Music while writing??

electric violet · Jun 13, 2009

Okay people,

I have been staring at the screen for about ten minutes or so, while 'Billie Holiday' and 'Azure Ray' pandora playlists are humming away as I try in desperation to get into 'the flow.'

I'm wondering if the reason I can't completely let go is because I'm listening to music at the same time. I feel like I should be able to handle some easy listening type stuff while I'm writing, and I want to, but can I? Can you?

Does listening to music disrupt or help anyone's flow here? Let me know because I'm going insane. Really...I'm going insane. Ha! They're coming to take me away, ha ha...

Crayonz · Jun 13, 2009

Heh, I know the feeling. Sometimes music helps me get into my happy place, other times it just distracts me and I ~~throw my walkman across the room~~ have to turn it off. It really just depends on the day, I guess. xD

Try writing without the music and see where that gets you. 'Tis not like listening to music is a requirement for writing, just do whatever gets you into the 'flow' at the moment.

TheIT · Jun 13, 2009

What Crayonz said. Sometimes I need music or people around me to get into the right zone for creativity, other times I need silence. I've got a couple of albums that I refer to as my study music. When I was in school, those were the ones I listened to when I really needed to concentrate and silence wasn't working. They worked because I knew them so throughly that they didn't distract me from what I was trying to do.

Alana Mortensen · Jun 13, 2009

Personally, quietness period... drives me crazy!

I can not write and develop writer's block in the stillness of my bedroom. No choice! I have to have my tunes at all times. When I write the music distracts me, yes but that is when the stuff flows automatically. It is al;so the only time it is good material and makes sense and is in logical, chronological order, and the tone and voice, pov, etc is good. I get on a roll and it won't stop as long as I have my tunes playing... even witgh poetics too. Some tunes are more conducive than others and seem to write themselves with me as a mouthpeice. So you are not alolne.

Cassiopeia · Jun 13, 2009

In my current WIP, I have two MC point of views at the chapter breaks. One male, one female. It's odd but I find most of the time I write in silence when in the male POV.

But with both of them, if I'm listening to music, it can't have lyrics.

electric violet · Jun 13, 2009

But with both of them said:
Oooooh! I think you just nailed my problem. Let's hope, anyways.

Chasing the Horizon · Jun 13, 2009

I must have music while I'm writing. It drowns out all the random noise outside and in the rest of the house, which horribly distracts me. It also helps me get into the mood for the type of writing I'm doing (Rhapsody is the BEST band for writing epic fantasy).

mkcbunny · Jun 13, 2009

I need silence for most writing and editing. If I'm just making small copyedit fixes, I can have classical or jazz or something without lyrics in the background. But at home, I never play music, and in a cafe, I bring noise-canceling headphones. I have to be able to hear the words in my head.

Noise-canceling headphones are fantastic for that, too. If you read your words at a whisper, the sound of your own voice will clear the 'phones, but the rest of the room noise won't. And no one can hear you in a bustling public place.

Ken · Jun 13, 2009

... sometimes it does disrupt me, and sometimes it doesn't and actually helps me write. If I do indulge it is usually instrumental music: jazz or classical. ( I cannot write while some pop-vocalist is singing about her booty or "lovely lady lump;" not to say that those songs in and of themselves are objectionable ;-)

Cassiopeia · Jun 13, 2009

electric violet said:
Oooooh! I think you just nailed my problem. Let's hope, anyways.

for me, lyrics filter into my story. They can change the mood and meaning. I have a wealth of sound tracks from movies that I love and help get me in the mind frame I'm looking for.

Chasing the Horizon · Jun 13, 2009

Ken said:
( I cannot write while some pop-vocalist is singing about her booty or "lovely lady lump;" not to say that those songs in and of themselves are objectionable ;-)

Yeah, I wouldn't be able to write with nasty pop music playing either. I'd be too busy trying to puncture my eardrums with my pen.

Cassiopeia · Jun 13, 2009

Ironically, I find being in the middle of a crowd with my laptop and earphones is easier to write than at home alone in my study.

mkcbunny · Jun 13, 2009

Cassiopeia said:
Ironically, I find being in the middle of a crowd with my laptop and earphones is easier to write than at home alone in my study.

That's the "you bothered to go somewhere specific, now write, dammit!" factor. Although I'm pretty good about writing at home and prefer the silence, I sometimes end up in cafes just to shake up the juices and make myself do something when I'm facing a tough spot and might end up wandering around the house procrastinating.

TheUnknownAuthor · Jun 13, 2009

I'm kind of the same way. I need TOTAL peace & quiet while I'm doing the majority of my writing. BUT if I'm really trying to transfer a certain emotion/feeling from my head through the keyboard & onto the screen I will put a specific type of music on.

Cassiopeia · Jun 13, 2009

mkcbunny said:
That's the "you bothered to go somewhere specific, now write, dammit!" factor. Although I'm pretty good about writing at home and prefer the silence, I sometimes end up in cafes just to shake up the juices and make myself do something when I'm facing a tough spot and might end up wandering around the house procrastinating.

I don't think so...at least not for me. I think it's the, "you don't have to feel guilty and look at all you have to do" factor.

blacbird · Jun 13, 2009

For me, I need either silence or, oddly, white noise chaos like you'll find in a restaurant or bar. Music of any kind, by itself, I find distracting.

caw

5bcarnies · Jun 13, 2009

For the most part I need music while I write. My life is very loud. Between kids, phones ringing and the whole world in general I need something to help me sift through the mundane.
The quiet hum of the computer is distracting. It is almost like static on a phone it confuses the message between my head and my hands. However, the right song, at just the right moment can be the perfect theme music for a scene and launch me into my characters' world.

shakeysix · Jun 13, 2009

when i am writing concrete stuff i need silence. but i need the music when i write fiction because i am writing about five generations of a rural family. so when i am writing about the thirties and forties i pop in the big band stuff--stuff my own parents listened to and danced to. grandma and grandpa are churchy and a little preachy, so i plug into hymns when i write about them. different characters even have different musical prefs--one family of cousins is into show tunes; another family prefers carl perkins and hank williams.

you'd be surprised how much a melody or a crazy lyric can jog my memory as to fashions and slang and political views from twenty or thirty years ago. i use scraps of lyrics to head my draft chapters. i'm working on one now called diamond star hubcap. when i read that heading i will remember exactly where i was in the story, even if it is three months before i get back to it. did i mention that my mother was a music teacher?--s6

dwellerofthedeep · Jun 14, 2009

I just like music too much not to listen while I'm writing.

I also love lyrics when I'm writing, as they can keep me from falling into ruts with too many of the same word too close together.

Stunted · Jun 14, 2009

I really like listening to music while I write, but I often get jarred by the change between songs. So I tend to listen to stuff that all kind of sounds the same but is still really good.

errantruth · Jun 14, 2009

I need music to do anything at all but pee.

At work I have tended to favor foreign music. It would take more concentration to pay attention to their lyrics than to do my work.

But when writing for myself (creatively), it's chosen based on the mood in the work at the moment. I find it helps a lot. I sometimes pick one tune to play on repeat, or make short playlists which "stick" to the mood.

I hadn't thought to switch music for different characters, but I can see how it might really be great for dialogue...

The only problem is I can waste a good 45 minutes compiling a playlist or searching a mood. But I find certain music comes to the foreground and I may listen to it for hours and hours and hours and return to it again and again.

Brutal Mustang · Jun 14, 2009

I like listening to something peaceful, majestic, and ... on a loop. Weird, I know, but listening to the same song doesn't distract me like variety does, yet it keeps me in the mood I need to be in.

KD_Kilker · Jun 14, 2009

I can't function without music, but I can't write with it. *headdesk*

scarletpeaches · Jun 14, 2009

I can only listen to music when I'm in the zone, otherwise it puts me off.

Even then it has to be songs I'm familiar with, or my brain gets distracted processing these new sounds.

Salis · Jun 14, 2009

Really good music can give me ideas, but when it comes time to write I have to turn it off, or it slows me down or stops me writing entirely.

Music while writing??

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