On one of my forums, the other day, someone posted an open question – if your novel were a particular genre by a particular musical artist, what one would it be?

My answer:

“The Eyelet Dove would be industrial/electronic, played by abney park.

But most of my characters have theme songs too:
Michel, the badass ace pilot – Indestructible by Disturbed
Roland, admiral of the air, and Michel’s father – Road to Freedom by Chris De Burgh
Maddie, the poor street orphan – Downtrodden by Abney park
Etienne, the leader of the people’s revolt – Letters Between a Little Boy And Himself As An Adult by Abney Park
Simone, the brothel madame and former prostitute – Natasha Dance by Chris De Burgh
Claire, a young woman fighting her way into a man’s role in the air corps- The Grudge by Tool

The song for the climax though, is Farewell, by Apocalyptica.

And yes, the playlists on my Ipod are organized and titled by titles of works in progress and character names….”

I, like many other writers, get pretty into the music I listen to. I can’t write with the wrong music in the background, but silence is ok, too. I know people who can’t listen to songs with lyrics while writing because they start to transcribe the lyrics without thinking.

When I was younger, I used to invent stories to go with whatever songs I was listening to, if they weren’t songs that already told a story (those have always been my favourite.) Even now, I can’t listen to music while I’m at my day job, because I get to into the music and distracted.

Everyone’s different, though.