Top Five Songs on My Writing Playlist

     So I mostly blog about books. But here's the thing: I geek music as much as I geek books! I grew up with a drummer/guitarist for a dad who put drumsticks in my hands when I was 3 and had me riding around in his truck singing along to Tom Petty before kindergarten. Good classic rock has a special place in my heart for sure (I don't want to brag but I've been to 4 Def Leppard concerts...)

     Even though I'm still slightly jealous that my dad got to be a teenager in the 70s (I mean he like lived the Dazed and Confused soundtrack...it's an awesome movie I promise) my coming of age teen years were the early 2000s. Pop punk and emo and sneaking off to Warped Tour and finding new bands on MySpace are fond memories (where I try to forget that I tried super hard to look like Avril Lavigne...black eye liner and studded belts and stick straight hair...*shudders*). 

     I toy around with creative writing from time to time and one of my favorite parts of my writing process is making a playlist for my characters. I like to imagine what song they have to turn up in their car or what song makes them think of their first kiss or what they dance around to when they get ready in the morning. 

     Anyway, taking a break from a book top five this week to post the top five songs on my current project's playlist (and it's a big trip down memory lane for me!). What do you like to listen to when you write?

1) Existentialism on Prom Night by Straylight Run 

"Sing me something soft. Sad and delicate. Or loud and out of key. Sing me anything. Sing like you think no one's listening. You would kill for this. Just a little bit."

Confession: may have been my most overused away message on AIM back in the day  

2) Hands Down by Dashboard Confessional

"The streets were wet and the gate was locked so I jumped it. And I let you in. And you stood at your door with your hands on my waist and you kissed me like you meant it."

This whole song is like one fantastic story. Everyone should remember a day like this. 

3) For Me This Is Heaven by Jimmy Eat World

"Can you still feel the butterflies? Can you still hear the last goodnight? I close my eyes and believe. Wherever you are, an angel for me."

Because no early 2000s pop punk/emo playlist is complete without a Jimmy Eat World song...or five or six. And any kid who loved this genre and claims Clarity wasn't a life changing album is lying. But this song. All the feels.



4) Konstantine by Something Corporate

"It's to Jimmy Eat World and those nights in my car. When the first star you see may not be a star. I'm not your star. Isn't that what you said what you thought this song meant?"

10 minutes of some of the best emo lyrics ever written. I used this song in a driving scene I'm working on! And bonus: this line is a reference to For Me This Is Heaven by Jimmy Eat World!

5) Blue and Yellow by The Used

"Well you never find it if you're looking for it. Should have done something but I've done it enough. By the way your hands were shaking. Rather waste some time with you."

Teenage me thought this should have been the spotlight dance at prom (small town Midwest=prom flooded with cheesy country). It's just a pretty, achingly beautiful song to me. Confession: I saw The Used live again just a few years ago and still debated buying one of their t-shirts that said, "I want to have Bert McCraken's dirty, filthy, bearded babies!" We never grow out of our rock star crushes!

Since I seriously just picked the first five songs on the list, here are some close call bands: Story of the Year, Blink 182, The Starting Line, Brand New, HIM, Coheed & Cambria, Alexisonfire, Yellowcard, The Ataris, Taking Back Sunday, Alkaline Trio, Sugarcult, Jack's Mannequin, My Chemical Romance, Hawthorne Heights, City and Color, AFI, Say Anything, and Sum 41!