One of my rituals for writing is that with every new story I start I create a playlist with music that I think I may want to listen to while writing. I try to pick songs I enjoy and that feel like they will fit with the mood/theme/character of my story. It’s usually a fun little project and it helps me get in the mood for the writing.

I’ve not been too sure about how well it works though. The theory is sound, and I think it works in practice, but I don’t really know for certain.

Just now though, I got a little bit of empirical evidence that it really does help. One of the signature songs of my character Toini came on, and I was instantly transported back to her story. I got the same feeling I had when I was writing it, and my mind conjured up the images of what I described in the story. It really did work, and it made me really happy, and now I want to get back to that story again – even though it’s basically finished and I told myself I wouldn’t do any more with it.

Also, here’s the song: