Do you listen to music while you write?

demonhamster · Mar 21, 2008

When I was younger (well, in college anyway) I used to listen to music all the time while I wrote. I found it really inspiring, especially putting on more challenging/experimental stuff. I did some of my best work while listening to "Bone Machine" by Tom Waits. Captain Beefheart, Charles Mingus, Nick Cave, and Fugazi were also all in heavy rotation.

These days I find listening music, especially music with lyrics, a bit distracting while I write. This actually makes me a little sad, as I have fond memories of putting on my favorite albums and pounding out a story. What I really need now is a quiet room, maybe with some mellow piano music or some downtempo electronic stuff. Brian Eno's "Another Green World" has been working wonders lately.

I'd be curious to hear about other people's experiences with this.

Pike · Mar 22, 2008

This was brought up over on another thread. Lots of writers tossed out their favorite sound tracks to listen to while writing. It helps me get into the mood as well as block out the ambient wail of me children (god love 'em but they can be so loud!)

I tend to listen to electronic mood music and older soundtracks, like Bladerunner - just got it and it really helps block out the din. Sometimes I listen to a remix of A Perfect Circle. It has a ethereal vibe to it that draws me in.

Pike

WriteKnight · Mar 22, 2008

Yes, with headphones on to keep out distractions. Usually instrumental, 'theme' oriented - let the music help set the tone.

Adam Israel · Mar 22, 2008

The new Nine Inch Nails release - Ghosts - makes for good writing music.

Varthikes · Mar 22, 2008

Yes. I always have music playing when I write and I have access to a CD player.

I listen to New Age music mainly (Yanni, Vangelis, Enigma, Secret Garden, Sarah Brightman, etc.) and various soundtracks (Babylon 5, Dinosaur, Titanic, Zorro, Hook, various sci-fi themes).

Sometimes, I'll put in a specific album for a specific segment of my story.

demonhamster · Mar 23, 2008

The idea of music "setting the tone" is an interesting one. This may actually be part of the reason I'm having trouble keeping the music on while I write. It's a little tough to write something angry or intense while listening to a soft ballad just as it's difficult to write a tender love scene with the Clash playing. I guess the right selection could help put you in the state of mind you need for what you write, but then it starts to seem like a lot of trouble to go riffling through my iPod for the perfect soundtrack to the particular scene I'm working on.

WriteKnight said:
Yes, with headphones on to keep out distractions. Usually instrumental, 'theme' oriented - let the music help set the tone.

heatheringemar · Mar 24, 2008

I have to listen to music while I write. I have a very hard time functioning without it. As for what I listen to, it depends on what I'm writing.

laughableblackstorm · Mar 29, 2008

Always

Usually Breaking Benjamin or instrumental, depending on what I'm writing about. Music helps me concentrate; without it, I find myself easily distracted and wandering off somewhere when I actually want to write.

johnnysannie · Mar 29, 2008

I almost always listen to music while I write. Sometimes it may be personal favorites but often I listen to the style/period of music for the era I'm writing in.

Kid At <3 · Mar 29, 2008

I always listen to music to get me started writing, you know, for inspiration. But I don't as I'm writing because I get so lost in it I lose my train of thought or I get distracted.

Joycecwilliams · Mar 29, 2008

Kid At <3 said:
I always listen to music to get me started writing, you know, for inspiration. But I don't as I'm writing because I get so lost in it I lose my train of thought or I get distracted.

I am the same way. I listen to music in my prewriting stage and then I write in silence..

Or with the TV on and and the volumne real low.

mada · Mar 29, 2008

I have to have music when I write. Otherwise I'm sitting here with headphones on for nothing other than drowning out my husband gaming and I feel foolish.

As I introduce myself to my MC, I try to think of what music he/she would listen to. I load Rhapsody with a playlist named after the MC. Luckily, I have diverse taste in music so none of my characters have offended me with their music choices!

For instance, my WIP that I'm starting on 4/1 (mid-year NaNo challenge to myself) has a MC who I could see dancing to KT Tunstall. I had only heard a few songs by her, but they seemed to fit. Now, Rhapsody is loaded with all of her songs. From there, I chose an artist I'd never heard of that was listed as a contemporary, added her to the playlist. I now have five or six artists in the playlist by doing this and steady music in the background.

Susan Lanigan · Mar 30, 2008

Always. But sometimes I have to shut it down if it's too emotional or too much in the foreground.

Then again, there are times when the right mood music helps with a specific scene you are trying to create.

steveg144 · Mar 31, 2008

Always. I can't write without something playing on the iPod. Usually something avant-garde. Systematic derangement of the senses and all that sort of thing ... :tongue

ceelee · May 3, 2008

I have music in the background until the time comes I'm paying more attention to (and maybe singing along with) the songs! That usually happens with rock (I'm stuck in the 80s-90s). I know too many lyrics to rock songs so sometimes I turn the satellite radio to jazz or classical. But there's always the sound of silence too... when I can get it!

antebellum · May 4, 2008

I usually listen to music, but it can't have any lyrics or it takes me right out of writing. I have a few radio stations I listen to online and at least one of them is playing non-vocal jazz or classical when I want to write.

Bookdragonette · May 8, 2008

I do. Mainly rock music. Lyrics don't bother me too much, since I rarely pay attention to them,

jennifer75 · May 8, 2008

I do - this has been touched on before - it helps a lot depending on what you're writing about and if music influenced what your writing about if say, it is memoir-ish.

shakeysix · May 8, 2008

i am writing about 4 generations of a rural family--so i load the age appropriate era in the machine in bands. last night i was writing about my parent's gen.--the one they call the greatest ever (i have some thoughts on that moniker, too) so i was listening to dinah shore and patty page, patsy cline, bob wills. when i hear the music that i grew up w/ it is easier to remember the clothes we wore--the things we said are embedded in the lyrics (i.e.--"4 dead in OHIO"). so for me the music is an important tool. and not always to my taste. ---s6

DWSTXS · May 8, 2008

Varthikes said:
Yes. I always have music playing when I write and I have access to a CD player.

I listen to New Age music mainly (Yanni, Vangelis, Enigma, Secret Garden, Sarah Brightman, etc.) and various soundtracks (Babylon 5, Dinosaur, Titanic, Zorro, Hook, various sci-fi themes).

Sometimes, I'll put in a specific album for a specific segment of my story.

Vangelis is greatness. Also, Tangerine Dream

lucky8 · May 13, 2008

After a period of about a year I've returned to listening to music while I write. I think this is because I've started working in coffee shops where the ambient noise can be quite distracting. At the moment I'm listening mostly to System of a Down which fits the mood of the piece I'm writing quite well and as I know the songs it isn't at all distracting. Got to turn it up to 11 though!!

Triomferus · May 13, 2008

Always. I often listen to the same song repeatedly while writing, then switch it after it's played a bunch of times. Sometimes I will let it loop/shuffle through a lot of my "normal listening" music. It doesn't really seem to matter what I'm listening to, it just matters that it's there: it helps me keep pace, both mentally and in typing.

RickN · May 14, 2008

demonhamster said:
...while listening to "Bone Machine" by Tom Waits. Captain Beefheart, Charles Mingus, Nick Cave, and Fugazi were also all in heavy rotation.

Every now and then I read a sentence that makes me feel so damn old.

On the topic, I tend to sing along with the radio and get distracted. It's tough to hit the high notes in "Walk This Way" while writing deathless prose. So, I only listen to instrumental music when I write. Classical, New Age, Light Jazz kind of stuff.

But no polkas. I write some weird stuff when I listen to polkas.

johnnysannie · May 14, 2008

shakeysix said:
i am writing about 4 generations of a rural family--so i load the age appropriate era in the machine in bands. last night i was writing about my parent's gen.--the one they call the greatest ever (i have some thoughts on that moniker, too) so i was listening to dinah shore and patty page, patsy cline, bob wills. when i hear the music that i grew up w/ it is easier to remember the clothes we wore--the things we said are embedded in the lyrics (i.e.--"4 dead in OHIO"). so for me the music is an important tool. and not always to my taste. ---s6

I often do the same - listen to the period music of the era I'm writing about. To me, it helps stir the creative juices and focus on that era.

RoccoMom · May 14, 2008

I like to listen to the Phantom of the Opera soundtrack....lately, though, i've been listening to the st of Music & Lyrics. It amazes me Hugh Grant can actually sing!

Do you listen to music while you write?

demonhamster

Pike

Chivalry ain't dead

WriteKnight

Arranger Of Disorder

Adam Israel

Formerly known as StoneTable

Varthikes

Dragon Writer

demonhamster

heatheringemar

lurking behind that corner..

laughableblackstorm

johnnysannie

Kid At <3

Joycecwilliams

mada

Getting back in the groove

Susan Lanigan

steveg144

Crusty Polemicist

ceelee

antebellum

Oh, you know.

Bookdragonette

Differently Actual

jennifer75

SupahStah!

shakeysix

blue eyed floozy

DWSTXS

Mr Mojo Risin...

lucky8

Triomferus

Lightbringer

RickN

johnnysannie

RoccoMom