I’ve mentioned before how much I love to write to music. The “writing music” I listen to can affect the mood of my novel and even inspire characters and plots. And the winner of my favorite type of music for writing is (drum roll here) movie soundtracks. Why? Well, they’re perfect for writing since you can match the mood of the album to the mood of your novel, and there are not usually any distracting lyrics involved. Another plus is that you can find most soundtracks uploaded to YouTube for free. So, here are my top five favorites that I like to listen to while writing.
5. Thor Soundtrack
Last November, I participated in NaNoWriMo and wrote a sci-fi novel titled Homeland. It had a ton of action sequences and dramatic moments, and I needed a soundtrack to match. Thor was perfect for that. The album has a sci-fi vibe to it with fast, exciting tracks perfect for writing an action-based plot. My favorite song off the album was “Prologue.”
4. The Pirates of the Caribbean Soundtracks
After watching the first movie, I found myself with “He’s A Pirate” stuck firmly in my head. There was only one thing to do: get the soundtrack! While I have never written a whole novel to these soundtracks, I love to listen to them when I’m working on something without an established soundtrack (such as Star Trek fanfiction, or the beginning of a novel idea). My favorite songs from the albums are “He’s a Pirate” from The Curse of the Black Pearl, “Jack Sparrow” from Dead Man’s Chest, and “Up is Down” from At World’s End.
3. The Importance of Being Earnest (2002) Soundtrack
I read the play for school. And then I watched the movie. And then I had to write a paper about the play. I couldn’t decide what to listen to while writing the paper, and on a whim, decided to look up the soundtrack on YouTube. I don’t know if it helped the paper, buy it turned out to be the perfect soundtrack for God Save the Queen (my Camp NaNo novel), and as crazy as it sounds, having that soundtrack helped my writing. I went from disliking my novel idea to loving it. The upbeat music helped turn my dark plot into one that was lighter and more comical. My favorite songs from the soundtrack are “Front Tiles” and, despite the distracting lyrics, “Lady Come Down.”
2. How to Train Your Dragon Soundtrack
I originally tried this soundtrack for Homeland, but it ended up not fitting the story line. Then I tried it with Snow, and it was a novel/soundtrack match made in heaven. It’s a wonderful soundtrack, and I can safely say I love every single song on the album. The album has a Celtic air to it with a great mix of fast, action-packed songs, and slower, more dramatic tracks. I’m pretty excited about the new How To Train Your Dragon movie, but I can’t decide if the excitement is for the actual movie or the soundtrack! 😉 My favorite songs are “Romantic Flight,” “See You Tomorrow,” and “Forbidden Friendship.”
1. The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit Soundtracks
Big surprise there, right? 😉 Even though I might be a bit biased when it comes to the movies, I think even non-fans can say that these soundtracks are quite beautiful to hear. They are my go-to fanfiction writing soundtracks, and even when I’m not writing, I love to listen to them. They even inspired the name of the blog as “Concerning Writing” is a play on the song/chapter title “Concerning Hobbits.” Four of my favorites are “Evenstar” and “King of the Golden Hall” from The Two Towers soundtrack, “Axe or Sword?” from An Unexpected Journey, and of course, “Concerning Hobbits” from The Fellowship of the Ring soundtrack.
What music do you like to listen to while writing, if any? Do you listen to movie soundtracks? If so, which ones? Comment below and tell me. I’d love to find some new ones! 🙂
Thanks for reading!
~ Kayla
Concerning Writing 
Pearl Harbor and Braveheart are both great soundtracks to listen to while writing. I listened to the albums a lot during the beginning of my 2013 Nano novel because they fit the sad scenes I had to write.
Thought I’ve never seen the movie, Tron has a food action packed soundtrack for the more intense scenes.
There’s more I could think of but I’m afraid the list would be too long. 🙂 oh wait… Gladiator is also amazing!!!
Thanks for the suggestions! I’ll check them out. 🙂
I wanted to let you know that I started listening to the Tron: Legacy soundtrack, and it is awesome. I absolutely love it, and it’s very inspiring. Thanks for the suggestion!
Oh good!!! I’m glad!! Yeah a while back I got a Tron song free on iTunes and I was like ‘wow this is really good writing music!’ 😉 glad to help!
Oh, the LotR film soundtrack is just a masterpiece. Such beautiful, beautiful music. That’s actually the only film soundtrack I listen to when writing! Though, sometimes I do listen to the odd bit from Pirates of the Caribbean. ‘Davy Jones’ Theme’ is my favourite, by far.
“Davy Jones” has the creepiest beginning. I get chills listening to it!
The LOTR soundtracks are the best! I could literally listen to them all day, especially Return of the King. That’s definitely my favorite of them all.
Haha, I see what you mean with Davy Jones being creepy, but I don’t find it that way at all ^^ I actually find it incredibly sad. That piece of music is a story in itself, hence why it is so amazing and why I love it! It is Davy Jones’ story, obviously. Heartbreak and anger and hurting.
Oh, so could I 🙂 My favourite is probably the Fellowship, though it is hard to pick when you love them all so much. I don’t think I could pick a favourite end credit song either – could you? They are all beautiful in their own way. Gollum’s Song especially.. Hauntingly beautiful.
I love all the credit songs, too. I have to say May It Be is probably my top one, but really, I love them all. I really like I See Fire as well from the Desolation of Smaug. That was really an awesome credit song! I’m excited to see who will be singing the end song for the third Hobbit movie.
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