Mood music for writing

Hello again!

Last week I promised that I’d write about mood music for writing at some point; how does now sound?

There are a thousand “classical” composers out there, and I won’t pretend to know all of them… but I do listen to more than my fair share, and I’ve found that different composers, nationalities of music, and instruments really lend themselves to different moods. And choosing the right mood of music can really help lead your writing; especially on an “off” day.

I’ve only written in a few genre’s as of yet, so I won’t go into genre-specific composers at this time, but I may come back to this when I have a bit more experience in different types of writing.

Note; if you’re looking for an emotion that I don’t cover, or don’t like my options, you can always go to Youtube and look up “________ classical music” and that usually pulls up a handful of options.

Calming music- for general writing.

French composers- 

Erik Satie, Claude Debussy, are pretty good for this. You can also branch into Brahms if you feel like something a little more familiar.

Any bowed instruments are also a good go-to, IE cello, or violin.  

I go to these when I’m just writing generally, especially if I’m writing something in an older era, IE my Steampunk Spy trilogy.

Intense music- a bit broody.

Russian composers,

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Sergei Rachmaninoff are good choices for this, but you can also go to Beethoven and Mozart if you want something a little more typical.

I use these when I’m writing something a bit darker, they have a lot of depth, but also plenty of weight behind them when you need it. 

High emotion- Nothing specific but a lot of heart.

Ballet.

Instrumental opera. 

Full orchestra. 

I haven’t found a lot of specifics for this, but if you want something that’ll get a story flowing these can really work.

Deep focus/editing-

Piano music.

I don’t know what it is about the piano, but it’s unrivaled for focusing your mind without distracting you. 

That’s about it for my list, although I’m sure that I’ll add to it later. 

I feel like I should note here that music is nice, but at the end of the day you’re the one who needs to sit down and start writing, these can only help you get in the right headspace if you’re willing to do the work.

Thanks for the read!