Using Music to Write Scenes

Whether it’s a peppy tune on your drive home from work or soft notes in a coffee shop, music is a vital part of our daily life. Grocery stores use music to get you through the store and buy more things, restaurants play slower songs to keep you sitting and eat more. Music has a way of making us feel. And this week I’m going to talk about how I use music to help me with my writing.

Movies and TV shows specifically chose songs and instrumentals to fit the overall tone of a scene. A romance may have softer instruments, played quiet and slowly. To slow things down, capture every longing look or lingering touch. An action scene may have harsher notes that are loud and fast. The idea is to raise your heartbeat, make you feel like you are being chased along with the characters, and think, oh no! What’s going to happen next?

With books, there is no music we can queue for these prompts. As authors, it is our job to recreate the tone and feeling of music with simply words and sentences strategically placed. But how do we do that? How do we make a reader want to laugh or cry or slow down so much they read the same paragraph over and over?

For me, it starts with planning. Before writing a chapter, I have a general idea of what needs to happen and how I’m driving the plot forward. But I also have to know how the plot is affecting the character and how I want the character to feel. Now, I’m an avid music-lover, I have all kinds of playlists already created and Tik Tok has only helped my obsession with remixed music and reinventing songs to fit a certain feeling. I usually have a song (or several) in mind that I will listen to or explore until I think the music fits the scene accurately.

Does the tempo fit the pacing? Do the lyrics have some special meaning to the character? It’s not a requirement, and often instrumentals can be a great option (that you are less likely to get distracted from and break out into a jam session).

For example, a few months ago I was writing about a character's breaking point. It was their lowest low and everything they’d feared up until this point was happening. It was bad. I’d been itching to write this scene for so long because I’d had this song in mind that I just felt was so accurate to what my character was feeling.

It started slow and melodic, a premise of false security. My character had no idea of what was about to happen to them and was even a little happier than their normal brooding self. Then, the bridge happens and the songs melancholic and slows down even more, stretching out each word. My character starts to realize what’s going on, that their fears were truly coming to life, and their happy times were over. I know, I’m evil. But then the chorus hits, and it’s fast and pleading and incredibly hopeless. This was where I had my character fall to their knees and explain themselves and just let everything slip out. They had no hope that their life would ever be the same again.

While typing this scene, I was a crying mess. Which would probably be a little odd if someone saw me while writing, but I could so clearly feel everything while I was typing. And, when you are feeling it, your reader will too.

When Kamryn read the scene, she had very positive things to say. She said that she could feel that I was very into the chapter and had all the emotions. Kamryn has never in her life listened to the song I used as inspiration, but the same tone and feeling was able to come across in my writing. Obviously, it doesn't mean your writing will be perfect every time but writing is about immersion and music is one of my favorite ways to achieve that.

Also, I mentioned tempo and pacing. Something very important to consider when setting the tone of the scene.

To recreate a fast pace, like for an action scene or fight, you need to narrow down straight to point. Because if you want your reader’s heart racing your character can only focus on what’s in front of them and reacting. This is not the time to describe the scenery or have long, internal monologues. This is the time for shorter sentences, more strong verbs and a sense of urgency.

For a romantic scene or slower pace, you want all the details. Because this is the shining moment you want both the character and the reader to remember forever. This is the time to describe the area around your characters, what their partner looks like, engage the senses. This is the time for longer sentences, fluffy adverbs and poetic statements (that can be as cheesy as you like). Romantic songs are slow and ones to sway to, even if your characters aren’t actually dancing.

A happy scene might have mixes of long and shorter sentences. It’s not as slow as a romantic scene and more is going on, but the stakes of a high speed chase or life or death battle are not present in a happy scene. This might be your fun and games where your character is finally making progress toward their goal or made a new friend.

A sad scene might not focus on the background and surroundings as much as a romantic scene, but will still have lots of internal monologue and longer sentences.

Obviously there is no rule stating what type of scene should have what, but I’ve found this to be helpful when creating the overall tone and making my writing more immersive. Because the end goal is to entertain and have the reader lose themselves in your story. I love using music but what do you like to do? Do you have a specific writing playlist? Does having music on during writing prevent you from touching a single key on your keyboard? Let me know and I’ll see you next time!