Music, mood, and getting words on the page

All too often, I find myself staring at the proverbial blank page. The words won't flow, and when I push, they're stilted. Every author has their own technique for setting the writing scene and putting themselves in the right frame of mind. Yes, writing is a business so you need to just sit down and write (thank you, La Nora), but at the same time, writing crappy words doesn't help if there's an easy fix.

Through trial and error, I've figured out my magical solution: music. I used to make playlists for my WIP (work in progress); once, I even assembled a different playlist for each act. In hindsight, this was a great way to be "productive" for an hour without having to write.

I still love having my music fit the mood of the scene I'm writing, which is why I was giddy with happiness when a friend introduced me to 8tracks.com. This web-based streaming music service has endless playlists assembled by its members and--here's the important part--tagged with moods and musical styles. So if I'm writing a hot and heavy club scene, I'll search for "dubstep" and "sex" and "dirty", for example, and a series of matching playlists will pop up. You can see how many times the playlist has been favorited and listened to, which is a good gauge of quality.

The only downside is that you can't skip through too many songs in a playlist. Given that the service is free, and you can switch to another playlist at any time, I don't consider this much of a drawback. Once you sign up for a free account, you can favorite playlists and create meta-playlists (collections of playlists you want to keep organized).

When I find the right playlist, my word count can go from agonizing to flying. I'm continually amazed by the impact of music on my writing mood, and the depth of emotion in my scenes.

Do you listen to music when you write? How do you choose your playlist? 

Here's one of my favorite playlists for writing erotic romance:

 

Pin me up against the wall. from withmybody on 8tracks Radio.