AVERIL ROBERTSON

In one of the early So You Want to be a Writer podcast episodes by the Australian Writers’ Centre, Valerie Khoo and Allison Tait talk about how some people need to have particular circumstances in place before they can write. For example, absolute silence, or a special place (an isolated cabin perched on a cliff overlooking the ocean, perhaps). But if you keep waiting for the perfect circumstance, you may never lay down any words. I heard their message loud and clear. 

And here’s the thing. I’m an extremely busy person. I work full-time as a technical writer and knowledge manager. I have a tween who is very active in the performing arts. If I wait for the perfect circumstances to write, I’ll simply never do it. Instead, I’m grabbing the five minutes while my daughter gets changed after her swimming lesson, or the three minutes while I wait for her to come out of musical theatre class. The ten minutes while I wait for a pot of water to boil. So, how to mentally shift from real life to the world of your writing quickly and get in the zone? For me, it’s a playlist. 

As I wrote my first book, I kept having songs from New Zealand (where it is set) pop into my head. The songs from my childhood, my angsty years at high school, my uni years. Songs that have leaped out at me years ago came back as my lead character got in my head, and I got in hers. And so I built a playlist. 

I realised I was subconsciously aligning certain songs with certain scenes, certain chapters. That gave me a playlist order. During rewrites, I could turn on the song I’d come to associate with that section and there I was, back in the moment and ready to go. This was especially useful when I needed to match my emotional state to that of my character to write her authentically. For example, there is one song that is an immediate journey to the start of the book. One line in and I am ready to write.

This obviously won’t work for everyone. Some people need absolute silence to write. I’m lucky; music helps rather than hinders me. I have learned instruments since I was five years old: recorder (two kinds!), ’cello, clarinet, flute, vocals, keys, saxophone. Music has always had a deep and immediate impact on me. Certain chord progressions. A life-changing bridge leading to a key change. Those songs where you must turn up the stereo as loud as possible and lie flat on your back with your eyes shut to listen.

And sometimes, if I’m well and truly blocked, I just need to belt out ‘I Have Confidence’ in my best Julie Andrews voice. That works too.