Friday, July 19, 2019

MAINLY BY MOONLIGHT Playlist redux

I've mentioned before how useful I find playlists when I'm working on a book. Part of it, of course, is simply music = emotion, and staying "on key" emotionally for the length of a book can be tricky, especially if the book is long or you're writing in such prolonged stretches that you begin to cue off what you wrote recently versus the beginning of the book.

What's really interesting though, is when the playlist begins to feel out-of-sync with the emotional tone of the book, and that's actually what happened here!

Here's the original playlist for Mainly by Moonlight.

Now, a lot of the songs--"Lift Me Up," "Are You Strong Enough to be My Man"--didn't change. Those still feel perfect for the book. But others--"American Witch," for example--began to feel too dark, too ugly for how I wanted this book to read. The deeper I got into the story, the more playful and whimsical it felt.

And then there were points like...why would I have Bryan Ferry's version of "I Put a Spell on You," when John adores Nina Simone?

Anyway, here's the newly revised playlist :-)

I Put a Spell on You - Nina Simone


Lift Me Up - OneRepublic 


OU LA LA LA (All Eyes On Us) - NVDES 


What if I Told You - Jason Walker


Bewitched, Bothered & Bewildered - Ella Fitzgerald 


Are You Strong Enough - Stevie Nicks & Sheryl Crow   


Bewitched - Steve Lawrence 


ME!


Your Hand I Will Never Let it Go


A Sky Full of Stars - Cold Play 


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