Writing To Music

Music is an important part of my writing process, and I think this can filter through to my books, whether I'm 'borrowing' songs for titles (Everything Changes But You) or giving a character a passion for a type of music (A Beginner's Guide To Salad's Ruth and her love of cheesy pop, for example).

I always write with music in the background (or through headphones now the house is full because of lockdown). Sometimes it's music to set the mood (festive, summery, break-up songs) and other times it's simply music I love. With Book 12, the music I'm listening to while writing the book came about in a slightly different way.

I needed a song for a particular scene in the book, preferably one from the 70s, and after a little procrastinating search (my writing days are littered with these), I found the perfect song. The Buzzcocks' 'Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn’t’ve?)' was added into the book and I popped it onto my spotify playlist for the book.

All my books have a playlist, sometimes made up of music mentioned in the book or sometimes music that follows a similar theme to the story (you can find the playlists by clicking the 'Book Extras' option under each book on the right-hand side of the blog). With Book 12, music plays an important part, so the playlist will be made up of music mentioned, including The Buzzcocks' offering.

I really liked the song and found myself playing it at the start of each writing session. I did this so many times, the song easily puts me into Cleo's world so I started a new playlist, imaginatively called the 'Writing Book 12' playlist. 'Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've)' is the first song and I've added others that set me in the right frame of mind for writing the book.

It's only a small playlist at the moment, but I'm adding to it all the time.