Why I Use Music In My Writing by Lily Luchesi

Art saves. It’s not just a slogan. It’s true. Even before I could read, I was always surrounded by music and I loved it. Music was happiness in my childish mind.

As I got older, immersed myself in books, fandom, and other things, music was always there. Sure, I had broadened my tastes dramatically, but music was the only constant in my life. I was the emo teen in 2006 who ringed her eyes in black mascara and blasted The Black Parade in her bedroom. I grew up, but I am still that girl inside (and outside: I still love my black mascara).

When I started writing professionally, I found concentrating to be very difficult, so I had it suggested to me to put in my headphones and leave music on in the background. I went from barely 600 words written per day to over two thousand.

Music is many things, enjoyment being the main one. But it is so much more. It is the expression of emotions that many of us cannot convey. It is life, love, grief, pain, anger, politics, and so much more. Music is everything.

I listened to so much music while writing both books in my Paranormal Detectives Series, that I made a playlist for it on YouTube, because everyone should be able to feel what I felt as I wrote about Danny and Angelica’s heartbreak and struggles while listening to these same songs.

So, if you’re in love with music like I am, be proud and own it. Whether you fall asleep with “Clair De Lune” on repeat, jam to Rascal Flatts, rock out to 80’s hair metal, twerk to Beyonce, dance with Demi Lovato, or get emo with Fall Out Boy and Twenty One Pilots, own it. Enjoy it. Know that these people are shaping your life without ever realizing it.

Music is the most primal form of art, it is love and light as well as hate and darkness, and everything in between. It helped make Stake-Out and Miranda’s Rights happen.

Please enjoy listening to this playlist as you read the Paranormal Detectives Series. I hope it enhances your reading experience just as it enhanced my writing experience.

* Youtube Playlist *

* Watch the trailer *

Danny and Miranda sat in uncomfortable silence for a few moments, processing everything they had heard and what Danny had seen, thanks to those damned powers of his.

“Was it hard for you? Seeing it all firsthand?” Miranda asked.

He nodded. “It was intense. It was brutal and pitiful. If I had a choice, I would give up these powers forever. Angelica says they’re a blessing, but I say they’re a curse. You can’t possibly know what it’s like to have these visions. To be there, in the thick of it, watching it as it happens, knowing every evil thing said and thought. It’s like living a nightmare. Only one of my visions has ever been good.”

Miranda went and stood behind her former fiancé, placing her cold hands on his shoulders and giving him a light squeeze. “If I could take your pain away, I would.”

“If you could, I’d pay you all the money Dad left me,” he replied.

Miranda was silent, contemplating. “I could do it, you know.”

“Do what?” he asked, turning around in the chair to face her.

“Make the powers go away. Make you not feel any of these pesky fears.” Her voice was nonchalant, but her eyes were sharp. He could see that this had been a planned confrontation somehow, and he was wary. For wanting to be a lawyer, she could never hold her cards very close to her chest. That was why he’d never taught her to play poker.

“How?” He was a former cop. He could get anyone to admit anything and he planned to make Miranda spill her guts. He knew it would be easy. She had that smug look on her face he remembered from their dating years. That look meant she was ready to brag.

Her cool fingers traced along his throat, leaving behind an uncomfortable sensation.

“Let me turn you. You’ll lose your powers and fears, and then we could be together…forever. Just you and me, like it was always meant to be.”