How Music Helps Me Write + Under the Surface Playlist

Despite needing to write and revise in silence, music does play a big role in my overall writing process!

Here’s the thing: I’m deep in drafting mode, so I have exactly zero words left to write a clever introduction here. 🤣 I’ve just hit the 53,000-word mark in my first draft of a top-secret project, and though I’m aiming for a 70,000-word first draft, it looks like it’ll wind up closer to 62-65,000. That means I’m closing in on “the end.” YAAAAAAAAS!

Since I have no additional words to spare, let’s jump right into today’s topic: how music helps me write my books.

People often ask me what music I listen to while I write, and I always feel a little awkward admitting, “I don’t.” I’m not trying to be coy — I just need silence to focus! I’ve always been more productive at home than at a café or office because it’s more quiet there, unless there’s construction outside my window (city life, whew). When that happens, I drown out the jackhammering with white noise, not music. Here’s the white noise clip I play on loop.

Despite my brain needing quiet time while writing or revising, music does play a big role in my overall writing process. So I thought it might be interesting (or helpful, if you’re also a writer) to share how!

1. Music helps me hone the story’s stakes

While I’m ideating a book, I’ll pick out 2-4 songs that match the vibe of the most crucial beats in the story. I can’t even fully describe how I do this; for example, Whatever it Takes by Imagine Dragons is my #1 theme song for Under the Surface, and the connection just popped into my head. There’s no way to explain it other than… my synapses fired…? 😅

Once I have those songs, I’ll listen to them on loop and visualize the book like a movie trailer in my head. This helps me grasp the most dramatic beats and visualize them over and over, so I can write them in an emotive way that will leave a lasting impression on readers. So, for example, when Dan Reynolds is singing “Whatever it takes, ‘cause I love the adrenaline in my veins,” in my head I’m seeing Ruby climbing the ladder with Olivia’s inhaler, slipping from the ladder, and Julien lunging down to clasp her hand and haul her back to safety. IYKYK.

It’s sort of like writing a query letter or pitch before drafting to help you define the stakes upfront.

2. Music helps me brainstorm

I’ll go on lots of brainstorming walks while listening to these tracks on loop. Boston is super walkable, so I often take 1-2 hour brainstorming walks in different parts of the city. Sometimes, other songs creep into my “inspiration” playlist — songs I happen to be obsessed with at the moment, tracks from video games I’m playing or a show I’m watching, etc. — that may not have a specific connection to my story but help me get into a creative headspace.

3. Music helps me get in the zone

This playlist helps when I’m suffering from writer’s block or flailing on the floor from malaise (often with my cat) — listening will give me that boost of motivation I need to get my butt in the chair and write. Then, once I’ve crossed over and am in the zone, I need silence!

4. Music inspires my promotional content

Once it’s time to promote my book, I’ll build out a full playlist based on all the songs that were part of this experience, and any other tracks I’ve discovered that fit the vibe of the story. I’ll share that playlist close to the book’s release, and I’ll also use pieces of those tracks when creating TikToks and Reels. And since I’ll edit the content to fit the beats of the song, these tracks play a pretty big role in how readers — at least, the ones who follow me or discover my book on social media — are first introduced to the story.

Under the Surface Playlist

Here’s the playlist for Under the Surface! These tracks aren’t in sequential order, and there isn’t a song for every chapter or scene. Some tracks have the right vibe or even just a single line that reminds me of a specific character or scene, and others I just listened to a lot when I was drafting or revising this book—again, not while writing, but when I was brainstorming.

>> Here’s the playlist on Spotify.

Be warned: there are spoilers below! If you’d like to listen along as you read the book for the first time, here’s the playlist in Google doc with the spoilers blacked out. Substack doesn’t let me do that kind of highlighting/spoiler tagging.

1. Paris - Taylor Swift

I’m a Swiftie and so is Ruby, so this is what she would have played ahead of the trip while excited to explore Paris with Sean.

2. …Ready for it? - Taylor Swift

Julien plays music as he leads the girls to his party—rather, he tries to lead them there—before his phone dies. This is the song he plays first.

“Shall we?” says Julien. As we set off, he scrolls through his phone until a Taylor Swift song blares from the tiny speaker.

I smile on reflex—I’m a total Swiftie—but Val says, “Way to kill the ambiance.”

“Cataphiles play music so you know they’re coming.” But he turns the volume down, stooping slightly to keep his head from grazing the jagged ceiling.

3. Into the Darkness - The Phantoms

This is the runner-up as the theme song for this book. I discovered it because it’s the music in one of the trailers of the video game Dragon Age Inquisition, and, I mean, listen to it… “Into the darkness, we must run… into the darkness, we all must fight.” Then think of all the scenes where the lost group runs from the cultists, and the scene where Julien and Ruby literally battle a cultist with bones. Perfect fit.

4. I Knew You Were Trouble - Taylor Swift

After the group gets lost, Ruby thinks this about Julien:

Worst of all, I betrayed myself. I snuck out to get Val because I had a feeling she was in danger. I knew to walk away from Julien. I knew this was too dangerous. And I came down here anyway. I abandoned my own good judgment because I wanted views for my channel. I wish I could take it back, take it all back, but I can’t, and now we’re trapped with nothing but death ahead or behind us, and there’s no way out of it. A fierce helplessness claws at my insides, ravaging me until I can’t contain it anymore, and I let out a harrowing shriek.

“I’m sorry.” I sob as Val wraps her arms around me and tears streak down Olivia’s cheeks. “I’m so, so sorry.” I should’ve hauled Val to the Métro by her ankles if I had to. I knew something bad would happen. I knew, I knew, I knew.

5. Running Up That Hill (2018 Remaster) - Kate Bush

I imagine this as Sean’s theme as he starts to look for Ruby while his teacher, parents, and the French police resist his help, but he’s determined to help search for the girl he loves.

6. Separate Ways (Worlds Apart) - Journey, Steve Perry

Pure vibes. I don’t know how to explain this one, I just listened to it a lot while writing this!

7. Habits (Stay High) - Tove Lo

This one is incredibly nerdy and specific, feel free to judge me. While I was writing Under the Surface, this video (spoiler in this link!) crossed my TikTok FYP. It’s a fan edit of the first teaser trailer of the next Mass Effect game, where Liara is presumably searching for Commander Shepard. For some reason it reminded me of Sean searching for Ruby, except he never gets high to avoid thinking about her, nor does he ever try to forget her. So it’s not an exact match, but I still listened to this a lot while brainstorming.

8. Breathe - Ex Makina

Pure vibes. This was the music in the Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power season 1 trailer, and I listened to it a lot while going on my Boston esplanade walks while brainstorming this book.

9. Demons - Imagine Dragons

While lost in the catacombs Ruby finds the strength to confront her inner demons, whether it’s being afraid to tell the people she loves how she feels, or bottling up her grief for the mother she never met, or reckoning with her role in the dissolution of her and Selena’s friendship.

10. Whatever it Takes - Imagine Dragons

If there were a theme song for this book, this is it. It came out in 2017, and I sent the pitch for Under the Surface to my literary agent in 2018. I’d listen to Whatever it Takes on loop, visualizing all the key events in Under the Surface like a movie trailer in my mind, and I eventually fleshed out that “trailer” into a full outline. This song inspired the tagline on the cover, and it’s why I use this song so often in my Reels/TikToks.

Fun fact: I saw Imagine Dragons perform at Fenway Park the summer of 2022, soon after selling Under the Surface to Penguin Random House. It was the first concert I’d been to after shelter-in-place, and it was brutally hot and sticky that day, so my husband and I got lucky with last-minute front row tickets. And when the band played this song (and Demons) I sobbed like a baby, because this book that’d been swirling around my brain for years was finally happening, I was finally writing it, we were finally vaccinated, the world was finally resembling something like normal, and here was Imagine Dragons literally feet in front of me performing the song I visualized this book to. It was just… a lot. I’m crying now just remembering it, lol, I’ll never forget how huge that moment felt.

Another fun fact: If I ever manage to get tickets to a Taylor Swift concert, I’ll be sobbing like that the entire show. DON’T LET ME GO.

11. Everybody Wants to Rule The World - Lorde

This is Stefan’s theme.

12. Treacherous - Taylor Swift

This is Julien’s theme, mostly for the title of the song. I warned you about spoilers.

13. Experience - Ludovico Einaudi

I played this on loop while writing the scene where Ruby slips her phone into Selena’s pocket and says goodbye, and realizes that she was wrong… it’s not all for nothing. We’re more than a pile of bones. (Page 315)

Fun fact: When I got my author copies, I listened to this track while reading page 315 for a promotional video and ended up legitimately crying on camera, and then I was too chicken to upload it lmaoooooo. At least a screenshot from it can be the preview image for this newsletter!

14. Past/Present Suite (from the Andor score) - Nicholas Britell

I played this on loop while writing the entire rest of the ending of the book. The tone of the scene this plays during in the show Andor matched the atmosphere I was going for.

15. M4 Part II (from the Mass Effect score) - Faunts, EA Games Soundtrack

Mass Effect is Selena and Aliyah’s favorite video game, and they get that from me! This is the song that plays during the end credits of Mass Effect 1, and this line hits so hard: “And I need you to recover, because I can’t make it on my own…” So it’s apt that I think of it as the end-credit music for Under the Surface. Hey, you can even play this as you read the acknowledgements!

I hope this was interesting to see, and that you enjoy the playlist! Under the Surface is out now in hardcover, ebook, and audiobook, and it comes out in paperback on May 27th with lovely purple edges. You can preorder that edition here: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop

If you have any questions you’d like me to answer in future newsletters, please let me know in the comments! I hope you stay well, and you’ll hear from me next on March 17 for the 5-year anniversary of All Your Twisted Secrets.

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