There is almost always music playing somewhere in my life. At home, in the car, while I’m writing. Even in my classroom, I share world music with my students as we explore different places and cultures.

My listening wanders. Tonight, it has taken me from Cross Canadian Ragweed to Nightwish to INXS, with a few country songs mixed into the conversation. Sometimes I play a song on repeat because I’m not quite ready to leave the feeling it gives me.

Music finds its way into my writing in much the same way. Sometimes a song moves a story in a direction I hadn’t considered. Other times, I hear something and immediately think of a character or a scene I’ve already written.

That has happened with all three of my novels. Each has developed its own soundtrack.

Anywhere But Here leaned more toward rock, with a lot of Shinedown and Breaking Benjamin playing while I wrote, although there was country mixed in, too. Certain songs helped me settle into the feelings I was trying to put on the page. Others made me stop and think about the story in a different way.

The Space Between Songs was all about the music. Lucero and Reckless Kelly were a big part of that soundtrack. Music was woven into both the writing process and the story itself.

Now, with Midway Saints, I’ve been finding another collection of songs that belongs to another set of characters.

One of its earliest influences was Cody Johnson’s “’Til You Can’t.” I already had Becky in mind, but that song gave her direction. Its encouragement to take a chance and chase a dream helped me understand what she wanted—and what she might be willing to do to pursue it.

It became one of the songs I carried with me through the writing of the book. As the story developed, I kept finding new reasons it belonged.

Garth Brooks’s and George Strait’s rodeo songs also helped me imagine the world of Midway Saints. They were part of the soundtrack while I thought about life on the road, the work behind the scenes, and the people who make that world their home.

Then there is Kameron Marlowe’s “Tennessee Don’t Mind.” Every time I hear it, I think of Bear and Becky. That one tends to go on repeat. Sometimes I’m spending time with the characters as much as I’m listening to the song.

Other connections happen unexpectedly. Tonight, “Sick and Tired” by Cross Canadian Ragweed came on, and something in it made me think of Bear. Eric Church’s “Some of It” belongs in the mix, too, with its sense of learning through living.

These songs help me find a mood or understand something about a character that I haven’t quite put into words yet. Sometimes that is enough to get me back to the page.

Of course, some songs bring me back to my own story.

Tonight, INXS’s “Don’t Change” took me straight to Gunnison when I was seventeen. It was the first song I danced to with Ray. All these years later, I still hear it and remember that moment.

That is part of why music matters so much to me. A song can hold a memory for decades. It can also help me imagine someone else’s life clearly enough to begin writing it.

I’m still finding the songs that belong with Midway Saints, but here is a little of its growing playlist:

• Cody Johnson — “’Til You Can’t”
• Kameron Marlowe — “Tennessee Don’t Mind”
• Cross Canadian Ragweed — “Sick and Tired”
• Eric Church — “Some of It”

There will probably be more. I always have music playing, and every so often, a song catches my attention and I think, There they are.

What song takes you straight back to a particular person, place, or moment?