Playlist for THE LOST
I love listening to music when I write. It focuses me. I know that makes zero sense to people who need silence to focus, but for me, music distracts that part of my brain that gets caught up in the minutiae of life.
You know the part of the brain I mean. The part that likes to babble. The little voice that prattles on and on: "I should do the laundry. I wonder if it's bad that I don't separate the light colors from the dark. I wash it on cold. It hasn't caused a problem. Except that time I turned all those socks blue. Oh, and the pink underwear incident. But not lately. Need to remember to check all pockets for tissues. Really hate when I forget. Impossible to get that stuff off. It's like cat hair. Cat hair clings to everything. You could weaponize it. Coat the enemy in fuzz. And dryer lint. Isn't there an artist who creates pictures out of dryer lint? I don't remember her name. I'm sure Google knows..." And from there, you're off to Google and somehow you end up on a website about an Icelandic elf school and you're just about to send off your application because it's totally a real thing and you really, really want to go... before you remember you're supposed to be writing.
So to avoid all of that -- and also to avoid doing the laundry -- I listen to music when I write.
For my new book THE LOST, which comes out on May 27th (!!!!!), I created a playlist to keep me in the right frame of mind while I wrote. THE LOST is about a woman trapped in a town full of only lost things and lost people. It's a very atmospheric novel, so these are all very atmospheric songs:
"Hotel California" by the Eagles
"Tom's Diner" by Suzanne Vega
"Eleanor Rigby" by The Beatles
"The Dreaming" by Kate Bush
"Henry Darger" by Natalie Merchant
"Dust in the Wind" by Kansas
"Are You Out There" by Dar Williams
"Building a Mystery" by Sarah McLachlan
"There Is No Arizona" by Jamie O'Neal
"Mad World" by Adam Lambert
"Rolling in the Deep" by Adele
"Fireflies" by Owl City
"Top of the World" by Dixie Chicks
"Prayer for an Innocent Man" by Vertical Horizon
"A Mistake" by Fiona Apple
"Galileo" by Indigo Girls
"What I Am" by Edie Brickell
"Blackbird" by Sarah Mclachlan
"The Beauty of the Rain" by Dar Williams
"Suddenly I See" by KT Tunstall
Happy listening, and happy reading!
Labels: Countdown to The Lost, Playlists, The Lost
posted by Sarah Beth Durst @ 9:48 PM
5 comments
5 Comments:
When I was reading THE LOST (because I have a pretty awesome internship that gives me ARCs to review), I kept returning to America's "Ventura Highway" and "A Horse With No Name." Possibly because those were California desert road trip songs when I was a kid.
Q: I don't think I know those songs... *hurries over to YouTube* ... Okay, I don't know Ventura Highway, but I do know A Horse With No Name. Cool that you heard a soundtrack while reading!
I like listening to music while I write for exactly the same reason! I love this playlist... Off to procrastinate by checking out the tracks I don't know. Also, just wanted to say how much I loved The Lost. It's gripping, fun, creepy, clever and imaginative and I'm recommending it to everyone I know. Thank you for writing it!
Sarah: Glad to hear it's not just me! And so happy to hear you enjoyed The Lost! Thanks so much!
Happy to find out that im not the only one who enjoys reading the lost while listening to some of my musics. I listened to ron pope's perfect for me soundtrack everytime peter and lauren had their sweetest conversations. At the end part of the book i listened to kodaline's all i want song which really suited with the scenarios of lauren together with her mom. And miss sarah beth i really am looking for the 2nd book im so excited to read it
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