it was made for. And I agree, you don’t really need to be familiar with the movie to enjoy the music. I have quite a few in my playlist that I’ve never seen the movie (and don’t plan to!), but I love the music. lol

    I have also found that AMBIENTS are awesome to write by. They often have soft, quiet music and nature sounds. Bird song, crickets, water, village life, interior sounds, etc. Some don’t even have the music, but I like the ones that do have soft music of some sort. So relaxing, and generally not distracting while working.

    Some of my absolute favourites (You can listen to these free on Spotify, too, which is helpful): Skyrim OST, Lord of the Rings OST, Ori and the Blind Forest, Moomins and the Winter Wonderland (does have a nice vocal song at the start – distracting, but I still like it. lol) There are, of course, a billion more, but those tend to stay at the top of my playlist while others come and go. Another chunk of good writing music, you can find them on Youtube or Spotify, Two Steps from Hell (TERRIBLE name, I agree. :P). Not all of it is good, some goes more into ‘metal’ than music, but a lot of it is good, too. Very dramatic, orchestral, soundtrack-type stuff that can inspire some interesting scenes. 🙂 Thankfully on both sources, you can build yourself a playlist as the tracks are separated.

    Just a little extra to keep you busy. 😀 I’m off to check off some of the soundtracks you’ve got here – that I haven’t heard.

    1. I love your “and I don’t plant to [see the movie]” comment! Shakespeare in Love was one I bought before I’d ever seen the movie, and because I’d written a novel to that soundtrack, to ME the music was about MY book. After seeing the movie, that perception was sadly diminished. 🙁

  6. I love writing to movie score music because those pieces are all telling stories, too! I’ll have to try some of your suggestions. 🙂

    As to music and the rest of life, I have different “soundtracks” for different things. Workout is 80s music. Always. In the car can vary from classical to country to oldies to classic rock to Christian, depending on the weather and my mood. But it’s always praise and worship music in my head (not playing anywhere audible) when I go to sleep and when I wake up, and often just throughout the day. I enjoy music.

    1. SO true that the music of our lives is different genres. I love cleaning house to jazz! I prefer “new” jazz to the older…Spyro Gyra, The Rippingtons, David Sanborn, etc. And in the car, I sometimes sing along to country music.

  7. I have noticed sometimes while I’m reading a book I’ll hear a song and it fits perfectly with the characters or scene I’m reading. The first time this really happened was while reading Laura Frantz’s “The Colonial’s Lady” and I heard “The Kiss” from “The Last of the Mohicans”. The beginning instrumental solo followed by other instruments as the tempo ebbs and flows perfectly blended with the kiss in the book so much so that while reading the scene it was as if I were watching it like a movie in my head instead of just reading it. I’ve found different songs/instrumentals that fit other books whether historical or contemporary so well, that when I hear them I immediately think of the book/characters.

    1. Yes! That’s exactly what happens while I’m writing to a certain scene. The music almost seems to direct where the story goes! And makes it so wonderfully rich and, well…orchestrated!

  8. I own 4 of the soundtracks on CD that you have featured in your playlist–these are movies I’ve seen and enjoyed.
    Enya has been long time favorite of mine–her albums are great listening.

  9. I loved Winter’s Tale, both music and movie. This was one case in which the movie was better than the book.

    I’ve heard a number of those soundtracks and will have to check out some others.

    While not an instrumental, the soundtrack from The Greatest Showman has become one of my favorites recently. My granddaughter’s 5th grade class sang “A Million Dreams’ at their elementary school graduation in June.

    Thanks for all of the recommendations and I’ve enjoyed the comments.

  11. Thanks so much for sharing! I’m always looking for new instrumental music as background music to my writing. Definitely love the Pride & Prejudice and Last of the Mohicans you’ve got listed here, and I look forward to trying some of the others. My all-time favorite score might have to be from Gladiator. Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerard did a fantastic job. I encourage you to check it out, if you haven’t already. 🙂

  12. I showed your playlist to my music loving husband and he said, “She needs these!” So these are compliments of David!😊

    *The Magnificent Westerns by The City of Prague Philharmonic

    *Classic Western Movie Themes by The Hollywood Studio Orchestra

    *Themes from Western Movies
    Various Artists

    *Henry Mancini Country
    Hope you’ll enjoy!If anything, I bet your Dad would enjoy them! 😊 God Bless! Suzanne

  13. The music in “The Greatest Showman” is really good music! It is feel good music.

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