I love music. I know, that’s equivalent to someone saying I love movies, or I love breathing. It’s also a terrible thing to write on a dating app, but people still write it (tip: be specific). When it comes to music, I’ll give everything a shot (unless it’s pop country, get outta here with that) but lately, and certainly when I write or work, all I listen to is movie or TV show soundtracks. Lyrics are too distracting for me, it’s like someone else trying to squeeze in a thought while I’m talking. It doesn’t work. I also love movies (seewhatIdidthere) and when writing I usually visualize the story in broad strokes then down to scenes as I’m writing them. Like mini movies that I’ll turn into words. And what makes a scene awesome on the big screen? Is a great soundtrack.
As I started to map out scenes for HOST I put together a playlist to capture mood, broader story themes, and even conflicts at the scene level. It was a great way to help visualize the world around the characters. Of course, the first draft of HOST was done back in 2020, it’s gone through many, many drafts since, and many of the tunes on the playlist will reflect that. For example, I’m a big fan of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross and their collaboration on soundtracks. Anything they’ve done for David Fincher is spot on in terms of tone and conflict within a scene. Their soundtrack for the Watchmen TV series was perfect, and what I like about their songs is this personal, or micro focus of the songs and intensity of whatever was happening on screen. Now on the opposite end, I also like Hans Zimmer and most of his work with Christopher Nolan, in particular the soundtrack for Interstellar. It’s big picture, it’s epic, it’s sci-fi, it’s engrossing and was perfect for some of the bigger themes in HOST. I have a hacker character named LiLo who is quiet, sneaky, smart and just surviving. I pulled a bunch of tracks from Mr. Robot seasons which aligned perfectly with her paranoia, motivations, and goals. I have a few others I dropped in the mix like the soundtrack from Ex Machina by Ben Salisbury and Geoff Barrow, which has this subtle darkness running through it. I grabbed other Mac Quayle tunes from Last of Us 2 for it’s intensity. I even sent the playlist to my cover designer (aka my cousin) and she was like this great to help set the mood while designing the cover. It was such a help when I hit those days of “writers block” (more like procrastination, but that’s a topic for another time) and helped get into a creative mindset. Music is such an important part of the process that it’s become a step when I start prepping a story. I already have a handful of playlists for other stories that I’ll hopefully get to listen to soon (because that means I’m writing them). But for now, enjoy the HOST writing playlist below!
