I'm curious how many of you listen to music as you write. Lately I've been putting on the Braveheart and Gladiator soundtracks quite a bit. It's definitely fun when a more intense song comes up while I hit a faster-paces scene. Seems to help get the creative juices flowing.
Posted by Gary Grant Morris (Member # 1994) on :
I wrote my first novel while listening to a Grandaddy cd called The Sophtware Slump. I mean it got to the point where I felt I couldn't write unless that cd was playing. Similar to baseball players who refuse to change their socks during a winning streak, I never wrote a word without Grandaddy strumming away in the background. The result was that the cd became a sort of soundtrack for the story I was telling.
Thankfully, I've broken the habit. Now I require complete silence. If a twig is scratching at the window I go outside and rearrange the bush. But the most annoying sound is a ticking watch. So yeah, no music here
Posted by lindsay (Member # 1741) on :
I do "complete silence" when plotting something, but most always listen to music when I'm writing whatever I've plotted. (I guess whenever I know where I need to go, all I need is the inspiration to get there.)
The soundtrack from THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS gets me in the mood every time - especially the music devoted to that lone messenger who heads out of the fort on foot as DDL's character fires his musket with deadly accuracy... And Cora's song, and the one about finding her - those move me & propel me forward. Absolutely.
There's a tight weave between sound and thought/inspiration, yes? I love the BRAVEHEART music, too!
Posted by Scott R (Member # 1353) on :
I'm a sucker for moody, angsty music when writing; my short story, Blackberry Witch, was composed almost entirely to Evanescence's 'Origin.'
When I write children's stuff, though, I like silence. Since I do a lot of light verse, I have to get the meter just right, and music interferes.
Posted by wetwilly (Member # 1818) on :
I ALWAYS listen to music when I write. Actually, I always listen to music when I do pretty much anything, but especially when I write. I never ever ever write without music. I specifically select music for the story I'm working on, too. The last novel I finished (currently sitting in a publisher's office somewhere waiting to be picked up by an editorial assistant--cross your fingers), was a very dark comedy, all about insane characters and murderous psychopaths and the end of the world, with kind of a funny spin on it, so I wrote the entire thing almost exclusively to the musical stylings of System of a Down. My current WIP is more sad and downplayed (but also rather dark), so I listen to a lot of Dido when I'm working on it.
I'm really a pretty cheerful person, I swear.
Wouldn't it be really cool if we could sell books with soundtracks? Like it's somehow programmed to play certain music when you're reading a certain part? I would love to be able to do that with my stories. Of course it would probably annoy me when other people did it with their stories and picked music I didn't like, so I guess I'm glad that's not an option for everybody. I wish it were an option for me, though.
Posted by djvdakota (Member # 2002) on :
Depends entirely on my mood and the mood of what I'm writing. Sometimes silence, sometimes classical (I think Bach is excellent for writing because his music speaks to and awakens both sides of the brain), sometimes rock or jazz. However, I find it more difficult to write when I'm playing something with lyrics I can sing along to because I sing along instead of writing. Sorry Bill, no Piano Man tonight. I'm writing.
Posted by TruHero (Member # 1766) on :
I find it nearly impossible to write while listening to music. I play the drums, and when a good song is on I start tapping my fingers to the beat. You see I kinda need my fingers for typing and everything just gets screwed up if I try to listen to music and write at the same time. Although I really wish I could because I love music alot. I too was hooked on Evanescence for a long time. Now it is Foo Fighters and Finger Eleven. LAST OF THE MOHICANS sountrack is excellent, but all I can think of when I hear it is -- running. I think that's all they do in that movie is RUN! They never stop, it just makes me tired.
Posted by Gen (Member # 1868) on :
I nearly always listen to music. When I forget to switch the radio on, I find myself sitting there, thinking "why can't I start?" It usually takes a little while before I realize the radio's off.
Once I get into the writing (into flow, I'd say) I don't even hear the music, but I can't really get in without it unless I have something totally new that's been nagging me for days. The really sad thing is that when I put on the CD while I'm writing I hear the first three tracks only before I zone out. There are entire CDs-- Guster's newest, for example-- where I've listened to the entire thing many times, but I only ever hear the first few songs. I'll hear a song from the end of the CD and think, this is nice, have I heard this before? I don't remember it, but it seems kinda familiar.
Posted by Lullaby Lady (Member # 1840) on :
Enya is my usual artist of choice when I'm writing most things-- but, then again, I write lots of fantasy. She works great for my subject matter!
One of these days, when I get around to writing my big "epic" novel, I'll be listening to the LOTR trilogy soundtrack...
~L.L.
Posted by Christine (Member # 1646) on :
I tend to listen to music while I'm writing, but not while I'm editing or revising. What is inspirational during the initial creative process becomes a distraction during the more detail-oritend phase.
Posted by GZ (Member # 1374) on :
I was a complete silence person, but now I'm all into the instrumental soundtracks for writing and editing -- Robin Hood, A Beautiful Mind, Harry Potter, Macross Plus, etc (Last of the Mochicans is great too. Silence is a better for proofreading, because that takes all my attention.
The lyrics can and often do come out for planing and brainstorming. But most singing, unless its more of an Enya thing, is too distracting for the actual writting process. I sing along, and cannot think of words while I'm singing them usually.
Posted by wetwilly (Member # 1818) on :
I would only ever listen to Enya if I was writing a book about falling asleep over and over.
Posted by Balthasar (Member # 5399) on :
I used to write in complete silence, but that was before my wife bought me a Bose Radio for Christmas.
Now I often write to music, but it has to be classical or insturmental jazz. It can't have words. I haven't tried writing to soundtracks, but I can see where that would be helpful for tapping into the mood, emotions, and actions you want to put into your story. I'll have to try that.
Posted by Pyre Dynasty (Member # 1947) on :
Lyrics will screw with ya, but I like to get music going while I write. But I don't usually because I don't own a single cd, (I had a bunch in highschool that vanished and havent been motivated to buy more.) But mood music can really help. When I write to music I notice that the flow of words matches the music. Tracy Hickman says he rips songs off his cds onto his computer and plays the same ones over and over as he writes. Perhaps I need to break down and buy a bunch of Soundtracks. Or I wonder if I could get Kareoke discs of songs
Posted by rjzeller (Member # 1906) on :
My G*d...two Enya posts in the same thread. I need to go boil my head...
Sorry.
Actually, I used to listen to music all the time, but I found myself becomming to engrossed in the music to focus on the task at hand. I DO find listening to something that fits the mood I'm writing for right before hand helps, but not during. It's too distracting. ESPECIALLY if I listen to anything popular.
U2 is my favorite, and if I want something deep or introspective or angry, they work great. Otherwise it's strictly classical in the Beethoven/Tchaikovsky/Rachmaninoff sense...but I get pretty caught up in those having written several scores of my own.
I guess when it comes to me and writing, silence is golden. Just me and the voices in my head....
Posted by Jules (Member # 1658) on :
I listen to all sorts of stuff. Sometimes lyrics distract me and sometimes they don't. I'll know if they're going to because by the time the second song comes on I usually don't notice the transition. If I do it's time to switch to the instrumentals.
Non-instrumental: A varied mixture of modern & classic rock, including Guns & Roses, the Rolling Stones, and Evanescence. Ranging down to gentler stuff, like Fleetwood Mac. I don't have any Enya on any of my current playlists, but that's just coincidence.
Instrumental: Jean Micheal Jarre, Tubular Bells (to get that Exorcist feeling), Pink Floyd (not quite instrumental, but might as well be in many cases...).
An interesting excercise might be to take writing that was written under the influence of different styles of music and analyse the rhythm of it, see if any substantial differences can be found. Dunno what it'd turn up, and I just don't have the time to burn on it, unfortunately.
Posted by Gwalchmai (Member # 1807) on :
Has to be classical for me too. I need to have some kind of music playing but anything with lyrics messes me up and I can't write straight. My music of choice at the moment is anything by Einaudi. Nice, simple melodies that don't require too much effort to listen to, yet evocative at the same time.
Posted by Pyre Dynasty (Member # 1947) on :
Once I was listening to 'the lament for gandalf' on the Lotr soundtrack. (borrowed it BTW) anyways I closed my eyes and I saw the pivotal moment in my constant WIP, (I call it that because I will never finish it.) with increadible clearity. It was a horrible moment but I was there.
Posted by Monolith (Member # 2034) on :
Well for me the type of music I like to listen to is hard rock and heavy metal ( sounds odd, doesn't it ) but that is the type of music I listen to normally...and it usually typifies the battle sequences that I write...hard, fast, and edgy....but I also lize jazz...but that wouldn't fit into what I would normally write ( the comic-bookesque approach..or even a sci-fi idea that I've been batting around ) but I guess that's just me.....
Posted by Kickle (Member # 1934) on :
Can I say Enya and Santana in the same sentence? Well that's what I listen to and I've developed a habit of listening to French Canadian radio, because I don't understand French very well. It gives me that stranger in a strange land feeling. However, when I need to use the logical part of my brain I need total silence.
Posted by wetwilly (Member # 1818) on :
Kickle, you are one odd man/woman.
Posted by Pyre Dynasty (Member # 1947) on :
That reminds me I love Spanish stations. I couldn't do french I know a bit and I would try to translate it.
