If you’re like me, you like to pair up the songs you hear with characters in your works in progress. No Air fits the main character in Rumpelstiltskin, and My Life Would Suck Without You fits Fragment of the Moon. It’s a fun way to pass the time if you’re doing something tedious like driving or work.

And, if you’re like me, you like to play music while you write. So why not play songs that match your story? Make a soundtrack for your novel. Maybe some songs set the mood and some remind you of certain characters. The connection between the music and your writing should help you focus and create.

How about some action music for once! It’s a short track, but fun to listen to. I usually start off with this song in my Fantasy Playlist for a reason.

I love the music from Tangled. (If you still haven’t seen it, go now!) This is an amazing song set during a festival. It’s actually already inspired a scene or two in my own Narrator. What will it inspire for you?

Define Dancing is a gorgeous song from Wall-E, and I love to write to it. If find it works especially well for moving scenes.

The first week of my job plus a midterm for class means a music post for you readers!

Even with the depressing beginning, Up is a heart-warming film with lovely music. Here’s a charming version in piano.

Here’s the main titles for a good adaptation of Sense and Sensibility. BBC does Jane Austen well.

Here’s the main theme for Howl’s Moving Castle. As I said earlier, I love this movie.

Spirited Away is a gorgeous movie with gorgeous music. I could write to this soundtrack all day long if I owned it. I love Haku’s theme song:

And for those of you wanting something less exciting and more moving, check out Chihiro’s Waltz (also beautiful in piano version):

I love Wives and Daughters, by Elizabeth Gaskell. I think the mini-series did a superb job, especially considering Gaskell died before she could finish the book.

If you try reading the book, you’ll notice some scenes are quoted verbatim in the movie. That’s about as perfect as adapted screenplays get!

I never thought I’d like a version of Emma more than the Gwyneth Paltrow movie.

I was totally wrong.

The new BBC mini-series version is fantastic. And if you buy the DVD, deleted scenes are built into the movie.

Below is the lovely main titles that I wish I owned so I could put it on my ipod and listen to it over and over. Enjoy.