Press Play
The art of the writing playlist.
Welcome back to Keep Writing, where we’re busy enjoying this last gasp of autumn before the death rattle of winter takes hold. If you’re new here, warmest welcomes to you: Help yourself to the piles of masquerade masks and gummy worms on the table before taking a stroll through our archives.
Ah, gather ‘round, gather ‘round, my darlings, for our Monthly Very Serious Literary Salon, where we recline on chaise lounges, eat petit fours, and discuss only the most Literary of topics: Billy Shakes, Ginny Woolf, Eddie Poe….
Or we could sit cross-legged on the shag rug and swap songs for our writing playlists, which sounds vastly more fun. And hell, there’s already frost on the ground here, and snow is sweeping fast down the mountain—let’s have a little fun before winter descends in earnest, shall we?
So let’s talk about the art of the project playlist. In my mind, there are two core categories of playlists we make for our stories. The first is the mood/vibes/setting list. Your atmospheric list. These are the songs that transport you to the world of your story. Think of things like…
If your story had a soundtrack, what would be on it?
What songs would play on the radio during the time period of your story?
What music would your characters hear as they move through this world?
What artists or genres evoke the mood of your story?
What kind of music would you want readers to hear in their heads as they read?
The goal of this particular list is immersion. Maybe you always play it right before you sit down to write so it has Pavlovian impact, immediately dropping you into the world of your narrative like a shortcut. Maybe you let it play as you write to provide an atmospheric backdrop. But it should generally be listenable in the long term. The point of this exercise is function, not form. You’re building this list with the intention of using it often.
However, the second type of list, the character playlist, is a horse of a different color. This is a list of music that sonically defines a fictional character (or a key figure in your nonfiction). You could certainly play it every time you crawl inside the mind of this particular character, or you could also just use it as a character-building exercise. Listenability isn’t necessarily the goal here; accuracy is.
There’s no one way to build such a list. But if you’re stuck, I’d suggest the following questions to get you started:
What kind of music does your character listen to? What’s their favorite song or artist?
What genres of music does your character hate?
What was their favorite song growing up? What do they think of that song now?
What song best describes their past relationships?
What song represents their overall outlook on life?
What song reminds them of their relationship with their parents?
What song reminds them of their loved ones?
What song would your character play on a rainy day?
What would they play to motivate them to do something hard or heroic?
What song was playing during a particularly happy moment in their life?
What song did your character play (or want to play) at their wedding?
What’s your character’s guilty-pleasure song? (Do they believe in guilty pleasures, period?)
What song sounds like the way they choose to move through the world?
What songs would your character want to have played at their funeral?
But what’s the point of all this?, the curmudgeonly among us might ask.
It’s a character development exercise, I might respond. It provides a soundtrack for your writing. And it’s a way to work on your characters while ostensibly doing other things (dishes, exercising, commuting).
But also: What’s the point of doing any art? To create something new, to make something that resonates. An act of play can still produce serious results. Play is a radical art in itself.
So if this exercise doesn’t speak to you, no worries; spend your time on something that does. But for the rest: Revel in play as you build your playlists. I’d love to hear any songs you’d recommend.
Until next month—
Keep writing,
Nicki
Calls for Submissions
Spotlight: Ninth Letter: “Performance” submissions
Spotlight pick
Ninth Letter: “Performance” submissions
“To perform is to, for some audience, create the illusion that reality is this, rather than that. We do this everywhere—our social (and social media) lives, our dress, our relationships, our feelings, our genders, all performed in their ways; all around us there is the low hum of wishful artifice imparting an intended impression onto seen and unseen—perhaps even imaginary–spectators. Taken to its logical conclusion, a reasonable, if cynical, truth emerges: performance, in our day-to-day, is so essential, so inextricable from our quote-unquote ‘authentic selves,’ that perhaps the authentic self is simply the sum of a lifetime of performances–that the show has somehow become its own type of truth,” write the editors of Ninth Letter. “How do we perform, and for whom?” Send up to three poems or one piece of prose of 3,500 words or less. No submission fees. Payment is $25 per poem or $75 for prose.
Deadline: Nov. 1
Bloodletter: “Play” submissions
How fitting, considering the theme of this month’s newsletter: Bloodletter, a feminist horror magazine written by women, non-binary, and trans writers, is seeking submissions for its upcoming “play” issue. No word counts: “Length and style should be determined by the needs of the piece.” No submission fees, no payments that I can find.
Deadline: Nov. 1
Full Bleed: ”Inheritance” submissions
Full Bleed, a “journal devoted to the intersection of the visual and literary arts,” seeks submissions on “inheritance.” Send prose up to 4,000 words or up to three poems. Comics and graphic essays are also welcome. Contributors will be paid $25 per poem or flash and $50 for longer prose.
Deadline: Nov. 1
Halfway Down the Stairs: “Intuition” submissions
This quarterly journal seeks submissions for its upcoming “Intuition” themed issue. Send up to roughly 500 words of poetry, 5,000 words of fiction, or 3,000 words of nonfiction. The journal primarily publishes literary/mainstream work, but editors are open to all genres except erotica or children’s. No submission fees, no payments.
Deadline: Nov. 1
Midnight Mind Magazine: Road writing
“We are looking for work that examines, celebrates or is critical of the open road. Or the closed road. Or the road home. Or the road away from home,” write the editors of Midnight Mind Magazine. No payments, no submission fees, no length limits that I can find.
Deadline: Nov. 3
Nimblewitlit: Trustworthy-themed works for young readers
Submit poems and stories appropriate for readers ages 5 to 14 to Nimblewitlit for its upcoming “trustworthy” issue. Submitters of any age are welcome, but writers under the age of 16 require parental permission. Send one poem or a story up to 1500 words. Previously published work is fine. No submission fees.
Deadline: Nov. 30
NonBinary Review: “Carnival” speculative prose and poetry
“Give us poems that make us feel that carnival atmosphere right down to the roots of our hair. Fiction about a fantastical carnival that couldn’t possibly exist on any world that observes our familiar laws of physics. Art that makes us want to step inside and join the revelers,” urge the editors of NonBinary Review. Send speculative works up to 3,000 words for prose or up to 50 lines for poetry (3 poems max). Payment is $.01 per word for prose or a flat $10 for poetry.
Deadline: Nov. 30