By now it’s no secret that I have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). While that is serious, it is manageable, I just have to put certain tools and process into place in order to maintain my levels of productivity. One of my favorite dopamine producing activities while I write is listening to music.
This is another divisive issue among writers — some have to listen to music while they write, others find it distracting. I am someone that has to listen to music, it helps me shift into my creative headspace. Here’s why my brain becomes the ever-loving pain in the ass that it has been: it just be any music I’m listening to, it has to be the right music. It has to be energetic and heavy, melodic and pleasing to the ear. It came to a point where I had to program a specific playlist that my brain could immediately snap to writing mode to.
Before I reveal that playlist to you, I need to go over the history of the playlist. For you younger readers, I was a teenager at a time when you could illegally download music (at the expense of giving your computer an STD). After you’d downloaded a ton of songs, you’d burn them onto a physical medium called a Compact Disc, or CD. After Metallica & Dr. Dre sued everyone who owned a computer, downloading music became an even more underground affair and the STDs your computer caught were even worse. Eventually, Apple came along and made downloading a safer experience, even innovating the world’s most complete Mp3 player: the iPod. You kids and your Spotify didn’t know the horror of only having so much space on an Mp3 player and having to choose which of your favorite songs was like being asked to pick a child to be thrown off a cliff. After the Mp3 player and the iPod, we’re in the age of streaming. We stream music, movies, funny videos, and blatant lies.
I also need you to know something about those of us with ADHD: we hyperfocus on select things. So while I couldn’t be bothered to do my Algebra homework, I could spend hours putting together the perfect list of music — I still do, that’s why I’m writing this today.
What makes me feel good about my writing playlist is that Stephen King writes to heavy music too. In a small way, that makes me feel like I’m taking steps in the right …or the “write” direction? (They can’t all be winners).
Without further delay, the playlist I write to:
The Write Stuff
If you’d like to listen to this playlist on Spotify, follow this link: https://spoti.fi/31OoT9g
- “A Better Believer” – Volbeat
- “Diary of Jane” – Breaking Benjamin
- “Would?” – Alice in Chains
- “Psychosocial” – Slipknot
- “Master of Puppets” – Metallica
- “Mudshovel” – Staind
- “Black & White” – Static-X
- “Mother” – Danzig
- “Simple Minded” – Dragpipe
- “Edgecrusher” – Fear Factory
- “Time and Time Again” – Papa Roach
- “Now or Never” – Dope
- “Movies” – Alien Ant Farm
- “Remedy” – Cold
- “Awake” – Godsmack
- “Soft” – Second Coming
- “Bodies” – Drowning Pool
- “Break Stuff” – Limp Bizkit
- “Headstrong” – Trapt
- “Happy?” – Mudvayne
- “When Worlds Collide” – Powerman 5000
- “The Red” – Chevelle
- “Poem” – Taproot
- “Voodoo” – Godsmack
- “Alive” – P.O.D.
- “Through Glass” – Stone Sour
- “Change (In the House of Flies)” – Deftones
- “New Disease” – Spineshank
- “Stupify” – Disturbed
- “Bawitdaba” – Kid Rock
- “She Loves Me Not” – Papa Roach
- “Hail to the King” – Avenged Sevenfold
- “Thunder Kiss ‘65” – White Zombie
- “Savior” – Rise Against
- “Nobody” – Skindred
- “Cowboys From Hell” – Pantera
- “South Texas Deathride” – The Union Underground
- “Hey Man (Nice Shot)” – Filter
- “Man in the Box” – Alice in Chains
- “Save Yourself” – Stabbing Westward
- “Lit Up” – Buckcherry
- “Unsung” – Helmet
- “Sliter” – Velvet Revolver
- “Pride” – Soil
- “Tears Don’t Fall” – Bullet For My Valentine
- “Hell Yeah” – Rev Theory
- “Shut Me Up” – Mindless Self Indulgence
- “Revenge” – Mindless Self Indulgence
- “Two Weeks” – All That Remains
- “The Key to Gramercy Park” – Deadsy
- “Polyamorous” – Breaking Benjamin
- “Bat Country” – Avenged Sevenfold
- “Falling Down” – Atreyu
- “Square Hammer” – Ghost
- “Prayer” – Disturbed
- “The Clincher” – Chevelle
- “The Outsider” – A Perfect Circle
- “I Could Care Less” – DevilDriver
- “Still Counting” – Volbeat
- “All That’s Left” – Thrice
- “Flesh Into Gear” – CKY
- “This is Now” – Hatebreed
- “Ace of Spades” – Motörhead
- “Push It” – Static-X
- “Wait & Bleed” – Slipknot
- “Dig” – Mudvayne
- “I Stand Alone” – Godsmack
- “Boom” – P.O.D.
- “Last Resort” – Papa Roach
- “Downfall” – TRUSTcompany
- “Got the Life” – Korn
- “Before I Forget” – Slipknot
- “Denial” – Sevendust
- “Walk” – Pantera
- “Getting Away With Murder” – Papa Roach
- “Spit it Out” – Slipknot
- “Killing in the Name” – Rage Against the Machine
- “Living Dead Girl” – Rob Zombie
- “Bombshell” – Powerman 5000
- “Party Hard” – Andrew WK
- “So Cold” – Breaking Benjamin
- “30/30-150” – Stone Sour
- “Faith” – Limp Bizkit
- “No Surprise” – Theory of a Deadman
- “Stupid Girl” – Cold
- “Duality” – Slipknot
- “Suffocate” – Cold
- “More Human Than Human” – White Zombie
- “Smooth Criminal” – Alien Ant Farm
- “I Hate Everything About You” – Three Days Grace
- “Stitches” – Orgy
- “Bottom of a Bottle” – Smile Empty Soul
- “Calling” – Taproot
- “Die MF Die” – Dope
- “Dragula” – Rob Zombie
- “Blue Monday” – Orgy
- “Send the Pain Below” – Chevelle
- “Broken Home” – Papa Roach
- “Feel So Numb” – Rob Zombie
- “Breakdown” – Tantric
- “No One” – Cold
- “Chop Suey!” – System of a Down
- “Across the Nation” – The Union Underground
- “Nookie” – Limp Bizkit
- “Just Got Wicked” – Cold
- “Solitaire / Unraveling” – Mushroomhead
- “Death Blooms” – Mudvayne
- “Toxicity” – System of a Down
- “Whatever” – Godsmack
- “Step Up” – Drowning Pool
- “Broken” – 12 Stones
- “Satellite” – P.O.D.
- “Bother” – Stone Sour
- “…To Be Loved” – Papa Roach
- “Heaven Nor Hell” – Volbeat
- “Vitamin R (Leading Us Along)” – Chevelle
- “Fine Again” – Seether
- “The Bleeding” – Five Finger Death Punch
- “This is the New S***” – Marilyn Manson
- “Never Gonna Stop (The Red, Red Kroovy)” – Rob Zombie
- “I Don’t Wanna Stop” – Ozzy Osbourne
- “Becoming the Bull” – Atreyu
- “My Goddess” – The Exies
- “Stronger” – TRUSTcompany
- “No Surprise” – Theory of a Deadman
- “Santa Monica” – Theory of a Deadman
- “A Warrior’s Call” – Volbeat
- “Cold” – Crossfade
- “Prayer of the Refugee” – Rise Against
- “Paralyzer” – Finger Eleven
- “Holy Diver” – Killswitch Engage
- “One Step Closer” – Linkin Park
- “Between Angels & Insects” – Papa Roach
- “You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)” – Dope
- “Nimble Bastard” – Incubus
- “She Hates Me” – Puddle of Mudd
- “Judith” – A Perfect Circle
- “Left Behind” – Slipknot
- “Sugar” – System of a Down
“Spaceship” – Puddle of Mudd - “Famous” – Puddle of Mudd
If you made it this far, I appreciate your dedication to music and reading my blogs!
Until your next trip across the Millerverse.
A.P. Miller 