Music has always been an important part of my life. I played violin throughout middle and high school, I was even THE Fiddler on the Roof when we performed it at our school. In college I worked at the college station, then at a music distribution company and eventually at a few radio stations.

So it’s no wonder that music factors into my writing too. Although I rarely listen to music while I actually write, I do listen to it often while I’m doing my “staring out the window” writing, which is just basically working out scenes in my head, figuring out motivations etc. I find that music helps put me in the mood of the story, sometimes it can help me better understand what my characters are feeling, their motivations, etc.

For “Shaping Fate” I listen to a lot of Sting. It sounds odd, I know, because the story is set in 1349, I should probably listen to something older, but certain Sting songs have a quality to them that seems to fit. Particularly, “A Thousand Years,” which is a song about two lovers who find each other after successive lifetimes. Since my story deals with reincarnation, this song really fits.

Other stories have different songs or artists that fit. It’s actually pretty fun trying to find something that does fit.

Do you use music as a tool or  a companion when you write? Or do you find it distracting and prefer silence? Do you use different music for different work or do you have your one “go to” set that you use for everything?