Roundup: Writing and Music
In our Roundups segment, we’re looking back at all the great posts since the blog started in 2009. We explore posts from our archives as well as other top literary magazines, centered on a certain theme to help you jump-start your week. This week we have posts on writing and music.
For thousands of years writing and music have been entwined (think Greek poetry and lyres). Today, perhaps more now than ever, we are seeing writers writing about music, and writers drawing inspiration from music.
The following is a compilation of some of our favorite posts about writing and music:
Ploughshares Posts:
- Need some good music to write to? “Writing Soundtrack: A Step-by-Step Playlist” and “Ploughshares Playlists: When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Moving” will start you off.
- Ever put on jazz or classical music when you write? Read “Music to Write By.”
- From Bob Dylan to Daft Punk, James Scott reveals his inspiration for writing.
- Jordan Koluch reviews 2011 Iowa Short Fiction Award winner Power Ballads, noting its “focus on ordinary working musicians as opposed to celebrities or virtuosos.”
From Around the Web:
- Do you listen to music while you write? For Gretchen Kalwinski of TriQuarterly, it can be distracting.
- In “The Soundtrack of Our Books” Sharon Steel for The Millions discusses music as a promotional tool for authors’ works.
- In this article, Amit Majmudar for The Kenyon Review writes that language acts as “the hybrid, the dual-purpose medium” which ties music and visual art together.
- Here is a lovely article by author Emily Freeman on her website Chatting at the Sky about the music that inspires her to put pen to paper.
Which songs inspire you to write?
