Author Shelly Goodman Wright

I like airports. Something about watching people in an airport and wondering where they are going, or where they’ve been, stirs up a certain amount of creativity in me. If I ever experience writers block, I know just where to go to break it.

Yes, I started my blog waiting for my husband at the airport, but it has nothing to do with my blog title. LOL

When I was young, I loved nothing more than sitting in my room listening to music and writing. Back then, I wrote mostly poetry and most of it was about romance. Poetry is a lot like music. Actually, poetry is lyrics put to a tune if you get right down to it.

When I write, I typically have a certain song in mind for main sections of my novel. It puts me in that mood, that mind set to write that character. For example, in my novel A LIGHT INTO THE DARKNESS, when I write about my evil character Daviar, the song “Under the Milky Way” plays in my head. The song brings out his character, the way he talks, the way he moves across the swampy ground, the way he deals with conflict--I can see it all as though I’ve already watched the movie a hundred times. My main heroin, Jessica, I can hear the sounds of a grand piano. At first it’s a sad and low, but as her character faces choices and falls in love, she realizes her strengths; her song is brassier, assertive, and empowering.

Putting aside that I’m a writer and write with a soundtrack, I have a personal soundtrack. If I were to make a list of the top 10 in order it would go something like this:

1. The Bare Necessities—The Jungle Book

2. Catch A Wave—Beach Boys

3. We Built This City—Jefferson Airplane

4. Careless Whisper—WHAM

5. Mad World--Gary Jules

6. Under The Milkway—The Church

7. Any Man of Mine—Shania Twain

8. When You Say Nothing At All—Allison Krauus

9. Jesus Freak—D.C. Talk

10. East is From The West—Casting Crowns

The soundtrack of my life is quite the strange combination (and even stranger if the list was longer with Guns N Roses, Aerosmith, and Nine Inch Nails). I can almost see my sisters and I dancing around the family room to the Jungle Book record, or the first time I slowed danced with a boy when the song ‘Careless Whisper’ plays, or when I knew I had met the man I’d spend my life with and I sang a karaoke song, ‘When you say nothing at all’. All these songs place me in a moment in time where I can recall what I was doing, what my surroundings were, the joy, the conflicts; it all comes into my mind like a flood.

Now, I’ve gone a step further and integrated it into how I develop my characters and my scenes. It is a very powerful tool.

So now that I’ve got you thinking about your own soundtrack, I’d love to know: What is the soundtrack of your life? If you are a writer, do you write with a soundtrack?

Happy Writing,