Imagine – you’re sitting on your sofa watching your favourite television show. Something really intense has happened. Maybe it’s good. Maybe it’s bad. But, as the episode is drawing to a close and your favourite characters are making emotional, thought-provoking speeches, you hear the familiar sounds of the piano as a beautiful, intense ballad begins to play. You reach for a tissue as a tear slips down your cheek…

If you’ve ever seen Grey’s Anatomy or nearly any other TV drama or film in existence then you’ll know what I’m talking about.

You know the feeling… the feeling when you hear a particular song on your Spotify, in a shop, or even on another show, and you know exactly where it would fit. Whether it’s in a hook-up scene, a breakup, or a goodbye scene… you just know.

Often when I’m writing, I have those exact moments. I’m sure we all do it. We see our stories like a movie in our head, and we know exactly what songs would play in the background of each scene.

Though, I know when it comes to film writers are not the sole decision-makers on what music appears where, I do feel that it helps us to write those scenes; and we are as emotionally attached to our own characters as we are to those that others have created that we have watched week after week for years.

That is why I decided to create ‘Ultimate Writing Playlists’, so if I am stuck, or there is a particular feeling that I want to evoke during a scene but I just can’t get it right, then I can press play or shuffle and hope that inspiration will strike! It has become an extremely useful tool, and just allows me to visualise the scene more clearly while letting the ideas flow.

If you haven’t got writing playlists of your own, then I highly recommend doing so. Of course, you don’t have to have separate playlists for different moods – you could have all of your ‘writing’ songs in one playlist, but I prefer having everything separately because I hate having to scroll through a long list to find the particular song with the specific vibe that I am after. I also find it far more organised, and I can see exactly what songs I have and the recommendations that Spotify gives are more tailored and accurate than if all the songs from all the playlists were just bundled together.

‘Okay,’ you’re thinking, ‘but where do I begin?’

Well, my friends… allow me to introduce you to my six writing playlists. Whether you want to follow them and use them for your writing, or simply find inspiration to create your own lists, I have linked all of them below for you to scroll through and listen to your heart’s content – each with a brief description above, noting the kind of songs in each and the sort of scenes I imagine them in.

Playlists:

Intros: Songs that I envision in opening scenes to a film/show that set the tone for the show – e.g, when the camera pans over the city. These could also serve as transition songs between scenes.

Badass Moments: When the character is about to be/being a badass. Goes hand in hand with some badass dialogue.

Powerful: Coupled with Badass Moments, but are a little less ‘badassy’ in their vibe and instead a little more ‘I’m strong and powerful’

Hot & Steamy: I think this is self-explanatory…

Emotional: The songs for the deep conversations, where the character loses somebody they love, where they’re reunited with someone for the first time in decades, where they’re contemplating their futures, someone proposes and scenes end on a happy note… a.k.a all the ballads, and songs that will make you cry both tears of sadness and tears of joy. (Could also title this: every single song that would work in Grey’s Anatomy.)

Miscellanous: Songs that don’t have any definitive category – they could fit in multiple places but I’m not yet sure which exact playlist to designate them to.

I hope that you find these helpful – I know I do. And of course, if you end up making your own writing playlists or there are songs you’ve heard that you think I might like to add to these, then please drop me a comment as you can never have too much inspiration to draw from!