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Link So, does music do that for you? I imagine if it did, you would also be a productive author like Card. Maybe that's what I'm missing.
But I'm fairly certain it's a tool I couldn't just pick up at will at this stage of the game. And I may just be wired different.
I think in the end, I have to accept that if I'm not writing or doing things that will help me to write, that's my issue and not magic tool is going to fix me. If have the will to write, it may be that music would make me a better writer. But I don't think it will cause me to write in the first place.
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I've put together a soundtrack of a movie that is playing in my mind. I equiped a lot of stories this way. It helps to get in the mood as it helps when you are watching a real movie on TV.
Posts: 1271 | Registered: May 2007
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Music has been my motivational writing tool since junior high school. The heavier and more aggressive, the more 'wound up' my creative writing became. Except, I needed it absolutely quiet when it came time to my math homework.
Nowadays, I select my motivational music based on what I'm writing. A basic idea...
Young adult: good 'ol straight-ahead rock and roll progressive / art rock melodic progressive metal 70's era influenced soul and funk
Science Fiction (science / technology, character interactions): progressive rock progressive metal straight-ahead metal
Science Fiction (conflicts and battles / theoretical stuff): tech metal death metal thrash metal ...and any other form of metal I have in my collection.
For Poetry and Lyrics, I tend to prefer quiet. Except...I have kids. There is no such thing as quiet in my house. Explains why I haven't written poetry in a while.
Oh...I've recently decreed an exception to my music guidelines when I work on certain theoretical stuff. One night, I was attempting to calculate travel times between solar systems at various rates of speed, while listening to tech metal (Zero Hour, for those familiar with the genre). When I double-checked my work the next day, I discovered that I had a traditional space shuttle making the 4 light year trip in just under ten minutes, while it took an interstellar destroyer traveling via wormhole to the same destination well over a hundred years. I determined that the destroyer was either inside a wormhole that resembles my small intestines, or I needed to pause the tunes next time I do calculations. I thought I learned that lesson in junior high.
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I often use music to get into the proper mood for writing but then dial down the volume once I begin setting pen to paper. I also find I need a fairly aggresive beat to really get my creative juices flowing, something that I can hum for the next 3 - 4 hours.
[This message has been edited by smncameron (edited February 14, 2008).]
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I listen to the same radio station no matter what I am writing. It help me tune out the outside world and focus on doing something constructive.
Posts: 80 | Registered: Oct 2007
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I often listen to music while I write and I do think that my song choices color my prose. I know that I have often chosen music to suit the style of painting I am doing. I will have to think more on this. Perhaps it would work well to choose music to suit the scenes I am writing. HMMMMM...
Posts: 340 | Registered: Jan 2008
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I don't usually like music as background music when I don't know what I'm writing. Music is, for me, a tool to be called in when I've imagined a scene and have its mood and basic progress all figured out. I usually have one or two soundtrack songs in my head for it by then, and I'll listen to them on repeat to keep me in the proper mood.
Posts: 201 | Registered: May 2007
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I can write with or without music--as long as it does NOT HAVE WORDS. (Or, at least, words in a language I can understand.)
I also have a recommendation about this. If you're writing a scene, and you can pick a piece of music that fills you with the emotions you want to convey, by all means play it while you write. It can open you up.
But when you're editing, turn it off. You don't want the music to fill you with the emotions that you tried to put into the writing. Other people aren't going to be listening to that music when they read it. (Especially the editor who's deciding whether to buy it!) If you can't stand silence while editing, then play music that does NOT match the mood you wanted to create.
The writing has to stand on its own. Edit it accordingly.
[This message has been edited by rickfisher (edited February 15, 2008).]
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I generally have music of some sort playing when I work. The proviso is that when I am writing, I choose music that is instrumental only. Listening to words while trying to string together other words is adding an interference level, as both are processed by the same areas of the brain. I can confuse and second guess myself enough without any help. Posts: 47 | Registered: Feb 2008
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I'm a musician myself, so I'm quite particular about the music I choose. Mostly, I choose quiet, serene music that will free me to dig into the deepest parts of my imagination. I have my 10 CD changer in my sculpture studio loaded with a mix of uplifting, inspiring, lush, romantic music by Il Divo, Josh Groban, Linda Eder (who sounds like Judy Garland and sings the same type of music), Sarah Brightman, Sandi Patty, Mercy Me. I like similar music when I'm writing, although I also like film soundtracks then. But I'm a singer and too much instrumental music (without some vocal music mixed in) annoys me. I don't sing along when I'm writing, but I'll dance and sing along when I'm sculpting sometimes. I know I write better and sculpt better when I have a soundtrack for what I'm doing, so I have a oaded Ipod or my 10 CD changer in my studio ready to go when I'm ready to work.
Posts: 415 | Registered: Jul 2006
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An Oaded Ipod? Oh man Just when you think you,ve got the latest toy they come out with the Mark VI. Are they available online?
Posts: 340 | Registered: Jan 2008
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Music with lyrics isn't really a problem for me, to be honest I don't really listen to the words. I think Run For Your Life is a happy song.
Posts: 161 | Registered: Dec 2007
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I sometimes listen to Astronomy lecture podcast when I am free-writing. I pick a subject similar to the world I am writing on It helps me stay in the proper realm. Music however is too distracting. Actually I listened to a folk music playlist once when I was writing a fantasy piece about a group of rogue musicians. It sparked some good images.
Posts: 1888 | Registered: Jan 2008
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well when i wright i listen to LED ZEP, PINK FLOYD. i have a small colection of other artists that i listen to that help me form the thoughts into the story.
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Music for me is instrumental (sorry for the pun) in the setting of the mood while I am writing or even reading. Just like in movies, the music is what sets the tone as being scary, or dramatic, or action packed and so on. One of my favorite composers for movies is John Williams. Now don't get me wrong, Steven Spielberg is a great director and producer, however, the soundtracks that John Williams has done for Mr. Spielberg are absolutely brilliant and really add the drama and suspense. I have a number of his soundtracks, some of my favorites being Jurassic Park, Saving Private Ryan, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and a multitude of others.
So like movies, adding music to reading can really create a connection as well. When I read Ender's game the first two times I placed my Cd player on repeat and listened to the soundtrack of Jurassic park over and over again. What was really cool was how even though I just let the CD play, more often than not the music would fit fairly well with what was going on in the book. Also what is interesting is when I now hear the main theme to Jurassic Park I think of the Ender's Game more than I think of Jurassic Park the movie.
Now that I have picked up writing, I have taken into consideration of how music can effect my enjoyment and connection to movies and books. I will usually pull up Itunes and either listen to some classical piano music or I will listen to my collection of different soundtracks. I have found that I can think much clearer and can also put a little more emotion into my story. I will not, however, listen to anything with lyrics, except maybe Enya, as this gets very distracting for me.
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I usually have something playing in the background, but usually it's the TV in the next room. Of course I listen to music elsewhere...and, right now, I've got the Beatles / Cirque de Soleil "Love" CD playing. (Yes, I've got all the other official releases, and a few unofficial things.) (Also, not that it's better, but I am intrigued by some of the juxtapositions.)
My tastes tend to the eclectic (I have all sorts of stuff lying around from the Jarmels to Little Jimmy Dickens to the Comedian Harmonists to Big Daddy.) It also tends to the retro, meaning a lot of stuff I buy or listen to is really really old.
But if I get really into writing, usually I don't hear the music (or TV).
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I guess I'm a bit strange...I tend to write to music that best fits the mood of a particular scene. Subsequently, the music I listen to whilst writing often ranges from AC/DC to Chopin's Prelude, Op.28 No.15, 'Raindrop.'
Inkwell ------------------ "The difference between a writer and someone who says they want to write is merely the width of a postage stamp."
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Hmm . . . Music really depends for me. Sometimes I can only start writing when I do have music on, other times, I can write without any particular music going on at all.
On the other hand, sometimes I get so absorbed in what I'm writing that I don't really hear what's going on in the music. At other points I get so involved in the music that the writing stops. This happens with both instrumentals and songs. But then, I'm a Music major . . .
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