6 Behind the Song Contributors On How Music Influences Their Writing

Music and words go together like peanut butter and jelly—it should almost be illegal to have one without the other. Writers, especially, know this to be true, and most have playlists of mood music they listen to as they slave away on their words.
As readers, tuning into a writer’s inspiration playlist can give us that much more insight into the emotion of the work—the pain, the joy, the heartbreak. Music + writing = a match made in creative heaven.
In the new music-focused YA anthology Behind the Song, fourteen acclaimed young adult authors and musicians share short stories and personal essays inspired by the songs, the albums, and the musicians who move them.
B&N Teen caught up with some Behind the Song contributors to find out how music influences their writing.

Ellen Hopkins, author of The You I’ve Never Known
Music was everything to me as a teen who lived a fairly sheltered childhood. It opened my eyes to people not like myself, instilled curiosity and empathy, made me want to know more about the rich diversity of the human experience. I think I bring that to my writing, and truly hope my books allow my readers a broader view of the world and understanding of people who are different from themselves. Music is communion.

Suzanne Young, author of The Program series
I’ve always liked songs that tell a story—books in musical form. And now, as a writer, I find certain songs can get right to the center of the emotion that I’m chasing. A shortcut to the soul of my book. Each story I write usually has a theme song for this reason.

Anthony Breznican, author of Brutal Youth
For me, music is the key to all the feelings that words strain to capture. I listen to it to get into the mood or mind of a character, I listen to remind me of the tone or pace of a scene. I’ll play the same song, over and over again, until you’d think it would lose its meaning, but—if it’s the right song, its power to inspire never fades. It’s magic, music. The text falls in love with it and just tries its damnedest to live up.

David Arnold, author of Kids of Appetite
One thing I learned during my time as a musician is that an honest voice is more compelling than a pretty one. I’ve found this truth to be one of the few similarities between writing a book and writing a song, and it’s something I always try to remember while writing.

K.M. Walton, author of Ultimatum
I need total silence to write. Music doesn’t enter my creative writing process until I have a completed manuscript. Then—since I know my characters so deeply at this point—I listen to every song differently, searching for emotional connections to what I just wrote. It’s when I frantically Shazam songs, scribble song titles, and build my accompanying playlist. There are certain songs that are forever linked to my novels: “Everything’s Not Lost” by Coldplay = Cracked, “Codex” by Radiohead = Empty, and “Many Rivers to Cross” by Jimmy Cliff = Ultimatum.

Donn T, singer-songwriter, Flight of the Donn
As a singer-songwriter, who grew up in a musical family, music and lyrics inform every activity. The earliest sounds I remember as a child were music. However, my first love is the written word. Words have a unique rhythm, a pulse, even a tone that I am aware of when I write. It is not rare for me to have music on in the background for a writing session. Yet, even when I write in near silence, I am aware of disorganized sound: faint chimes in the garden, birds chirping, a bus a few blocks away, a plane nearing in the distance. It all creates a score to the stories that I write.