Hanging by a Moment

A lot of the time when I'm dragging my heels with writing or brainstorming, it will only take hearing a really good song to flip the switch in my head and suddenly I'm ready to go. When I hear certain songs, I'm instantly reminded of what book I was working on when I listened to a particular song compulsively.

For Stripped Away it was The Dolphins Cry by Live, for Call Me Cupid it was All I Can Do by Chantal Kreviazuk, for Dark Obsession it was Broken by Lifehouse, for Primal Attraction it was It's Not Over by Daughtry, for Whatever it Takes it was, yes, Whatever It Takes by Lifehouse. :)

When it was time for me to rewrite my upcoming release, Trust Me, the first thing I did was pull up the song that I had listened to when I first wrote the book almost seven years ago. Hanging by a Moment by Lifehouse. Seeing a trend? LOL Yeah, I adore Lifehouse and I've yet to write a book where one of their songs didn't make it onto my book playlist.

I've blogged before that finding time to write can be challenging, but sometimes even when the time is there, that driving edge to create misses the memo and takes an impromptu vacay. So on those rare occasions when a window opens up for me to work and I'd sooner scrub the toilet with a tooth brush than plant my butt in front of the computer, nine out of ten times I can get over my anti-writing funk by grabbing my iPod and sitting somewhere and just listening to music, especially if it's a song that's become tied to the book I'm working on.

So much of my creative energy is wrapped up in music that I can't imagine writing without it. For me, music helps me dig deeper into a character or gives me clarity when the images in my head are a little blurry. It's also great for drowning out the voices of other characters and stories waiting to be told. :)

What about you? Does music motivate you or help you get through a task? Does it inspire you to create or maybe just dance madly around the kitchen when you hear a favorite song? Do you adore Lifehouse as much as I do and have a favorite song?

And I'm sure most of you have heard Hanging by a Moment, but just in case you haven't or it's been awhile, here's a video of the live version.