This is the post that is to blame for the entirety of this blog series.
The soundtrack.
Yes, it’s the age-old debate–do you listen to music while you write, or do you write in utter and complete silence, entering the sanctum of the inner mental library and spinning your stories like Rumpelstiltskin’s golden thread?
Even if you refuse any possibility of distraction while you’re writing, it’s easy to think of music that “fits” the story in some way. We actually did this as an exercise in a stage-writing course I took once–when you’re handing off a script to an actor, make a little gift packet of photos and songs and interesting tidbits of information to help them understand their character’s world and personality. It was the first time I’d done something like that, but it felt surprisingly natural, and it turned out to be a lot of fun. Sort of like picking comp titles for your book blurb, but on a richer scale.
Hence the novel soundtrack.
It’s actually a built-in feature of NaNo’s project details. You’ve got your title, you’ve got your synopsis and excerpt, your cover, your inspiration board, and a nice little spot to link a YouTube novel playlist.
I’m a musician. Of course there’s a novel playlist.
And while it’s something I didn’t perhaps think a lot about before NaNo–now it is decidedly A Thing.
There are songs for different projects. The entire multi-movie Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack is now irrevocably tied to my drafted-by-hand, seafaring novella trilogy (which has nothing to do with NaNo, but still). The song that I looped for most of NaNoWriMo 2018? It comes on, everything else gets pushed aside, my eyes glaze over, a montage of the novel’s high points flash through my mind, the creative juices rush through my veins, neurons start firing, and I must write right now write now must write must write–
Um. Where were we?
Playlist. Right.
(cue bookmarkedone cracking knuckles because the stars of writing and music have aligned and My Time Has Come)
In case you want to listen along, here’s a link to the novel soundtrack on YouTube (Yay! You clicked it! Welcome to the party of NaNo22 celebrations!). Quick note here–I’ve made official playlists for the last three years, and finally had the guts to make them public instead of unlisted. They are, at best, eclectic. If you mosey to my channel and listen, don’t ask about how I stumbled into them, original AMVs, shows, etc. Those are stories for other days. I like them. Just jam.
Okay! Soundtrack for NaNo 2022!
1. Alec Benjamin – Shadow Of Mine [Official Music Video]

I don’t actually remember if this was the first song I absolutely had to have on the playlist…or if it was just something I was listening to at the time. I’ve only known about Alec Benjamin for a few months, but I’ve already collected a few favorite tunes of his.
“Shadow of Mine” is on the soundtrack because it relates to the leading lady. This is more “off the page” material, but R has–let’s say a lot of backstory to her. Some of it painful. This novel is a little adventure for her. More like a vacation. She’s trying to get away from her own main plot by creating D’s.
But you know what they say about writers tormenting their characters…
…yeah. R doesn’t get much of a break. Cue the mayhem of the novel.
Everywhere I go, my shadow, it follows behind
Doesn’t matter where I travel, my shadow, it finds me
Something that I’ve come to realize after all this time
I can’t escape my shadow, I can’t escape my shadowIt won’t ever let me go
Benjamin, Alec. “Shadow of Mine.” Elektra Records, 2022. Lyrics provided by Musixmatch.
It goes everywhere I go
It won’t ever let me go
This shadow, this shadow of mine (shadow of mine)
It was actually really hard to pick a favorite lyric from this because the whole song is terrific. It screams R. But I think these are the first ones that caught my attention and really clicked, connecting to her character. The idea of trying to go somewhere, anywhere, hitting the open road, but being unable to travel away from yourself (or your backstory, or y’know, a massive magical curse or something like that)–
Had to go in the playlist.
Besides. I like listening to it.
2. Imagine Dragons – Sirens

So this was absolutely one that I was just listening to (a lot) during October…and it accidentally sort of attached itself to the novel.
I mean, to be fair, it fits. The novel focuses a lot on music as a theme, and at one point, I was considering the idea of sirens (and various other magically musical peoples/creatures–might wind up in the final draft? might not?). So I kept it.
Sometimes, I get a little bit scared at night
Imagine Dragons, “Sirens.” KIDinaKORNER/Interscope Records, 2022. Lyrics provided by Musixmatch.
I get a little preoccupied
The sirens in my mind
The sirens in my mind
I just wanna be good again
I wanna make it to the end
The sirens in my mind
The sirens in my mind
When you’re in a world where music is magic and it’s quite possible to listen to someone else’s thoughts–yeah, “Sirens” was a perfect choice.
And there’s a lot of struggle in the novel, for all that R and D are just out to have a lighthearted, summery-picnic-y life. The song suits them both, in that way you can half imagine either one of the characters singing it.
I do have an explanation for the song’s modern references in a Renaissance-esque fantasy world. There are too many potential spoilers for me to give it.
Next up!
3. MGMT – Little Dark Age

Simple explanation: title and bass line.
It’s a very good bass line.
I came across “Little Dark Age” browsing through YouTube–gah. Ages ago. Months? A year? Longer?
And I didn’t save it to a playlist, so in the chaos that is life, I forgot it existed.
Until it popped up again during November, about the time that I was getting really, really sick of hearing “Sirens” (one month? Okay. Two months listening to one song? Please no).
And it has that vibe, that perfect combination of modern sounds and (with a stretch) the topic of the Dark Ages. The vibe that says, “Put me in your Renaissance faire must learn for fiddletrolling list already or internally kick yourself every time you realize you’ve missed an opportunity to play it.”
There are a lot of songs like that in my renfaire list.
Oh-oh, forgiving who you are, for what you stand to gain
Just know that if you hide, it doesn’t go away
When you get out of bed, don’t end up stranded
Horrified with each stone on the stage, my little dark ageOh-oh, I grieve in stereo, the stereo sounds strange
I know that if you hide, it doesn’t go away
If you get out of bed and find me standing all alone
Open-eyed, burn the page, my little dark ageI grieve in stereo, the stereo sounds strange
MGMT, “Little Dark Age.” Columbia Records, 2018. Lyrics provided by Musixmatch.
You know that if it hides, it doesn’t go away
If I get out of bed, you’ll see me standing all alone
Horrified on the stage, my little dark age
I think it’s the “grieve in stereo” and “horrified on the stage” that got me, but there are so many little lines in the song that fit as if they were made for the novel–ruins, scars, pages, trying to hide from something you can’t escape, running from the law whether you’re guilty or not–but really, I was just thinking about D having stage fright.
They’re performers, remember? And D is–a lot less experienced with having all the eyes staring at him than everyone else around him. It’s all new to him.
And I, the author, get to torture him for it. Just a little.
Honestly, it feels more like him moving past that fear to the really scary things, the plot of the novel…dodging major spoilers, let’s keep moving!
4. Cosmo Sheldrake – Come Along

I have a love/hate relationship with Cosmo Sheldrake music.
It’s great! It’s super distinctive! It’s whimsy! It’s kind of folk? It quotes A. A. Milne and Lewis Carroll! It gets super stuck in my head!
It gets super stuck in my head!
(cue muffled bookmarkedone screaming into a pillow because “away from the humdrum” is not going anywhere).
And his music seems to pop up–a lot. But it grew on me, especially when I caught the Carroll references. Besides. The percussion. It’s funky.
There’s no such thing as time to kill
Nor time to throw away
So once for the bright sky
Twice for the pig sty
Thrice for another dayCome, come, come, come, come along now
Run away from the hum-drum
We’ll go to a place that is safe from
Greed, anger and boredomWe’ll dance and sing ’til sundown
And feast with abandon
We’ll sleep when the morning comes
And we’ll rise by the sound of the birdsongs…
Once we’re fed we shall disappear rapidly
Cosmo Sheldrake, “Come Along.” 2017.
Many moons to the west of here and happily
Our journey never ends
Running away again to some happy place. It’s a theme. But there’s also a line about eating with friends, stopping your ears to siren songs, the counting charm, feasting, –just go listen to it. You’ll get the idea.
And if this one gets stuck in your head, you’re not going to like what’s next–
5. Cosmo Sheldrake – The Fly

Not even I am sure how Sheldrake got two in the list (that’s eighteen percent, sir! What right have you?).
It’s the lyrics. Okay, the funky opening and the lyrics.
For I dance and drink and sing
Till some blind hand shall brush my wing
If thought is life and strength and breath
And the want of thought is deathThen I am a happy fly
Cosmo Sheldrake, “The Fly,” 2013.
If I live or if I die
Then I am a happy fly
If I live or if I die
Then I am a happy fly
If I live or if I die
Then I am a happy fly
If I live or if I die
The hand claps. It’s so simple, but some of the phrasing reminds me of reading Shakespeare. It feels like something the gang would sing around the fire at night, just the players, no audience, as R pulled everyone to their feet until they were dancing with her in that world of red sparks and starlight.
It has the kind of existential dark humor I think R and D might use under pressure, too.
Life is scary. Let’s dance until we forget about death.
6. The Longest Johns – Ashes

I don’t actually listen to a lot of The Longest Johns? But “Ashes” is an exception.
I first heard it in an AMV a few months ago, fell in love, looped it a lot, sang/hummed along plenty. It’s simple, but there’s something strong and hauntingly beautiful about it.
I actually wasn’t planning to put it in the NaNo 2022 playlist until I was playing DJ on a car trip–and under the shade of some oak trees, sun slanting on the grey road under our wheels–I realized it really needed to be there.
Watch that old fire as it flickers and dies
That once blessed the household and lit up our lives
It shone for the friends and the clinking of glasses
I’ll tend to the flame, you can worship the ashesCapture the wild things and bring them in line
The Longest Johns, “Ashes.” Sentric Music Publishing Ltd, 2020. Lyrics provided by Musixmatch.
And own what was never your right to confine
The lives and the loves and the songs are what matters
I’ll tend to the flame, you can worship the ashes
The temptation to include every lyric from this song…
I can almost hear the sting of R’s voice in that second stanza, “Capture the wild things.” Go ahead. Try to tame a wild creature. Try to tell the wandering players they ought to grow roots and stay planted in one place. Try to trap the heat of a flame.
7. Aviators – Traveler’s Song

If “Ashes” was on the list, I couldn’t leave out “Traveler’s Song.” It’s maybe not quite so much a favorite as “Ashes” is, but it captures again some of that wildness that I wanted my wandering players to have. The road is their home. The warm sun a blessing. Everything troubling either lost behind them or under their feet.
Sing for the lost, for eternal affairs
Sing to raise our spirits in great despair
Through the ashes of oblivion
Quick and unseen like the dragon’s offspring
For we owe no debts and bow to no king
Every war has its costs and we’ve paid
Won by the bond of the party we’ve made…
Broken swords and dragon’s bones
Aviators, “Traveler’s Song.” Tunecore Global, 2018.
Scattered on the way back home
Beating to the sound of clashing steel
When they’re on our heels
Now chant the tales and legends told
Strengthened by the hymns of old
Weathered as this winding road is long
So we sing our traveler’s song
It’s a little more D&D than bardcore, but you get the idea.
…it’s the hand claps again, isn’t it?
I’ll defend it. This type of musical style I’m writing is closely related to folk in that there are no barriers–if you exist, you should have music in your head, your blood, pounding its pulse in your heart. Sure, there will be people who do it better, but is it even so much something to do as something to be? You have hands, clap them. You have a voice, shout if you can’t sing. You have a body, feet to dance. Why would you ever even think of sitting still?
Look, there are people we all want to shut up. But there are so many times I can think of that a crowd or someone in it just–isn’t there. Isn’t feeling it. That’s a no for me. I don’t care if you’re not sure of yourself, if you’re just too shy or formal or polite–not here. Get a turkey leg with grease running down your arm. Run over the fields. Laugh. Sit on the grass. Don’t be afraid to sing off-key or say the wrong thing. Just have some good fun.
It’s so marvelously freeing. That’s all R and I want for you, really. It’s all we’ve got to offer with this silly little escapist book. That you’ll play your music a little too loud, sing with the windows down, that you’ll worry less about who’s watching.
You’ve only got one life, after all. You might as well be a happy fly.
8. Heldom – Myrkr

What’s this? What’s this? We finally get an instrumental track?
The vibes, darling. The vibes. There’s a crow in the background, but even without that, “Myrkr” would be great. It’s got the drumbeat, it’s got the early viol, and it’s got the comforting, almost trancelike repetition of folk music that, in my humble opinion, is the best for writing to. It changes just enough to stay interesting, but not so much to distract you from what you’re plotting.
9. Faouzia – Puppet

I have never listened to this artist before. She popped up on Spotify, and I went–
oh. Oh, this will do nicely.
(yoink).
Oh, tried to dim my flame, I shined brighter
And you tried to dull my blade, well, keep trying
And you tried to pull me under
Said I was too much, you’re just not enoughI was born to dance, dance
Could never tie strings to my hands, hands
You could only love a pu-pu-puppet
I could never be a pu-pu-puppet
I was born to dance, dance
Could never tie strings to my hands, hands
You could only love a pu-pu-puppet
I could never be a pu-pu-puppetHello to the one that I am now
Faouzia, “Puppet,” © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc. Lyrics provided by LyricFind.
I guess it didn’t go how you planned out
Little did you know, I’m my own Gepetto
And now you get to watch me go, go, go
It’s another sassy R song. I could easily see her bopping to this on a modern road trip. She does not like being pushed around.
And there is some puppet imagery, if not regular puppet shows (thanks, Robin Hobb, for reminding me they are essential and must go in as a background feature in Draft II), so this was perfect.
And did we mention that dancing is just the norm in this culture? Because it is. You eat, you drink, you tell stories, and you dance. That’s how your day goes. Sometimes you play chess or the lute. If you’re clever.
10. Hywall – Storm Sailing

More vibes! More instrumental! At a much higher energy level!
Guys, I have no idea what they’re chanting in the background. I hear the “People, are you ready.” The rest is lost on me.
It’s not really as significant as some of the others to the story, but sometimes you just need something with a little more pep.
Especially when you write as late as I do and have the awkward musician habit of “must type at tempo of what we’re listening to.”
11. Reggio – Cathedral

The last addition popped up because it’s under the same production label as Hywall. I listened to it a couple of times before I chucked it onto the pile. Good vibes. Medieval-style choral singing, solo strings, and EDM–one could do worse.
I’m half imagining now R and D taking hands to dance to this one. Not to learn anything new or to perform–just for the fun of it, the feel of it. To do something badly because you love it, and then to flop on the grass laughing afterward.
Or maybe not. Hey, it’s not like I’m in charge here.
And that’s it!
That’s the 2022 soundtrack! Thank you for reading–listening–both?
(cue bookmarkedone shaking head a little)
Thank you for indulging me in my bookish little musician wandering–and for letting me break the short post rule (3,000ish words!!!) just this once on the NaNoWriMo adventures.
I’d love to hear what you thought of the playlist, if you found any new favorites or have suggestions of your own.
Until next time, happy reading!