When I was first writing Hurricane Baby in those days right after Hurricane Katrina, I listened to two CD’s obsessively. We were members of the BMG Music Club back then, and we had ordered INXS Greatest Hits and Duran Duran Greatest Hits in the weeks before the hurricane hit, and they were delivered to our mailbox once mail service was finally restored to our area, in the first batch of mail we got.
So those songs became part of the backdrop of those days following the disaster and were very closely associated in my mind with my emotional state after the hurricane–terrified of what we had become as a society, traumatized by the endless news feeds showing the horror wreaked on the entire state of Mississippi and the eastern half of Louisiana, and desperate for a return to sanity and normalcy in my spirit. And whenever I worked on the novel that my story was becoming–I put those CD’s on the stereo.
So whenever I returned to the manuscript to retool it, revise it, revisit it, I put those CD’s on to try to recreate the vibe of my emotional state when I first conceived and wrote the book. That included this latest set of revisions, the ones that finally got the book sold.
So now I am thinking about my new project, which I am currently calling When I Went Crazy. I decided that since playing mood music in the background worked so well for writing Hurricane Baby, I’d try it with this one as well!
I tried to remember the music I’d played while writing the thesis for my graduate program and just couldn’t come up with anything I had stuck with that inspired me to write. Then I realized that with me concentrating on the time period I was going to cut my thesis down to, it was going to be a lot darker than the thesis. The theme of my thesis had been hope, that there is life after receiving such a diagnosis. But I realized that to accurately convey my emotions during the time the book would cover, I was going to wander into some scary territory.
So I set about putting together a playlist on Spotify that would reflect the vibe I wanted to create in the new project. I started with my favorite songs from the two CD’s I had used to write Hurricane Baby–then I let the suggested songs I was given after each addition govern the other choices. I have songs from Robert Palmer, Simple Minds, Prince, and several other 80’s groups, because I will be doing some flashbacking to when I was a teenager and listening to those songs. Other songs from when I was even younger include some of Elvis Presley at his bluesiest best. Anything the suggestions list had on it with a harder edge to them that would capture that feeling of helplessness I had watching myself fall completely apart went on the list.
When I finished, I had two-and-a-half hours of music listed out. I never write for longer than that at a time nowadays with my job, so I felt like that was a perfect length. I labeled it “Writing Mix–When I Went Crazy” and stored it on my phone. I was pleased with myself. I will reserve it for when I am actively writing on anything related to the memoir. Off to the races!
Edit; Selling Hurricane Baby? That playlist was Hamilton the Original Cast Album. “I am not throwing away my shot!” But I’ll save that story for the book tour. . . 🙂
Julie Liddell Whitehead 