Today, some small considerations and marginalia for a playlist I designed to help me slow down and notice the good stuff while reading, writing, limbering up to the morning.
(Playlist available on Apple Music here and Spotify here!)
Rituals were an important part of writing Small Wonders. I have never been so particular – almost superstitious – about setting the table for writing. In fact, I’m generally unfussy about the conditions for creativity. A Magpie recently described people from the mid-Atlantic as “urgently unfussy” and – yes. That’s my way with writing, too. Just begin. Use a scrap, a dull pencil, a whisper of an idea! Don’t be precious; be playful. But with Small Wonders, perhaps because I was writing it against such a compressed and publisher-enforced time table, I found I longed for, and maybe needed, a set of specific conditions for writing. It was a different kind of creative headspace, one that required a much longer view. How will this piece speak with the next, and the one ten pages down the road? Did I use this analogy or referent before? The writing demanded much both focus and sprawl. And so I clung to specific rituals for writing the book. It had to be first thing in the morning, as close to 8 a.m. as possible, and it had to be in a sufficiently wide block of maker’s time where I wouldn’t be interrupted by a call or meeting or appointment for a couple of hours. I had to turn off all the lamps and write in natural light. I had to wear soft, loose clothing that barely touched my body. I had to burn a candle, I had to close out every other window and application on my Mac, and – most importantly – I had to listen to a specific playlist in my noise-canceling headphones. A lot of the tracks on that playlist, which I’d titled “Jo March Energy,” found their way into a playlist I later compiled for us to listen to while enjoying the book, and which I am sharing here.
Most of these are gentle, heart-filling piano pieces or movie score tracks that will speak for themselves, but I wanted to provide a couple of annotations.
“Laurie and Jo on the Hill” (from “Little Women” Soundtrack, Alexandre Desplat)
What can I say? Little Women is so deeply baked into my writing DNA that there was bound to be some homage. I absolutely love this entire soundtrack from start to finish–but especially the music from this moment in the movie. I hear it and think faintly of Laurie and Jo’s ill-fated romance, of the first loves and misunderstandings of youth. It’s a track that’s rich with nuance: it’s goodbye and it’s memory and it’s being outside with someone you love; it’s growing up and hating it and needing to anyway. I loved listening to this while writing about relationships and especially childhood memories – for example, “What Is Summer Telling You?” (p27) and “Standing on Mars Watching the UVA Game” (p 124).
“Little Moments” by Reinur Selsun & himood
The first track on my Jo March playlist. I hear those first few keystrokes and it draws me right back to my desk all those mornings in March, April, and May 2025, and to the first-light feeling of sitting down to my desk full of writerly ambition. Almost like a dog whistle: this track calls me to attention.
“Changing” by Jon McLaughlin
I discovered this album (titled “Mood”) from a Magpie reader, and I believe every single track made its way onto my Jo March playlist. Such evocative, tender playing; it feels like memory set to music. I also love the provenance: one of the thousands of Magpie reader recommendations that have woven themselves into the fabric of my life, my creative practice, the soundscape of my writing. You are here with me, always.
“Dawn” by Jean-Yves Thibaudet
This track has led me to seriously research buying a keyboard and returning to my piano-playing roots. I can’t listen to it without imagining the swell of emotion I would feel playing the track around moment 1:40 – that crescendo!
“Flying Over Africa” by John Barry
Music for the most romantic moment in cinematic history – the hand squeeze. (Who knew hand squeezes could be so intimate?!) I love this track for writing about love, but it also has this enormous, sweeping shape that draws me right out of my own smallness.
“October” by Okonski
A track from one of those magic albums that is equally right for Friday night cocktails and Saturday morning coffee. It just feels good all the way around. A perfect album for soulful leisure. I especially love this track; when the percussion kicks in at minute 1:33, it’s as though everything in the universe clicks into place.
Post-Scripts.
+Our secret work playlist here.
+What are you secretly good at?
+Songs I secretly love. (Lots of secrets in these post-scripts!)
Shopping Break.
+Can’t tell you how much wear I get out of this cotton sweater. I love that it hugs in at the waistline to reveal the narrowest part of my body. A great, thick quality sweater. I’m wearing today with boxer-style shorts and jelly fisherman sandals.
+Speaking of fisherman sandals, I’ve been seeing these Miu Miu ones pop up on lots of chic peas, including my friend Grace Atwood when I saw her down in Charleston. I’m smitten with them. Loeffler has a fun play on this trend here for less that I just ordered in the petal pink! So chic!
+This red linen mini dress! Feels like an Italian vacation, especially with a scarf like this and fisherman sandals like these (look for less here).
+Cute wrap skirt to pair with an elevated tee or sweater.
+These are THE BEST marg glasses. Perfect thickness, perfect style, perfect dimensions. I always get compliments on them when serving to guests. Use code JEN10 for 10% off. (BTW, the only marg recipe you’ll ever need here.) All of this just in time for cinco de mayo! BTW – treat yourself to some of these tortilla chips for the occasion. THE BEST. You’ll never look back! I buy in a bundle and give the chips away as hostess gifts!
+New in and eye-catching at Julia Amory. Man does she have my number. I could live in her caftans and day dresses!
+Alert for fellow Vuori leggings enthusiasts that they just dropped a new color in the short length (and regular/tall as well). I basically buy every color they release in the short length. These are the best, best, best leggings and the first I reach for out of the wash. Ultra soft, flattering, and in great colors. Hold up SO WELL despite a lot of laundering.
+These gingham cropped pants (under $200) are in my cart. SO CHIC. They remind me of the Highsport ones that have been everywhere and are like $1000.
+Marketed as sleep wear but I’d throw on over a bathing suit!
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