As I’ve written elsewhere, I often use music to write. Sometimes it’s about setting the mood, sometimes it’s just about filling the silence, but sometimes, especially on long works like a novel, it’s also about structuring my thoughts. For both my dissertation novel and the novel I’m writing now for NaNoWriMo, I use a full-blown and carefully organized playlist not only to set various moods as I write but also to give myself aural cues for the plot of the novel, a kind of outline in song.
Usually, such a playlist is an ever-expanding thing, with songs turning up or dropping off as I come across them or the order shuffling as I re-organize the outline of the book. This playlist is no different–it is by no means a final draft. But to give people some idea of what I’m listening to as I write, I’m going to post my current playlist here.
Later, as the structure of the novel takes a clearer shape, I might re-post a revision of this playlist, with the songs broken into their respective chapters. These already are arranged in roughly the order of the events in the novel (at least, as I’m imagining them right now), but the exact breaking points for the chapters is still unclear to me. Stay tuned for that later. But for now, this is what I’m working with:
- Muse. “Exogenesis: Symphony Part 1 [Overture].” The Resistance.
- Tool. “Forty-six and 2.” Aenima.
- Tool. “Parabol/Parabola.” Lateralus.
- Opeth. “Weakness.” Damnation.
- A Perfect Circle. “Orestes.” Mers de Noms.
- Nine Inch Nails. “Closer.” the downward spiral.
- Rob Zombie. “The Ballad of Resurrection Joe and Rosa Whore.” Hellbilly Deluxe: 13 Tales Of Cadaverous Cavorting Inside The Spookshow International.
- Metallica. “Cyanide. Death Magnetic.
- Muse. “Hysteria” Absolution.
- Sarah McLachlin. “As the End Draws Near (Extended Remix).” Rarities, B-Sides & Other Stuff.
- My Life with the Thrill Kill Cult. “After the Flesh.” The Crow soundtrack.
- Sarah McLachlin. “Possession (Rabbit in the Moon Remix).” Rarities, B-Sides & Other Stuff.
- Opeth. “In My Time of Need.” Damnation.
- Chris Isaac. “Kings of the Highway.” Heart Shaped World.
- The Doors. “Riders on the Storm.” The Best of…
- Metallica. “The Small Hours” (cover). Garage Days Re-revisited.
- Pink Floyd. “Brain Damage.” Dark Side of the Moon.
- Muse. “Exogenesis: Symphony Part 2 [Cross-pollination].” The Resistance.
- Danzig. “Invocation.” Danzig 4.
- Angels of Light. “Promise of Water.” We Are Him.
- Ministry. “Scarecrow.” Psalm 69: The Way to Succeed and the Way to Suck Eggs.
- Om. “Unitive Knowledge of the Godhead.” Pilgrimage.
- White Zombie. “Blood, Milk and Sky.” Astrocreep 2000: Songs of Love, Destruction and other Synthetic Delusions of the Electric Head.
- Metallica. “Harvester of Sorrow.” …And Justice for All.
- Danzig. “Sadistikal.” Danzig 4.
- Earth. “Left in the Desert.” Hex (or Printing in the Infernal Method).
- Tool. “Reflection.” Lateralus.
- Metallica. “Outlaw Torn.” Load.
- Opeth. “Death Whispered a Lullaby.” Damnation.
- Tool. “Sober.” Undertow.
- Pink Floyd. “Time.” Dark Side of the Moon.
- Earth. “Omens and Portents I: The Driver.” The Bees Made Honey in the Lion’s Skull.
- Earth. “The Dire and Evercircling Wolves.” Hex (or Printing in the Infernal Method).
- Om. “Flight of the Eagle.” Conference of the Birds.
- White Zombie. “El Phantasmo and the Chicken-Run Blast-O-Rama.” Astrocreep 2000: Songs of Love, Destruction and other Synthetic Delusions of the Electric Head.
- White Zombie. “I Am Legend.” La Sexorcisto: Devil Music Volume One.
- Blue Oyster Cult. “Astronomy.” Secret Treaties.
- Muse. “Exogenesis: Symphony Part 3 [Redemption].” The Resistance.
- Opeth. “Ending Credits.” Damnation.
- Earth. “Ouroboros is Broken.” Hibernaculum.
Samuel Snoek-Brown 