Screenwriting: Song inspiration

I’m not an expert in screenwriting; far from it I haven’t even reached the second draft of any of my scripts yet, and I haven’t even sent any off for submission. But through reading books about screenwriting I can tell there’s no right or wrong answer when it comes to listening to music while writing.

I am all for it as I find it can be a great inspiration, especially if there’s a part you’re struggling to write. There are different songs I associate with different screenplays; for Stuck on You it was about a holiday in Europe and so I played quite bright songs while writing. With Hea-Van the 6 part series I wrote; although I didn't have one key song, I listened to the Glee version of Pure Imagination repeatedly when writing a particularly emotional episode about reunions and that helped quite a bit.
When thinking of how the plot would develop for If We Aren’t Married, For The First Time by The Script was my go to song. It helped me visualise one of the key scenes towards the end of the film and as a result made me think about how each characters plot would develop from that point going on and leading up to it as well.

When I restarted writing the screenplay the song was still useful, even though I’d grown and matured in my thinking towards the characters. It took me back to the scenarios I had created for the characters while listening to that song.

Around about the halfway stage of writing I discovered another song which captured the ending perfectly. Now in daydream land if this film gets made, I’d love to have this song on the final scene of the film as the lyrics match exactly what is happening. Or rather what’s happening to a few characters and ultimately what turns out not to happen to another character. The song is Army by Ellie Goulding and I’d listen to it on the way home to work, while figuring out dialogue for the all-important final scene. I actually put in a curveball right towards the end which I didn't plan on when I first thought of the idea. It’s quite emotional and a couple of times driving home I did start crying with the dialogue I was saying and the song that was playing. I really did look like a crazy person!

I think the key to listening to music while writing however is shuffle. Put your ipod, spotify playlist or whatever you’re listening to onto shuffle. Bringing up a song you haven’t heard in ages might give you a random idea that could work in your screenplay that you didn't think of before. Another thing you could try which I haven’t done, but am thinking of doing in the future is creating playlists for characters. That would be another way of developing the characters emotionally, and you can create reasons why certain songs meant certain things in the characters’ lives.

Do you find it easier to write with music on or without?