Behind the Scenes: My Civil War Writing Soundtrack

You know I'm about to start writing another Civil War novel when I receive four more Civil War movie soundtrack CDs in the mail from Amazon! My most recent special deliveries: Lincoln, Gone with the Wind, Gods & Generals, and Dances with Wolves. I love writing with music in the background that stirs emotion and evokes a sense of Civil War drama. Here is my complete Civil War playlist. So far. :)

Movie soundtracks are wonderful because the difference between a slow, contemplative song and a fast-paced "action" scene song remind me that as a novelist, my scenes should be about action and reaction. A novel full of action but with no time for the characters to digest what that means to them or for them could be a roller-coaster ride, but super shallow on character development. Likewise, a novel that's all about interior monologue needs to be spiced up with some action scenes. So writing with soundtracks has worked well for me.

BUT-when I'm editing, I don't listen to any music at all. I don't want the music in the background to trick me into thinking my writing is good if it really doesn't stand on its own. By the time I'm done writing, the novel should be able to evoke its own emotion, without a soundtrack in the background. Now that I have my soundtrack all lined up, it's time to really get serious about my writing time. That means I'm going to drop off the blogosphere and Facebook for a little while. I'll pop my head up every once in a while, but for the most part, I need to buckle down and crank out the chapters. Yankee in Atlanta is calling my name. And I'm pretty excited. It's going to be a great story...