What do I do when I get writer’s block? As a writer, that question comes up a lot. Well, I listen to music. Does anyone else get creative when listening to great music? I feel like creativity inspires creativity. At different times, different styles inspire me. But music with beautiful lyrics seep into my creative lobe and draw out some of my best work. Music emotionally charges me. It picks me up and set me right in the middle of a scene, a world yet to be created, a conversation spoken in my imagination only to be transferred to the page.

If you are currently reading Shrapnel, or are already re-reading it (some of you are!), or are just about to start, maybe you’ll connect with it all the more if you listen to the music that inspired it. 

Here are some of the songs I had on constant repeat while writing these pages. Of course some are old, some are new, some are haunting and some are anthems. Maybe you’ll find little pieces of each of the characters in the rhymes and rhythms.

• Broken by Seether, feat. Amy Lee
• Unsteady by X Ambassadors
• Golden Leaves by Passenger
• human by Christina Perri
• Boston by Augustana
• Sound the Alarm by Howie Day
• Not About Angels by Birdy
• We Dance (Live) by Steffany Gretzinger
• Collide by Howie Day
• Fix You by Coldplay
• Alive by Sia
• Stand By You by Rachel Platten
• See You Again by Wiz Khalifa, Charlie Puth
• Eavesdrop by The Civil Wars
• Unconditionally by Katy Perry
• Photograph by Ed Sheeran
• Say Something by A Great Big World, Christina Aguilera
• i hate u, i love u by gnash, feat. Olivia O’Brien

If you have a Spotify account (or you can open a free one), you can link directly to the playlist I’ve created with these songs. Maybe they’ll inspire you into creativity too.

P.S. If you haven’t snagged your copy of Shrapnel yet, click here to order yours today!