Nothing helps you achieve your writing goals like falling into a state of flow: that wonderful liminal space when the world falls away, the words course freely through your fingertips onto the page, and everything feels just right. But sometimes, that magical state can feel elusive. There are too many notifications popping up on your phone, too much noise from kids or pets in your house, too much on your mind from a stressful day of work, caregiving, or dealing with other issues. Whatever the trouble is, I find that nothing helps me leave my worries behind and enter a flow state like throwing in my earbuds and turning on my favorite writing music.
In this article, I’ll explore why music helps us achieve a flow state while we’re writing and how to find your perfect flow music.
Why Music Helps Us Find Our Flow State
I won’t dive too deep into the research, but there is an ample body of evidence that supports the power of music when it comes to creativity. Listening to our favorite music floods our brain with dopamine, the feel-good neurotransmitter. It also activates the right side of our brain, which is responsible for creative actions like imagining, brainstorming, storytelling, and writing. When we’re having trouble focusing, coping with our emotions, or fighting fatigue, listening to music gives us a boost. (If you want to learn more, here’s one resource to get you started.)
How To Choose Perfect Writing Music to Achieve a Flow State
To help you find your perfect writing music, consider these three questions:
What are you writing? If you’re writing a calm scene, stay away from intense, fast-paced music and opt for something lighter and sweeter, like solo piano or classical pieces in a major key. If you’re writing a battle scene or a fight between quarreling lovers, try an action movie soundtrack. Does your story take place during a specific time period or place? Try to find music from that period or location to get into the cultural mindset of your characters. What’s your main character’s favorite kind of music? Try listening to that genre to get into their head and discover what makes them tick.
What’s your current mood and energy level? Our mental and physical state changes from day to day. Did you need extra willpower just to show up to your keyboard or notebook today rather than taking a nap or watching Netflix? Consider something upbeat with a bit of tension to it to awaken your senses and boost your energy. Are you having trouble quieting your mind and settling down in your chair? Consider a calmer type of music to help you tune out your thoughts, like meditation music or mellow folk. Are you feeling discouraged about your work-in-progress? Try listening to your favorite feel-good songs that make you feel like you can do anything.
What kind of music will help you stay on task? While you want your writing music to support your mental state and your current work-in-progress, you also don’t want to choose music that will pull your focus from your work. Does listening to music with lyrics distract you? If the music is too loud or changes tempo or key too often, does it take you out of your flow? Does your brain do better with predictable or unpredictable melodies and rhythms?
How to Find Your Perfect Flow State Music
Don’t be afraid to poke around Amazon Music, YouTube, or Spotify to discover new favorites and keep things fresh. Thanks to music streaming platforms, there has never been as much access to music as there is now, and while it can feel overwhelming to sort through, it’s well worth the effort. Spend some time experimenting with different types of music and you’ll soon have an awesome library of music that will suit any writing mood or situation.
Here are a few genres of music to consider, as well as some pointers for organizing your music.
Classical: This is a difficult category to cover with any blanket statement, because “classical” music spans centuries of musical development and a huge range of styles. There’s even a wide variation between the types of music in a single composer’s repertoire. For example, I love writing to Bach’s violin and cello partitas and even some of his string quartets because they constantly dance between tension and peace, but I don’t personally enjoy writing to his concertos because they are too orderly. One way I like exploring different types of classical music is through listening to playlists that other people have already curated based on purpose or subject. Some of my favorite playlists have titles like “Classical for Studying” or “Classical Chill.” You can favorite songs you love and skip pieces that pull you out of your work.
Movie soundtracks: This is another genre with a huge amount of variation. From lovely, quiet scores by Rachel Portman to sweeping, full soundtracks by Hans Zimmer or John Williams to quirky soundtracks like Winged Migration by Bruno Coulais (one of my favorites!), you can literally find it all. Again, playlists can help you discover what composers and movie scores you like best.
Music for meditation or yoga practice: For something more calming, spare, and zen-like, try playlists or albums with words like “Zen” “Meditation” or “Yoga” in the title. One benefit of this type of music is that they can often last upwards of ten minutes, which means longer lengths of time spent without distraction from song transitions.
Vocal music in foreign languages: If instrumental music really isn’t your thing but you get distracted when listening to music lyrics in the language(s) you speak (like me), consider branching out to music from other countries.
Wrapping Up
I can’t end this article without telling you my top favorite types of music to write to. Currently, I can’t get enough of the Elemental soundtrack by Thomas Newman. I feel like I enter a completely different world whenever I turn it on, and everything else just falls away. I’ve also been obsessed with George Winston for years. I especially love his albums Autumn and Winter Into Spring. There’s such a lovely, ephemeral, multi-layered quality to his music that always wakes up my brain. I’ve been searching for another musician who can fill me up and get me in the zone quite like George Winston, but so far no one has come close.
I hope you’ve found some inspiration for creating your own library of writing music to take you away from stress and distractions and get you into that productive flow state. I’d love to hear what your favorite writing music is in the comments!
Happy Writing!