Writing Progress #1 - Making a Playlist

Keeping myself accountable to finishing a project, and letting you all in on the process.

I am notoriously bad at completing writing projects. I get very excited at the beginning and then I burn out just before the end and nothing ever gets finished.

I’m trying to get better at that, and what I’m finding is a horrible lack of keeping myself accountable. I am terrible at deadlines if I’m the one creating them. That’s not to say that there are deadlines for this project, because there really aren’t. What’s happening here is that I’m writing a play for no reason other than I want to. I wasn’t commissioned, I wasn’t asked to do this, it’s not for a festival or anything like that. It’s just me writing something I’m excited about. But without some sort of outside influence, it’ll never get done. I also just enjoy sharing my creativity with others.

So, here I am, sharing it with you. I’ve never really tried to fully catalog my writing process, and I thought that might be fun to share and explore and let you other writers take from it what you might also find helpful. Truly, my own process is a mix and match of advice I’ve gotten over the years from so many other writers and teachers.

This first part of the process is one that is specific to me, but came out of a particular exercise I did in undergrad: Making a writing playlist for each project.

Back when I was a sophomore in college, I was in a playwriting class and my professor gave us all prompts specific to something random we had each presented on that day. I had chosen to present on the art of making playlists for driving. She asked me to name an artist I usually include, and I told her about my love for Florence + the Machine. The prompt she then gave me was to write a play that was based entirely on Florence + the Machine songs, and then further challenged me to only listen to that artist while writing.

What I learned from that prompt was how much I love writing with a playlist in mind — whether it’s something I think the characters would listen to or just something to set the mood, it really helps me stay grounded in the world I’m creating.

With all of this in mind, I’d like to share with you all the playlist that I’ve put together for my current project. The only context you have right now is the title of the playlist and the songs that are on it. I think it’s gonna make an interesting story, don’t you?