And So It Begins…
I’m headed back into the writer’s cave.
Actually, I’ve already been in there for a while. If you follow me, you may have noticed I’ve taken a few solo writing retreats to the countryside of Dijon, Trouville, and Tournus near Mâcon. About a month ago, I signed a contract for my next book that explores the idea of surrounding ourselves with beauty and takes a deeper dive into French design. Hurray!!! I got another book deal!
I’m not one of those people with a tidy list of books lined up to write. (I mean, I have loads of ideas, but 99% of them are definitely not marketable.) It took me a long time to land on this one.
As exciting as it is to begin a new writing project, I’ll be honest…it can also feel daunting. There’s a rush of joy when my agent and editor say yes to the concept, but then I find myself thinking, Wait… do I even remember how to write an entire book? So many wordssssss! So many photoshoots to produce! And a year of editing. What have I gotten myself into?!?!?!
I love writing. But I’ll admit, sometimes it’s painful.
Every book or long-format essay I’ve written feels like it was authored by a different version of me—almost like an out-of-body experience. Sometimes styling tables or events feels this way also. Less pain, but different versions of myself. Maybe that’s what happens when you quiet the noise and dive deep into the creative process. You tap into a different self entirely to bring your work to life.
I know I’m not alone in this strange disorientation. I recently listened to a podcast interview with therapist and author Galit Atlas on On Becoming with Zeva Bellel, and she spoke to this exact feeling. She said, “When I wrote it, I was not the same self. I wasn’t in the same self-state as the person who promotes the book. It’s a very different self-state. And I almost forget how painful the writing process was.”
Now, Galit is writing about heavy, emotional subjects like inherited trauma, while I’m writing about joy, beauty, and the way history and culture layer themselves into the French aesthetic. These are very different topics, but the same intense process of creating. Even in writing about French culture, joy and beauty, I find myself doing deep inner work while constantly brushing away the voices of doubt and the looming fear of what others might think.
To get into a better headspace for this book, I made myself a list of potential places to write (which I won’t share because I’m far too chatty and if I see you, we’ll end up talking instead of writing!). I also reached out to some of my writer friends to ask what they listen to—or don’t listen to—while they write.
Back in graduate school, I wrote my thesis jamming out to Jamiroquai and Prince’s B-sides. These days, I need music with no lyrics but moody, cinematic vibes to help me focus. For JOIE, I listened to the Bridgerton soundtracks and The Theory of Everything on repeat. Emotional scores somehow help my words flow.
Below, I asked a few of my writer friends for their music choices when they need to concentrate and get into the flow. I hope their responses spark something useful or inspiring for your own process.
And if you’ve noticed me posting lots of beautiful moments from everyday life in France lately, just know that’s part of my process too. I’m deep in research and finding inspiration to keep me joyfully tucked away in my writing cave.
Oh, and please be sure to share what you listen to in the comments section!!
Lindsey Tramuta
Author of The New Paris and The New Parisienne
You can find her on Instagram here or subscribe to her newsletter The New Paris Dispatch .
“If I listen to anything while I work, it’s jazz! Instrumental jazz because I can’t focus with vocals. I feel swept away by the pianos and trumpets and saxophones, as if I’m in another time and place entirely. A white noise machine might serve a similar purpose to a degree but it’s far less evocative !”
David Lebovitz
Author of 11 (!!) books, and the new edition of his book Ready for Dessert is available for pre-order now here.
You can find him on Instagram here or subscribe to his newsletter David Lebovitz Newsletter.
“Right now, I’m listening to the B-52s. I like music that feel very “motivational” and my tastes are pretty eclectic. So I might listen to Pitbull, Jamiroquai, or David Guetta, then tune into something more mellow like Darren Hayes or Dionne Warwick.
When I want a mix of music, and don’t want to think about it, I often tune into FIP on Radio France, which was originally designed to destress people stuck in traffic in France, and is now a super eclectic mix of every type of music imaginable. You never know what song they’ll play next. I’m also a big of fan of online radio Soma FM from San Francisco. I love their station ‘Left Coast 70s: Mellow album rock from the seventies.’It’s relaxing and is pretty much the perfect thing to play in the background when I’m writing.
I love Soma FM and FIP. They have several different stations now
Romain made me stop listening to the Left Coast 70s rock, but it calms me down if I’ve been reading the news.”
Pamela Druckerman
Journalist and author of several books, including the New York Times Bestseller, Bringing Up Bébé. You can find her on Instagram here or check out her website for more information here.
“What I listen to when I work is...the sound of the open-air food market just opposite my office; the half-dozen delivery men who gather on the bench downstairs; the policemen on horseback who pass by each morning; the occasional siren; many cars and trucks; the clatter of plates in nearby cafés. I write about France, so it's probably not terrible that my ambient music is...Paris itself!”
Jane Bertch
Founder of La Cuisine Paris and the author of The French Ingredient based in Paris. You can find her on Instagram here or check out her newsletter Prompts From Paris.
“What I usually listen to is classical music or binural beats. I cannot listen to anything with words!”
Amy Plum
Art historian and author of many YA fantasy fiction novels based in Paris. You can learn more about Amy here and follow her newsletter Vivi Chassonville.
"When I am first-drafting, I listen to movie soundtracks with no lyrics. Either that or the same playlist over and over again so I’m not listening to the lyrics and trying to figure them out. After that, re-writing or editing I can listen to anything, and usually choose indie rock or music from the ‘90s, just to have background music. With ADHD, music takes up one of several channels that are running in my mind at once, and helps me focus.”
Susanna Schrobsdorff
Journalist and Editor-at-large for TIME based in Paris. You can follow her on Instagram here and her newsletter It's Not Just You.
“Because of my raging ADD, I usually need to start by putting headphones on and listening to one of the brainwave sound apps that use specific beats to help you focus. Once I'm into it, I'll go to a bluesy, folky, funky playlist with people like Valerie June. Carsie Blanton, Father John Misty, Eels, Taj Mahal, Macy Gray and maybe Zaz. And that playlist almost always kicks off with an unusual, cheery song by The Who called ‘'Blue, Red and Grey,’ just to remind myself that this is supposed to be fun. :)”
C.I. Aki
Poet, writer and educator based in Nashville. You can follow him on Instagram here and his newsletter For The No Ones.
“Mine is nothing. I like silence. What I often do before I write is play music, really loud, like ‘Flamenco Sketches,’ and then hit pause so the silence rushes in around me and clears my head to write. I like to maintain that silence while I write if I can.”
Emiko Davies
Food writer, educator and cookbook author based in Tuscany. Be sure to check out her cookbooks here and pre-order her newest book The Japanese Pantry here. You can follow her on Instagram here, check out her newsletter Notes from Emiko’s Kitchen, and absolutely check out her culinary experiences in Italy and Japan here.
“So I actually tend to prefer writing in silence. I think that I concentrate better. But when I’m in cookbook-writing mode and I’m doing something like typing out my recipes (I’m a pencil and paper girl and at a certain point I will start transferring the handwritten recipes to a word document), then I might put on something jazzy like Billie Holiday or Nina Simone. Depending on my mood, even a jazzy version of music from Studio Ghibli.”
Robinne Lee
Actress, producer and author based in Paris. You can check out her website and best-selling book, The Idea of You, here, and follow her on Instagram here.
”I love creating playlists for my various writing projects. It helps me to set the tone of the piece and the scenes I’m working on. In the beginning, when I’m creating something new, I need stillness and so I tend not to listen to music while I’m still finding my characters’ voices. I like to write out loud, reading and re-reading every word I put on the page, and that becomes its own form of music. Years of acting and working in theater has made me very aware of meter and rhythm in both poetry and prose, and so I sometimes need to write in silence. Once I’ve established my characters’ voices and the tone, I often rely on music to set a mood. It’s that extra element that completes a scene for me. And once I’ve decided on that specific piece of music, I will listen to it over and over and over again while writing a scene. It becomes the score for me. I listened to Stan Smith’s “Stay With Me” over 400 times writing the first love scene between Hayes and Solène in THE IDEA OF YOU. I can’t hear that song today, 11 years after originally writing it, and not be taken right back to room 1004 of the Crosby Street Hotel. What I love about having these playlists is that they become an emotional map. And if I have to return to edit a scene, months even years, after writing it, I can cue up the song I originally wrote it to and be right back in that frame of mind. Music provides an emotional shortcut. It puts me exactly where I need to be.”
Alexandra Julhiet
Scriptwriter and author of six novels based in Paris. You can check out her newest novel, La Nuit de l’Ours, here and follow her on Instagram here.
“When I am writing, I usually don’t listen to music. It is disturbing. But sometimes I love Mozart and Springsteen when I need inspiration! Classical music is great. When I need motivation, electromusic does the job! House of Detroit first!”
Charlotte Druckman
Journalist, editor, food writer, and author based in New York City. You can check out her past books here as well as her latest books Women on Food and Kitchen Remix here. You can follow her on Instagram here and read her newsletter The Sweethearts.
“Figuring out my working (literally) relationship with music has been a challenge only because I am rarely NOT listening to music--either it's actively playing, coming out of a speaker of some kind, or I'm hearing a song in my head. I also love to sing. That's not really conducive to writing. But I do find I want music on while I'm drafting copy.
So, I turn to music that isn't going to make me start singing along. I also like to choose music that I imagine is going to get me into a state of flow, even if vicariously (via some form of magical thinking). Jazz, of course, is a big one for that. Give me Charles Mingus, Duke Ellington, Art Tatum, Thelonius Monk, Fats Waller, Ahmad Jamal, Count Basie, Max Roach, Louis Armstrong, John Coltrane or Lester Young. (Yes, Miles Davis, too.) I will also add Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey to this group; they're among my favorite vocalists and their voices take on the same tone and style of any other instrument. Classical music is another option here--pianists Evgeny Kissin or Yuja Wang could play nearly anything and I'd be happy and productive (except maybe for Shostakovich, which, nope); same goes for violinist Hilary Hahn. Not classical, but I also like to listen to Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto while writing, and (yes, I know there are lyrics) to the Anglo-French pop-ish Stereolab, Pink Martini, and recent Björk (early Bjork and I'm going to start singing).
For editing, I go to one Johann Sebastian Bach for his mathematical rigor. Mozart and Beethoven sometimes, too. I like to pretend they're helping organize my brain in just the right way.
I should mention that in the midst of all this, there are mandatory SING breaks, sometimes with dancing. I operate on a rewards system. If I write enough, I get to sing and usually, to have a cookie.”
Please share what you listen to when you write in the comments !
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