Writing to film scores

While not everyone likes listening to music while they write, I love it. I think the music distracts a part of my brain that otherwise would contribute such useful thoughts as this, whilst I write:

This sucks.

Quit now.

Hey, don't you have a new Project Runway on the DVR?

Sometimes I write to songs with lyrics in them, but at times I find the lyrics or voices too distracting. That's when I pull up film scores in iTunes. 

Music written for the movies doesn't fool around. It's got to convey a certain emotion, and quickly. It has to hook you and keep you listening. And it doesn't go on for ever and ever. 

(Kind of sounds like a YA book, huh?)

Sometimes I pull up certain songs and play them on loop while I write, depending on the mood of the chapter. I had Hans Zimmer's MUTINY (Pirates of the Carribean: On Stranger Tides soundtrack) on major repeat while I wrote the start of my latest, because it starts with a battle of sorts. And when I'm working on something wistful or lonely, I put on HAND COVERS BRUISE (Social Network soundtrack). A warning on that song: it will worm into your subconscious and color your entire day. Which is OK so long as you don't mind channeling Trent Reznor.

Other times I just listen to the whole soundtrack. Right now I'm listening to the one I bought just a few days ago, to coax me back into writing: the score from How To Train Your Dragon. I also love the entire soundtrack for On Stranger Tides, as mentioned above, and the Batman Begins score.

Do you ever listen to film scores while you write? Which ones?

Comments

[Ken]

A favorite topic of mine!

Love, love, love film scores. (Warning: Listening to the hard-pounding, intense Batman Begins is not advisable while driving on New Jersey highways.) Some of my writing has leaned toward horror, so I've often played everything from Hammer Films collectons to Danny Elfman's Sleepy Hollow soundtrack to Fred Mollin's Forever Knight music from the '90s.

And then there are those artists who create scores for films that were never made! Check out Midnight Syndicate and Nox Arcana for creepy, atmospheric music, and any of the Epic Score volumes for Hans Zimmer- or Howard Shore-esque action/adventure music.

Speaking of Howard Shore, any of the Lord of the Rings scores is an easy go-to CD when I'm writing action.