I’ve talked a little bit about music as a productivity tool, particularly in regard to outlining.  Today I would like to talk about music to write books to.  I personally have trouble listening to music with lyrics when I am writing.  I just start thinking about the singer’s words instead of my own.  For this reason, I tend to favor movie soundtracks or video game soundtracks.

Modern movie soundtracks tend to have many sedate passages with no clear melody or rhythm so there are usually only one or two tracks that work with my writing play lists.  What I had found works the best when it comes to movie music, tends to be soundtracks written between 1965 and 1990.  There is usually a main theme catchy and memorable, repeated in several different variations across the soundtrack.  There may also be a memorable villain theme or a sweet love theme, which may appear several times.

I usually did not give enough face time to my villains for them to rate their own play list of villain themes, but sometimes a play list of love themes comes in handy.  Most of the time, I turn to a game soundtrack that is driven and adventurous, repetitive enough and catchy enough to keep the fingers galloping over the keyboard, sinister enough to include the villain, romantic enough for the love story.  This soundtrack is Castlevania: Curse of Darkness, by Michiru Yamane.

I like her soundtracks to Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and Castlevania: Lament of Innocence even more as music than I do Curse of Darkness, but for me they’re too closely associated with my memories of playing the games when I was younger.  For some reason I never got around to Curse of Darkness, so the tunes are still fresh for me, and I can associate them with whatever I’m writing.  I particularly like these tracks: Baljhet Mountains, Garibaldi Courtyard, Garibaldi Temple, Mortavia Aqueduct, Mortavia Fountain, the Forest of Jigramunt, the Cave of Jigramunt, and Cordova Town. Most of the rest is too sad, too silly, or too harsh and dissonant for my tastes.