Teens & Self-Publishing: You Need a Soundtrack

How to Get Into Flow.  Fast.

My tenth grade English teacher had this thing for quiet.  She had us write. Tons.  And she played the same soundtrack over and over in our class when we wrote.

Years later I heard a song from The Last of the Mohicans and I suddenly wanted to write.  It was really weird.  And then I remembered Mrs. Lee and that tape she played over and over.

Yup. Like Pavlov's dog, I have been trained to respond on cue.  Only with less drool.

Writer's Hack: You Need a Soundtrack

You better believe I made that work for me.  Each book I work on I choose one soundtrack and I play the fool out of it.  I play it when I brainstorm.  I play it when I write.  I play it when I edit.

I have use one for each fiction project, and I even have one that I use for non-fiction.  The beautiful thing is that I don't have to sit down and stare at a screen trying to get into a good writing flow.  I just turn the music on a couple minutes before I start, and bam!  My brain picks right back up where it needs to be!

What Makes a Good Writing Soundtrack?

Everybody's different, but here's my recommendations:

1. Big sweeping scores from movies or video games. Skip stuff with words. (All you need is to go through your book and realize you've mindlessly plagiarized all the lyrics)
2. Skip the familiar.  You want to be able to write your own story.  It's okay to use something you've seen once or twice, but you don't want movie scenes popping into your brain. For example, I love the Harry Potter soundtracks, but because I know the books well, the music really stuck in my head with each movie scene, so I don't use HP music. 
3. Don't ruin your track.  Resist the urge to watch the movie.  If you're familiar with the music, you'll recognize it and burn the scene into your brain.

Awesome Tracks to Check Out

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