I recently stumbled upon a tweet asking writers whether they listened to music while writing, and if so, what kind of music it was. There's much debate to be had about listening to music while writing/working. It can set the mood, but it can also distract, and at times even hinder the writer from finding their words. In the past, there have even been occasions where looking for the right soundtrack took longer than the writing session itself! So is it wrong to listen to music? Or can it actually help with writing elements such as consistency in voice? The simple answer is that everyone writes differently, so it depends. Even for a single person many factors can influence how helpful or unhelpful different music can be. I've seen people talk about how even the weather can influence their choice on whether or not to listen to music. So without further ado, let me tell you about all the music I've come across and used in the past! The music of my current project For the project I'm querying, I didn't listen to any specific music. For the one I'm currently working on, however, I really do have particular playlist. Over time, I've curated a playlist made up of mainly ABBA songs, simply because they fit the vibe of the novel. A lot of their songs, in my opinion, fit well to a relationship between two characters that love but also hate each other. And, as the novel I'm writing is an ✨ enemies-to-lovers ✨, the songs couldn't fit better. "The Winner Takes It All", "Angeleyes", "Lay All You Love On Me", the list of perfect songs goes on and on. I'm really glad I found an artist (very niche, may I add!) where I could just pick out so many songs and put them together and create a consistent feel, all while having a variety of songs to work with. In the past, for other projects, finding music that fit the 'vibe' has generally been much much more difficult! Love them or hate them, I also enjoy listening to songs that people use for tiktok edits. That's simply because most songs used for these types of edits have a sort of particular aesthetic. As such, they can help with visualizing scenes of the story, and, quite honestly, they help make the writing feel more epic. Songs I've been listening to a lot in this category are for example Hayloft by Mother Mother, Don't Blame Me by Taylor Swift, or Wannabe by why mona. Speaking of edits, I actually remember hoping to get published and have my novel(s) adapted just so that people would make these types of edits of my characters. This goal dates back to my days in high school but it remains something I'm looking forward to! 😂 Then you also have the classics (no pun intended): classical or soundtrack music that fits the mood of the novel or whatever specific scene you might be writing. Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones music is great for fantasy novels, Batman music for epic scenes, and Detroit Become Human soundtrack for sci-fi leaning stories, and those are just some of my favourite picks. Similarly, one can't forget ambient sounds and soundtracks. So many things are available on youtube these days, where you'll be able to find the most niche ambiences. From The Shire Ambience to Ancient Library Room Ambience, there are so many different sub-genres, you'll be able to find just about everything! Plus, most of the videos are long (over an hour, sometimes even eight hours long), so a video alone can be used for a whole writing session! When writing more specific scenes, it's also interesting to look for particular songs that fit the mood. Especially when writing sad, or 'rock bottom' scenes, there are some specific soundtrack songs that I always listen to. Classics such as Time by Hans Zimmer, or On the Nature of Daylight by Max Richter never fail to set the tone. And of course I can't forget to mention my all time favourite sad soundtrack, Haunted Ocean, which is also by Max Richter. Similar to the ambient videos on youtube, an array of lofi-beats videos are available online. Most of these are also very long, or are simply livestreams. Lofi music can be helpful because it also has no singing (most of the time), and it's definitely interesting if you're looking for a more modern beat, rather than soundtrack music that can sometimes feel too 'classical', if you know what I mean. In any case, I'd definitely associate lofi music with more contemporary and YA novels for example. My one issue with lofi is that there seem to be a lot of lofi options to choose from on youtube, but you can still sometimes end up hearing similar sounding songs over and over again, even when you're looking for something new. TL;DR After having written specific scenes, or after wrapping it on a whole novel, it's also interesting to think about what music would accompany the reader, which is another story entirely. What song would play at which part? What soundtrack would accompany the novel's climax? After writing, it's good to go back and find the fitting music, especially when editing to check for consistency in tone. Additionally, there's also the question of diegetic music (yes, I am a film studies graduate, how could you tell?), meaning the music that plays in the novel itself. For example, what music would be playing at the high school party the main character goes to? What music is playing at the club? What playlist does the character listen to on the way to school/uni/work? This music, while associated with the novel itself, isn't necessarily the music you'd listen to while writing, but it's a fun exercice to think about afterwards. I have an example of a playlist I created which you can check out on the DREAMING page. It gives an idea as to what kind of music the character(s) might listen to. Well that's about it for the music, I'll see you all next week with a new topic. Until then, have a good weekend, and write well!
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Another week has come and passed. How time passes quickly when you're revising your novel! I am currently organizing the very novel I had been revising a few months ago. Anything to keep myself distracted from the DREAMING queries I sent out! To be fair, I've been on somewhat of a row with this novel, as I've found some new ideas that I'm trying to squeeze in. For the time being, I have titled the project Love and Hate, though that will obviously not be its final title. You can find some more information about it here, even though I haven't yet created a page dedicated entirely to the manuscript yet. That's because it's far from being in its final form, with whole sections that still need rewriting. Then the whole novel needs to be edited for a first final draft. Then edited maybe two or three more times before I send it out to first critique partners. Then to some beta-readers. Before and after sending it out it will be of course re-edited. Then it would enter the querying phase. Woah... I've just summed up how a book gets written! X'D This novel has sure been a handful. Unlike DREAMING, this story has not been waiting around in my computer files for years. I started this project for a camp NaNoWriMo three years ago. Within the month I had written 50,000 words. And then I just kept going. Fast forward to three years later and it's gotten even longer. And I absolutely adore it. But it's very long. I've had to cut it up in 5-6 part documents to keep an eye over everything. I'm not even sure if it will work as a single volume or if it's better to be cut in two. Don't even get me started on the fact that I have ideas for a sequel to that as well! Over the last week I've listed all of the parts, sequences and scenes chronologically. Now all I have to do is go through the whole thing and makes sure that everything is in order, and that all the parts naturally move from one to the next. Basically, I'm going to have to check whether the story is readable and logical. All the while I'll be filling in the blank spots: the scenes and even sequences I haven't written out yet. There's nothing more beautiful than coming to a sentence that explains the scene and a whole blank page underneath it. <3 And one thing for example that I haven't written yes is the finale. Don't get me started on that. The writer's block of writing the finale One of the reasons why it's taken me so long to get to the point of having the whole story planned out is because something was missing. To be more precise, the finale was missing. Which, as you might have guessed, is a pretty substantial part of every story. The reader wants something grandiose. Something satisfying, something cathartic. I had a lot of trouble finding that finale because in my novel, it's two humans against a monster more powerful than both of them. I had to figure out how they could face it and win, obviously. I would never dare to kill my main characters... What I really wanted was a satisfying climax, a big battle. But it still had to be logical all things considered. The characters couldn't just waltz in and destroy the monster, knowing full well that they had fought against it numerous times before and lost every time. However, I also didn't want the 'battle' to just be this tiny event between three people. I wanted something bigger. It took a while, but I managed to find a solution that brings in a big, epic finale. Unless, of course, I later on decide that I want to change it! So yeah, that's what I've been up to. I realize that this post went up quite a bit late, I've been working on said novel and I'm also prepping a new DREAMING query letter. Last but not least, I am also in the midst of preparing a travel to Ireland! That'd be something to write about, I'm sure of it! See ya next week! Two weeks. That was all it took before I got my first response. With agents mostly having a 6-8 week waiting time, I really hadn't been expecting something this soon. The context...I sent off five queries for my debut novel DREAMING on the 24th of August. The agents I queried were all taken from a master list where I assembled and listed 80 agents based on what types of manuscripts they accept and want to read. All of these agents could accept my novel based on their MSWL, with some matching more to my novel than others. I put these agents in a list and divided the list into five tiers (first tier being agents that would really match and that I really want, second tier being agents I want but who are not that much of a match, etc, until agents that are barely a match). The five agents I sent queries to are all from a variety of tiers, meaning that some of them I really felt a real connection to and others less so. You can guess which agent sent the rejection. Yup. The agent from tier one. The very second agent on my list. The second agent I most wanted to represent my book. Am I disappointed? Slightly. Is my day ruined? Maybe. See, I don't even know if it was a personalized response or not because this is the first time I'm dipping my toes into the querying trenches, as they say. However, it looks to be a rather generic rejection. Aka, the novel is "okay" but "isn't a personal fit" (not their words). It nevertheless gives me hope, even if it is a generic rejection, because there's a real possibility that it really was just a personal fit problem. That's because I know that my novel will really not be a good fit for just anyone. I even wonder sometimes if it's a good fit for me, ha. The reason behind that is that the novel takes on some pretty heavy stuff. There's a good bunch of mental health themes going on, and the imagery gets pretty dark at times (with things like torture, SH, or hallucinations). So yes, my journey finding the right agent continues, all while I continue the writing process! |