The Hero’s Guide To A Writing Playlist: A Guest Post

Friends, I am absolutely DELIGHTED to have Christopher Healy, author of The Hero’s Guide To Saving Your Kingdom here today. I don’t know about you all, but I am terrible at playlists. But other people are actually really good at them, and I am always on the hunt for a good playlist. Thus, I was SUPER PUMPED when Christopher agreed to sharing his writing playlist here on Good Books & Good Wine.

The Hero's Guide To Saving Your Kingdom Author Picture

The Hero's Guide To Saving Your Kingdom by Christopher Healy

And without further ado, I’ll let Christopher Healy take over from here:

I always listen to music while I write. It often helps me set the mood for a particular scene I’m working on. For that reason, I’m very specific about what I choose to put on my “Writing” playlist — and I tend to hop around the list a lot, skipping songs that don’t fit whatever part of the book I’m crafting at that moment. Here are just a few selections from my lengthy playlist.

• “I Believe (When I Fall In Love)” – Stevie Wonder (This song lifts my heart every time I hear it. That’s a good place to be when writing.)

• “Lonely Boy” – The Black Keys (An exciting song for an exciting scene.)

• “1000 Ships” – Rachel Platten (So bouncy and happy; gets me psyched up when a scene needs to be extra fun.)

• “Lifesize” – A Fine Frenzy (I have lots of Fine Frenzy songs on my playlist, but something about this gets my creative juices flowing.)

• “What Am I To You?” – Norah Jones (For intimate conversations.)

• “Little Talks” – Of Monsters and Men (The rollicking nature of this song makes it work well for traveling scenes.)

• “Rules Don’t Stop” – We Are Scientists (The “rules don’t stop me” refrain is perfect for villain scenes.)

• “Starlight” – Muse (For when the heroes are stuck in a serious situation and need to muster the courage to forge onward.)

• “Such Great Heights” – The Postal Service (For when people are happy in love. It’s just such a happy love song.)

• “Maybe I’m Amazed” – Paul McCartney (Slow build helps me craft nice story arcs.)

• “You And I Undercover” – Steel Train (Sometimes it helps for the background music to have an anthemic feel.)

• “Starlight”– Rachel Yamagata (Dark and sultry; good for relationship scenes. But I have to be careful — I am writing for middle-grade kids after all.)

• “Love is Dead” – The Lovemakers (Title sounds depressing, but really a very upbeat song. It’s what I use when I want an 80’s-movie, running-through-the-hallways-to-avoid-the-authority-figure type of feel.)

• “The Underdog” – Spoon (For getting my heroes pumped up. The chorus is like a warning to the villains: “You’ve got no fear of the underdog/That’s why you will not survive.”)

• “I Know What I Am” – Band of Skulls (The driving beat is great when trying to build tension.)

• “Storytime” – Nightwish (When writing a battle scene, a little Swedish symphonic metal is good choice. Not that I’m a big metalhead. The operatic female vocals on this particular song are very melodic. Plus, the lyrics appear to be about J.M. Barrie.)

• “Looking Out” – Brandi Carlile (This song is so emotionally rousing. I can only listen to it when the good guys are about to win.)

• “Any Way You Want It” – Journey (Always good for victory parade scenes.)

• “I Wish You Well” – Bill Withers (You can’t do better for a feel-good epilogue.)

• “Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You)” – Kelly Clarkson (For when I need to stop writing. Because I can’t hear this song without pausing for a dance break.)

LISTEN TO THIS AWESOME PLAYLIST ON SPOTIFY

About Christopher Healy: Christopher Healy spent years reviewing children’s books and media online and in print before setting off to write The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom, his first children’s book. He lives with his wife and their two children in New Jersey. You can find him online at www.christopherhealy.com.

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April is in her 30s and created Good Books And Good Wine. She works for a non-profit. April always has a book on hand. In her free time she can be found binge watching The Office with her husband and toddler, spending way too much time on Pinterest or exploring her neighborhood.
About April (Books&Wine)

April is in her 30s and created Good Books And Good Wine. She works for a non-profit. April always has a book on hand. In her free time she can be found binge watching The Office with her husband and toddler, spending way too much time on Pinterest or exploring her neighborhood.

Comments

  1. Haha. That was so interesting!
    “When I want an 80’s-movie, running-through-the-hallways-to-avoid-the-authority-figure type of feel”
    Love that line. I’ll definitely need to check out the song, just for that.

  2. I feel like I really need to check out the songs I haven’t heard of, because I love all of the ones I know… 😀

  3. Awesome playlist! I just bought three of the songs from iTunes 🙂

  4. I freaking love A Fine Frenzy! Like, seriously, I think I love her 😛
    Love Is Dead is a fantastic song too. I got it off iTunes for free quite some time ago :]
    Awesome playlist! Can’t wait to read Her’s Guide.

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  1. […] listen to while writing, check out my “Author’s Playlist” guest post on the blog, Good Books & Good Wine! Perhaps you’ll find a few new tunes to […]