I’m pretty sure my husband has developed a particular form of sonic conditioning. It can be triggered by the opening chords of “Rock You Like A Hurricane” by Scorpions. For literal months, that song, along with about thirty other classic rock anthems, dominated the official soundtrack of our lives. It played in the car. While I did laundry. The song even followed me into the shower. He now knows all the words to every song on my Brave Wolf: Ren’s Mixtape Spotify playlist. He never specifically consented to (or objected to) this form of auditory osmosis.

You see, before I was a writer, I was a theatre kid. And you never really recover from being a theatre kid. It’s a permanent cognitive condition, like a latent virus that flares up whenever you see a stage or hear the swell of dramatic music. You just keep finding new stages and different scripts throughout your life. For me, each WIP book is a stage, my characters are the actors, and I, the humble scribe, must do my very best to capture every element I witness as the show goes on. If I’m lucky, the end result is the script—a novel that retells the whole story to you, the valiant reader.

Writing isn’t a detached act of construction. If you’re like me, writing is an act of performance. It’s method acting for authors. As I write, my goal is to inhabit each of my characters, to experience the story through them.

My Secret Writing Weapon

One of my primary tools for this immersive process is a meticulously curated playlist. It’s a character development hack for me, a secret weapon in my universe of urban fantasy and paranormal romance.

For a long time, I kinda just accepted that this worked because it was weird writerly magic, a secret ritual between the imaginary people in my head and me. But besides being a theatre kid, I’m also a STEM kid (or, if you prefer, a STEAM kid), so I had to ask: what behind the magic? There’s gotta be at least one real, neurological reason why a celestial being’s taste in 70s and 80s rock is an effective tool for getting inside his head, right? And, of course, yes: between the screaming guitars, soaring vocals, swelling strings, and cinematic crescendoes, there’s actual science at play.

Character Building: The Angel Who Rocks Out to Scorpions

Let’s talk about Ren. Ren is a Protector, which is the UNITY universe’s version of an angel. Think celestial power, ancient wisdom, and a job description that involves things like maintaining cosmic balance and meddling in mortal affairs. A little more kinnor and a little less overdriven tube amp, at least on the surface.

But Ren? Ahhh, Ren. He’s all personality—goofy, wild, and fairly human despite the whole holo deal. The challenge with getting into Ren’s head is in accessing the glorious, hilarious juxtaposition at the core of his character. He’s witnessed the rise and fall of empires, can travel through space and time, and will absolutely air-guitar his way through “Carry On Wayward Son” whether or not anyone is watching.

An angel rocking out to Ozzy? I mean, come on. That’s the good stuff. That’s character, and the goal of my process is to fully embrace every quirk this powerful, ancient being throws at me. I, myself, am not a classic rock aficionado. Don’t get me wrong, I love every song on Ren’s playlist. But there’s a reason he’s the only character (so far) who’s had a set of songs explicitly devoted to him. I needed to live inside the specific, wonderful contradiction of Ren long enough to put him on the page. In his case, music was my way of finding the most relatable parts of his character.

The Science of Music

Why Music Works For Writers

So why does immersing myself in Ren’s music for months on end add to my understanding of his character? It turns out my approach has a fundamental, biological basis. A powerful, primal link exists between music, memory, and emotion. It’s honestly kind of a goldmine for anyone interested in the psychology of creativity.¹²³⁴

Your Brain On Music

In case you didn’t already know this: your brain is a fascinating, squiggly little machine. One of the weirdest and most wonderful features is how it processes music. Your auditory cortex is the starting line when you listen to a song. From there, the signal takes a lil road trip. Music modulates activity in core emotion and reward networks. These regions include the amygdala and hippocampus, among others.⁴

There are lots of theories around this, but I like a basic example many of us have experienced before: enjoying music with others.

Surviving Bear Attacks With Group Jam Sessions

We know music has been around for a long, long time, and it’s often historically depicted in group settings. Community seems useful for survival, and music brings people together. So, way back in the day, if your brain was all, “Alone is bad because I might get eaten by a bear!” and, “Together is better because it’s harder for a bear to eat all eight of us at once!” you might feel good about not getting eaten and decide that events that cause groups to form are good. So you and your seven closest companions go see the original queens of the Stone Age, don’t get eaten, and now we know music is good.

In less silly terms: your brain actually lets music alter your feelings in real time on purpose. It’s the reason a sad song can leave you feeling gutted, and a powerful song can make you feel like you could take on the world.⁴

A Playlist Is Like A Time Machine

Think about it. You hear a song from your teen years, and you might be instantly transported back to the summer when that song was everywhere. You might even feel that old teenage angst or visualize the band posters on your bedroom wall. That sense of nostalgia is your brain using music to unlock a specific emotional and autobiographical memory—what researchers call “music-evoked autobiographical memories”¹³.

A playlist for a character can work in the same way, becoming an emotional trigger.¹³ Music helps me start priming my brain for a character’s inner world before I ever write a word. As soon as I come across a new character in my mind, I start a playlist and begin adding songs that reflect that character for me. It’s like a little sonic paintbrush, adding depth and texture to the part of my brain where that character lives. It may be years before I bring that character to the page, but music helps establish the emotional subtext, the mood, the very feeling-tone of that character’s existence.¹³⁴

The Dopamine Hit of Motivation

Listening to music you dig triggers the release of dopamine in your brain. It’s a bit of a neurochemical hack. Pleasurable, familiar music can engage your brain’s reward wiring, which is associated with dopamine pathways, so even when I’m plotting up angsty bits, I can still get little bursts of motivation that keep me tethered to the work.²⁴ It creates a positive feedback loop that makes me want to stay in that character’s headspace, which is great because A) y’all know I like to write some angsty characters and B) writing a book takes a l-o-n-g time!²⁴ Little hits of joy here and there along the way help keep me grounded in the journey. This is the kind of nerdy creative stuff I love.

How To Hack Your Brain To Inhabit A Character Using Music

The Science Behind The Method

So, yep. I’m essentially hacking my own brain using the principles of music and memory to deliberately induce an emotional state that connects me to a character. Research on music-evoked emotion and autobiographical memory legit supports the idea that music can act as a reliable cue for emotional states and personal memory. So when I’m thinking about the character and feeling with them, music builds a surprisingly solid bridge between them and me, strengthening my ability to write them authentically.¹³⁴ Science is so wild, y’all!

Let’s look at a few tracks on Ren’s playlist to see how it might work in practice.

Pining And Frustration

When we first settle into Brave Wolf, things are, to put it mildly, a mess. Ren, this Protector who has been around the universe a time or two, is still firmly stuck in the lie that he and Fourt can’t be together. Ren is holding back for so many reasons, both his own and ones he puts on Fourt. Fourt has been through so much trauma, and Ren is convinced he can’t give Fourt what he truly deserves.

The Rolling Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” evoked the vibe of pining frustration for me. (I should say here, it’s not always what the song is about, specifically, and more about the overall energy it gives me.) The music bypasses logic, going straight for that feeling of near-miss longing. I don’t have to try to get to Ren’s angst because I can listen to the Stones, and the mood comes to me. That melancholic, almost resigned intro, and Mick Jagger’s world-weary initial delivery… sigh.

It’s the perfect beginning for a being who could almost have everything but can’t have the one thing he wants most. There’s the bit of hopefulness, too, though: you get what you need. And that’s exactly where we’re headed with the story—Ren needs to grow and change before he can ultimately get what he wants. By the time our fellas finally get their HEA, Ren has gotten what he needs and what he wants.

Cosmic Daddy Issues

Then, there’s Ren’s relationship with his father. It’s terrible. We’re talking cosmic-level daddy issues, and not the good kind. Ren’s father is a high-ranking Protector who insists his son be a certain kind of man—a cold, detached Protector who follows orders without question. Ren can’t be the person his father demands, and that’s a huge part of Ren’s story, which is how “Carry On Wayward Son” by Kansas found its way on the playlist. He doesn’t fit in the Realm (heaven, kinda), and he isn’t made for Earth. There’s a whole journey he has to take.

I actually just recently learned that this song was a bit of a path-finding autobiographical tune for Kerry Livgren, so it feels even more fitting as I’m writing this than it did when I was writing Brave Wolf. The driving, determined energy of the music and the lyrics evoke the image of Ren carving his own path, even if it means alienating himself from the life he has known.

And when Ren finally digs his heels in and defies dear ol’ Dad, AC/DC’s “Highway To Hell” is the musical middle finger of the playlist.

The Defiant Act of Love

But what about love? Ren and Fourt’s last love song on the playlist is “Heroes” by David Bowie. It’s not such a sweet, simple love song, is it? It’s a defiant declaration of a song. And it fits them—two broken people from very different backgrounds finding strength in each other, standing against the world and against their pasts. The triumphant sentiment of this song helped me access the sheer scale of this couple’s love, and the feeling that their relationship is big enough to heal anything, big enough to defy the universe if it has to.

Sounds like a Happy Ending

And finally, in the epilogue, Ren and Fourt share a moment of innocent, unadulterated joy. The song at that point in the playlist is “Sweet Child O’ Mine” by Guns N’ Roses. The iconic opening riff is pure excitement and goodness. It always makes me feel optimistic—like my heart could explode because it’s so sweet and hopeful, and that’s exactly the energy I needed to write the ending.

World-Building With Music

As I mentioned above, Ren is the first character to have his own special playlist. But I use this same technique when I’m building out each of my books. The music on my book playlists defines the vibe of each story. Sometimes it’s moody alt-rock, industrial tracks, classical, or even sacred music.

The Soundtrack of a Scene

When I’m envisioning a specific scene—say, that party scene in Blood Wolf where Asher and Em dance together at Em’s birthday party—I want songs that will fit with what I’m seeing in my mind. In that case, the music (”Wolf” by Losco) is mysterious, throbbing, pulsing, seductive… Yeah, those descriptors alone are enough to give you an idea of how that scene feels, right?

It’s Not You, It’s Me

While I do usually share my playlists with y’all, they’re not originally for you. They’re for me. They’re my way of heightening the movie in my mind, giving it extra emotional texture. You don’t need to know that Diesel’s quiet, daily pre-dawn routine was inspired by “I Just Don’t Think I’ll Ever Get Over You” by Colin Hay, because you’ll be there with him in those gentle moments as he makes coffee.

I put you by his side when he gazes out the window to watch the first light touch the lake, and his thoughts turn, unbidden, to topics he’d prefer to avoid. The music gives me something to attach to my mental images, and it signals to my brain that it’s okay to wander around in all those made-up spaces, checking in on my bevy of imaginary friends.

One of these days, I need to share the UNITY universe playlist I made with songs for each location in my world. I think it would be pretty cool for y’all to see what music comes to my mind when I think about all the places themselves, apart from their roles in each book.

The Weird Side Effect of Method Writing

Honestly, if playlist immersion ever become a recognized Olympic sport, I’ll be the flag bearer, clutching a mixtape like it’s my last scrap of dignity. This kind of deep immersion, my method writing, has its side effects. There’s the aforementioned spousal ear conditioning, of course. But there are other things, like when I start talking like my characters, using their turns of phrase in casual conversation. I still haven’t shaken Graham’s “holy hell” or Em’s “ohmigod”, and it’s been years, y’all—years. It’s just how I talk now.

While writing Em, I craved birthday cake constantly (which, to be fair, is pretty standard for me, but not quite as often).

I also start to see the world through their lens. When I was writing Avery, I actually walked taller and carried myself more like a badass. I definitely wish that stuck harder than the occasional “for Fate’s sake” that pops out of my mouth. I guess creative empathy goes so deep it can rewire your own personality, and while it’s pretty weird, it is, without a doubt, one of the most effective ways I know to do the job.

What Happens When A Book Is Done?

And then, the book is done! You type “The End,” and (after many rounds of revisions and other writerly tasks) you send it out to the world. And the playlist is left sitting there, a monument to years of your life. What do you do with it? For me, the playlists hang around on Spotify. I can’t delete them—that would be a betrayal, like erasing a part of my soul. But I also don’t revisit them often, because I’ve usually moved on to another project, and the dopamine hits come from that direction instead.

A Decade in Song

In officially coming back to The Black Wolf Series after so long, I have been relistening, and it’s been a wild romp through nearly ten years of my writing life. The songs function as a time capsule, chronicling the emotional journey of my writing career, like my own (literal) story arc. An archaeological record of my creative process.

These playlists bring it all flooding back: the angst, the love, the scene imagery, and even what was happening in my life while those scenes were growing. It’s like opening my journals from back then (except the entries are all sung, this one by Bon Jovi, that one by Dashboard Confessional). This is definitely a strange, powerful, and deeply personal kind of magic.

Your Turn: Find A Character’s Anthem

So, let me turn it over to you. Whether you’re a reader, a writer, a little of both, or none of the above (if you’re none of the above, I’m honestly equal parts delighted and confused that you’ve found yourself here, but stick around for a free chapter), you can play this game. Think about your own life—what’s the first song you remember hearing after a major heartbreak? The anthem that blasted in your best friend’s car every day that one summer? The ballad that makes you think of the person you love most in the world?

We all have these emotional anchors that connect to our souls. So, do it for yourself. Or, if that’s too close to home, pick a character you love—from a book, a movie, your D&D campaign, whatevs. What would be on their playlist? Which song plays when they win? When they lose? How about when they’re fighting for what they want? It’s a way to connect with a story (your own or otherwise) on a deeper level. Go ahead, make the playlist. You don’t have to show it to anyone. It can be your secret, a private little key to a world you love. You might honestly be surprised at what you discover.

Music, Memory, and Story

In the end, my playlist habit is maybe just a quirky ritual, but now we know it roots itself in the way our minds are wired. Music can shape emotional state, and those emotional reactions can influence creative thinking.²⁴ Either way, it’s one of the many tools in my arsenal, and it’s a powerful one because it uses the science of emotion to influence my connection to the character. It’s about using a universal language—music—to understand the specific, unique emotional world of a few characters, even if one of them is a fictional angel with a killer record collection and a complicated family history.

It’s how I get to the truth of a character. The reader doesn’t need to know that Ren’s internal monologue during a fight scene is fueled by the raw power of AC/DC. They get to feel the energy. Readers don’t need to know that Ren’s love for Fourt is set to a David Bowie tune in my head. They get to feel the epic, defiant power of true love. The playlist can be a totally private tool that creates a public result. It makes for a more consistent, authentic, and emotionally resonant character arc.

The Price We Pay For Art

And hey, if it means my husband can now sing the whole catalog of The Runaways without missing a single word, and has developed a passionate opinion on the relative merits of Led Zeppelin IV versus Physical Graffiti, well… One day, when he’s humming these songs under his breath during a meeting, I hope he remembers this is simply the price of art. He deserves a medal, y’all. Maybe even a parade.

If you’ve made it this far and you’re curious about the angel who rocks out to Heart and the wolf shifter who puts up with him, you can join them in Brave Wolf. Start The Black Wolf Series with a free first chapter right here. Come see what all the noise is about 😘

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Sources

1. Belfi, Amy M., Brett Karlan, and Daniel Tranel. “Music Evokes Vivid Autobiographical Memories.” Memory 24, no. 7 (2016): 979–989.
2. He, Wu-Jing, Wan-Chi Wong, and Anna N.-N. Hui. “Emotional Reactions Mediate the Effect of Music Listening on Creative Thinking: Perspective of the Arousal-and-Mood Hypothesis.” Frontiers in Psychology 8 (2017): 1680.
3. Janata, Petr. “The Neural Architecture of Music-Evoked Autobiographical Memories.” Cerebral Cortex 19, no. 11 (2009): 2579–2594.
4. Koelsch, Stefan. “Brain Correlates of Music-Evoked Emotions.” Nature Reviews Neuroscience 15 (2014): 170–180.