Bethany Hagen's Blog

I saw a post about writing music on Veronica Roth’s blog and felt inspired to share some of my Landry Park writing tunes.  I’m a little eccentric about my writing music — number one, I have to have it to work, and number two, I vacillate between being ultra picky about my playlist and being completely cavalier (some days, I turn on the Beck or the Tori Amos station on Pandora and just get to work.)

But for the most part, I am not that casual about it.  I tailor playlists for certain moods, for certain scenes, for certain emotions that are currently playing out in my characters.   Like Veronica’s list, this music isn’t all from 2011, especially since I’ve been working on this novel in its many incarnations since 2008.  Some of it is old.  Some of it is very old (said in Legolas voice.)

My favorite songs for atmosphere and mood:

Even though Landry Park is set 200 years in the future and the crux of the plot centers around nuclear technology, the feel of the novel is somewhere between Gone with the Wind and Mansfield Park.  So for dinner scenes or ballroom scenes or for wandering in the garden fog scenes, I’ve got violins and pianos from Pride and Prejudice:

A Postcard to Henry Purcell — Jean Ives Thibaudet.

Meryton Townhall — Jean Ives Thibaudet

Some other brilliant atmosphere songs:

Evey Reborn — Dario Marianelli.  This one has been with me since the very, very beginning, when Landry Park was a very, very different novel.

Intro — The xx.

Here Comes a Chopper (to Chop Your Head Off) — Strangeletter.  Can you get any cuter than that lead singer?  Yowza.

 Half a Man — Methodic Doubt.

Hayling –FC Kahuna.  Love.

Primavera — Ludovico Einaudi.  I found this on Veronica Roth’s blog, and have been OBSESSED ever since.  It might be the most beautiful instrumental song ever.

Character songs:

What Goes Around…Comes Around — Justin Timberlake.  This is one of my favorite videos ever.  Opulence and carelessness and revenge…and beautiful people being angsty.  I could probably watch Justin Timberlake and Scarlett Johannsen make pancakes and still be invested in it.

Love Hurts — Incubus.

Heavy in Your Arms — Florence and the Machine.  Actually, any song by Florence.  FATM is pretty much the soundtrack for my protagonist.  (By the way, have you heard her cover of Drake’s Take Care?)

Born to Die — Lana Del Rey.  Another singer I listen to constantly while writing. (Video Games is crazy good too.)

The Royal We — Silversun Pickups

Panic Switch — Silversun Pickups

The Words That Maketh Murder — PJ Harvey

I Am Stretched Out on Your Grave — Kate Rusby

Power — Kanye West

In Vain — loveliesbleeding.  Probably my favorite song of all time.  All time.

Leicester — loveliesbleeding.  This one’s cheating a bit, because I wrote the lyrics, but loveliesbleeding turns words into something else.

So there’s your music fix for the week.  There’s a lot of other songs I listen to while writing, but these are the ones I specifically seek out for re-inspiration.  And for anyone who’s interested in a revision update, I think I’m probably a few good days away from sending it to my critique partners. (!)