I love craft books and advice columns, but I don’t actually think there’s a one-stop solution for writer’s block. It’s like finding the right combination of antidepressants. There’s a lot of trial and error. It’s mostly about balance. What works once won’t always work.
Still, music often helps. Sometimes I’ll play it when I read, and almost always when I’m drafting something new. There are a couple rules. The music has to be a supplement, not a distraction, so I never listen to an album I’ve been anticipating. No new music! Instead I listen to an album I know well, that I’ve heard many times before from front to back. This way the lyrics aren’t distracting and there are no surprises. That’s also why I avoid playlists created by Spotify.
If it’s good enough, an album will offer a sense of flow and consistency that helps me write. The vibe and genre should match what I’m working on: Hip-hop or reggaeton when I need to power through a chapter draft, or extremely sad girl music when I’m writing a breakup scene. In the past year I’ve been writing and revising a lot of the latter. I put on Joni Mitchell’s Blue and let it play on repeat. On second thought, this might be the silver bullet. Listen to Joni Mitchell and the rest will come.
—Ruben Reyes Jr., author of There Is a Rio Grande in Heaven
(Mariner Books, 2024)
Photo credit: Trevor Bishai