There is only one thing more important than the next jolt of caffeine. I speak, of course, of the next jolt of inspiration. The NaNoWriMo describes music as being “the most potent writing stimulant available without a prescription.” I tend to agree with this statement, and have amassed quite a collection of writing music over the years.

I haven’t seen Cloud Atlas (or read the book), but the movie trailer did briefly feature “The Cloud Atlas Sextet,” a beautiful piano piece. I only heard a few bars of it, but it hooked me immediately. The soundtrack arrived on Amazon this morning, and I immediately purchased the MP3 version. It’s by Tom Tykwer, Johnny Klimek, Reinhold Heil, and Gene Pritsker, none of whom I have ever heard of…but then, they haven’t heard of me, either.

Writers, grab this one ASAP. The main theme is beautiful, both melancholy and hopeful; the score itself has some very nice cues, including what I assume are action scenes, but it’s not bombastic. It’s definitely wonderful writing music.

(By “bombastic,” I mean you won’t find any John Williams-style flourishes here. Overall, it’s a very quiet score.)

I’ll be adding several pieces of the score to my NaNo playlist. For the time being, it’s just playing on repeat while I get my work done for the day. Definite home run here…and I can’t wait to go see the movie.