Music Tracks That Inspire Me To Write

Some authors are motivated by caffeine. Well, caffeine and I have never gotten along, so I have found a different motivation: music! Since the story of my life plays out in my head with a background of epic music and sweeping soundtracks, it's only natural that that type of music fuels my fiction. So here it is: the top ten favorite songs that inspire my writing.

Marcus Warner – “Wings” from the album Liberation

If you could imagine the entire world joining in a song of exuberant praise, this would probably be that song. Overflowing with hope and energy, this piece allows the brass to carry much of the melody, while the strings paint sweeping vistas in the background. 

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Steve Jablonsky – “The Battle Room” from the film Ender’s Game

If I could make the image of northern lights into a song, it would probably be this song, because it suggests to me shifting curtains of green, blue, and purple against a field of velvet black. The track starts slow, but continue to listen. When the solo violin comes in with deep drums, it always sends chills down my back.

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Murray Gold – “I am the Doctor” from television show Doctor Who

The beginning sounds quite heroic and vast, but the part in the middle spins off into a quirky, impetuous brass section, then fuses the two in a contradictory blend very like the Doctor himself. It makes me want to do daring feats and laugh uproariously at the same time.

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Ivan Torrent – “Icarus” feat. Julie Elven

Julie Elven’s voice infuses this track with emotion; I can almost envision a flight through moonlight clouds, then a solo spiral into daytime brightness.

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Harry Gregson-Williams – “Only the Beginning of the Adventure” from Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe soundtrack

If you are familiar with the character of Aslan the lion, then this track is basically Aslan’s character in a song: beautiful, deadly, gentle, and kingly. This track begins with a rustic tone on a solo flute, against a backdrop of tingling, silver-toned instruments (a harp and a celeste?). Then it broadens into epic vocals and brass, with flying strings and the glory of a returning king.

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Mark Petrie – “Invigoration” from album Posthaste Music Presents: Best of Mark Petrie

If a king were to ride onto a conquered field on a black horse, he would probably choose this theme. The drumbeats and percussive strings gallop like racing hooves, and a full chorus sings a full, wordless melody of victory.

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Audiomachine – “Redemption” from album Chronicles

The title seems very appropriate to me, because I imagine a man striding through bars of light and shadow, emerging from the depths of a kingdom of darkness, his spirit weary but unconquered. The martial beat bleeds with the voices of strings and a wordless chorus.

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Epic Soul Factory (David de la Marena) – “The Lost World”

Intensity builds in the anticipation—and then the fulfillment—of finally gazing upon an ancient city, lost in a tangle of green. Epic soundtrack fuses with ethnic aura in a track that stirs emotions in a bittersweet way. 

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E.S. Posthumus – “Nara” from album Unearthed

This track makes me think of a story set in the Orient, that breaks out of the familiar “Arabian Nights” mold into a story of both soul-searching and epic adventure. I am always fascinated by a soundtrack spin from an ethnic base.

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Jesper Kyd – “Aphelion” from video game Assassin’s Creed

Never played the game (and probably never will), but this track, with its driving rhythm and solo voice, is plain invigorating. You can almost see a light-footed youth dashing through a silhouetted forest in the early morning mist, untame as the wind.