Welcome back to another Open Book Blog Hop!

Today’s topic is: If your WIP had a soundtrack, what songs would be on it? Do you write with some sort of background noise or do you prefer silence?

And remember to visit my fellow writers to see what they have come up with. You can find their works here!

I don’t work too well in pure silence. I’ve tried silence. My issue is that it allows my mind to wander. A real world is noisy. There are sounds, conversation and music. I struggle to settle into creating a world with no audio soundtrack. I need something that sets the mood and the tone for what is to come.

That doesn’t mean I like a lot of background noise, either. It has to be specific. Music is a big thing for me when I work. My musical tastes are quite varied but what I listen to has to work in the context of what I am writing.

When working on The Twelve Days of Christmas I’ll admit I’ve listened to Christmas music even in the peak of summer. I’ve actually discovered a haunting, off-key playlist of Christmas classics that sounds sinister, a perfect fit for the story.

Chasing Shadows was written to a playlist I discovered on YouTube. I searched for steampunk music, or steampunk ambient music. It features a collection of pieces by a variety of artists. This playlist served me well and put me right into the worlds I was creating.

This playlist featured quite a lot of pieces by an artist called Luis Humanoide. Towards the end of the book, I discovered the pieces in the playlist above actually featured in a complete album. And that became my go-to music when I’m writing steampunk. I imagine it being the sort of music that I’d hear walking through the world I’m working on. The album is called Music from the Clockwork Lands and in my opinion, is beautiful.