Songs I listened to while writing Storm Season
Songs I Listened To While Writing Storm Season
Good morning, everyone. Sorry I didn’t write a blog post in September – I was busy officiating my bestie’s wedding and handling some personal things, but I’m back with a new blog post and a new novella for y’all to read. My latest and longest novella, Storm Season, is officially out in both Kindle and paperback forms. You can check it out here. I’ll deeply appreciate it if you do!
Over on my playlists page, you can find playlists I’ve made that I’m particularly proud of. Several of them serve as “soundtracks” for my books and, of course, the one for Storm Season is on there, in case you want to check it out. In this blog post, I’m going to highlight a couple of the songs I listened to on repeat while writing Storm Season.
(By the way, I also have a whole blog post about my writing process. Listening to one song on repeat the whole time is essential to my success!)
Anyway, today I want to call out a couple of the songs that inspired me while I was writing Storm Season. You can find all of these on the aforementioned playlist.
Back to You by Selena Gomez
Apparently this is the version from 13 Reasons Why, which I’ve never seen or read, so please ask me about it. Anyway, pop isn’t usually my style, but every now and then, a particularly good pop song will intrigue me. The message of this song gripped me because I find it simply relatable. The whole concept of Storm Season is that Oliver and Gaines have “unfinished business”, that they’ve haunted each other’s minds for years, and this song perfectly encapsulates that feeling.
Gazin’ Up at the Moon by Photophobia
Full disclosure: I don’t even know who this band is. I tried reaching out to them on Facebook, but nobody ever responded. It seems they’ve been inactive for over ten years, which sucks, because this song rips. This is the song I had on repeat most of the time when I was writing Storm Season, and I don’t even know why. It’s a depressive black metal track, it’s the essence of pure despair, and it’s a weird song to have on repeat when you’re writing about meetcutes and rekindled connections. However, for some reason, that’s what happened.
While I was waiting for my good friend Tamsyn Goodnow to finish editing Storm Season, every time I would hear this song on my “On Repeat” playlist, it gave me a deep sense of longing. Sometimes I would even say aloud, “I miss Gaines and Oliver.” The riff is just so distinctive and it will always call to mind the nights I spent alone in my office, in the dark, frantically typing. This song will always come to mind when I think about Storm Season, and Storm Season will always come to mind when I hear it.
Moonweed by Blush Response and Warm
What would you call this? Shoegaze, maybe? I had this song on repeat during the rare moments when I’d actually gotten tired of having “Gazin’ Up at the Moon” on repeat. This is another song whose message doesn’t exactly match what I was writing, but the lush guitars and contrasted high-and-low duet of the vocals create such a vibe. I don’t even remember adding it to my playlist, but I’m glad I did. Although it seems to be about loss, there’s also something romantic about it.
Wings by Vader
One of the focal points of the plot of Storm Season is the very existence of death metal, so naturally, I had to add death metal to the playlist. This song is high energy from start to finish and I used to listen to it a lot in high school, so bringing it back to write a story about estranged high school friends just made sense. I think the internet boyfriend I had when I was, like, 17 sent me this. Wherever he is now, I hope he’s doing well.
Everything else
I typically choose a wide variety of songs for my writing playlists. I like music that’s high-energy and will keep me hyperfocused on what I’m doing. This playlist has a lot of industrial and death metal songs from the past and present, as well as black metal in multiple forms, from nostalgic-sounding post-black metal to DSBM. Ironically, a lot of my favorite artists from this year didn’t even make it onto the playlist, so don’t assume my 2023 Spotify Wrapped is going to look just like this, haha.
Some people listen to white noise, brown noise, pink noise (what’s the difference, anyway?), ambient, movie scores, or classical music when they’re writing, but that’s never worked for me. I typically just slam a bunch of songs together in a playlist, typically songs I’ve been listening to obsessively anyway (there’s always a few), and I play it to see what sticks.
However, despite always making a full playlist, I’ll always end up having just one song on repeat the whole time I’m writing. For example, “Right Into the Bliss” by Katatonia was my top song on Spotify Wrapped last year because that’s what I had on repeat while writing Thirst Trap. The Hyperfocus Song Du Jour will typically have nothing to do with what I’m writing, but it’ll somehow feel right nonetheless.
Side note: Pour one out for my neighbors. The walls are thin and they were listening to “Gazin’ Up at the Moon” on repeat right along with me, I’m sure. Are feelings of longing and despair contagious? I hope not.
Anyway, that’s it. Let me know in the comments: did you check out my Storm Season soundtrack? Did you listen to it while reading Storm Season? You can, you know – it’s out now!