Instant Inspiration with iTunes

One of my most indispensable writing tools is iTunes. 

Now, I don't much care for playlists. I almost never have a playlist for any given novel, and I'm always amazed (and a little intimidated!) by writers who do have a list of songs that inspired them for each part of their books. I do most of my writing to the Bach unaccompanied cello suites or to the background music in Ommwriter (that's O, by the way—more on it later!).

But every now and then, I do have a need to hear a specific song. I'll just get this weird sense that one song would be a great catalyst for the scene or chapter I'm writing. So for that reason, I ask for gift cards to iTunes for small occasions, and let my friends and family know that iTunes cards never go to waste. That way, I keep a balance at all times, and whenever I just have to have a song to write to, I just go and buy it with my balance, utterly guilt-free. 

You can find similar services on Amazon Music. And if you want to be truly cheap frugal, these days a lot of artists are putting professional recordings on YouTube/Vimeo, although you usually have to create a playlist to get the songs you want to loop, and the non-pirated versions (if you're picky like me and try not to listen to pirated music) usually have ads. 


This month I'm participating in the A-Z blog challenge. My theme is "writer hacks," or 26 shortcuts you can do as a writer to get the most out of writing and the journey toward and through publication. Find out more about it at a-to-zchallenge.com, and hop around to read the other cool blogs that are part of the challenge!