You Light Me Up Playlist (and other secret goodies)
You guys voted and the result was … a tie! So I decided to do the Playlist release this month and I will save the Q&A for a later newsletter once I’ve built up more questions (please message me with any questions you want answered!).
For me, playlists are one of the first things I create for any given story idea. Even before I’ve solidified the story, I start creating the playlist. For example, I have playlists for 8 (!!!) book ideas on my phone, but I’ve only written words for three of those. I like to know the vibe I’m going for in a book before I even know the story completely, that way while I’m outlining, drafting, or editing I know exactly what feelings I’m trying to achieve. Sometimes I even come up with scenes because of songs, but I definitely choreography scenes to songs sometimes too.
The final playlist you guys get is only a subset of the playlist I listen to while writing though. There are a few reasons for this: 1) The story changes from my initial idea to the final draft so not all of the songs pertain anymore, 2) I put songs on my playlist that have the right vibes but lyrically don’t make sense or vise versa, but for the final playlist I try to narrow it down to songs that have both the right vibes and the lyrics are in someway related to the story, and 3) I don’t want to constantly hear the same songs over and over for months so I need a playlist long enough to get me through writing sessions but you don’t need that long of a playlist!
But if I had to choose 7 songs (I know random number, but all of them are important) that make up the core of this playlist (or represent the book best) it’d be these:
“Hallelujah” by HAIM
“Always Been You” by Jessie Murph
“birthday cake” by Dylan Conrique
“I’m Only Me When I’m With You” by Taylor Swift
“Light Me Up” by Birdy (I had to change the title early on, and this song was part of the inspiration for the new title!)
“Dress” by Taylor Swift
“Waves” by Dean Lewis
Some songs on the playlist represent the overall story, character relationship, or main events, but some are very specific for certain scenes or chapters. Some of those are “happier” by Olivia Rodrigo, “Lights Down Low” by MAX, and “Dancing On My Own” by Calum Scott. (But you’ll have to wait to see which scenes they represent.)
There are a few I left in that are more vibes than lyrically connected, but the vibes are so good and the lyrics are close enough that I kept them in—like “Common Sense” by Joshua Bassett, “Cornelia Street” by Taylor Swift, and “lightning” by mehro.
I love making playlists for my books and I hope you can really feel the heart of the story through these songs. If you do take a listen, I’d love to hear what you think! Post it on your Insta story and tag me, I love to chat about these things!
Now that you’ve taken a long, wandering stroll through my head and how I think about songs in relation to stories, let’s get to what you’re here for.
The Official You Light Me Up Playlist is here! (These are not in any particular order so I’d recommend just hitting shuffle and getting immersed in the feelings!)
If you’ve read the title of this post, and read thus far, you’re probably wondering what the “secret goodies” are! Well, wonder no longer. One of the options in the poll for what this post should be was beta reading sign-ups for my fantasy book, but that doesn’t really need a whole post of it’s own. So, for the lovely people who were excited about beta reading for my fantasy book—surprise!—you can sign up here.
A reminder of the mood board of the book! If this gets you excited, please sign up!
Fill out the questionnaire and I will choose a handful of beta readers by the end of the month! The questionnaire mostly just outlines what I’m expecting from a beta reader, the trigger warnings for the book, and the timeline I’m working with. I’m not sure exactly how many people will be chosen yet but you will be alerted if you’re chosen or not.
I’m also trying to figure out where I want to set up a shop so you can pre-order signed copies of You Light Me Up. So be on the lookout for that and let me know if you have any suggestions as a reader of what you prefer!
If you’re still here, thank you for reading all the way through! I appreciate you so much! I’m still finding my groove with these newsletters and I promise they will only get better (and more consistent) as I go. As always, let me know if you have any topic suggestions or questions, and always feel free to reach out on socials.
Catch up on previous newsletters here.
See you next month,
Brooke Noel
