Who else Listens to Music when Writing?

I have several different playlists for writing. One for romance, conflict, fight scenes, ominous plots, etc. It's a must when I write! Vocals in the music are a definite as well. It helps me get immersed in the scene I'm trying to set.

I always listen to music when writing. I didn't use to - for many, many years - but I look back on that and can't imagine how I did it! I create a new playlist for every book I write (or at least every series - if I'm writing a second book in a series, sometimes I just tweak the playlist for the first book). And we're talking long playlists - a good 5-7 hours. Music has really become a huge part of my writing process and also hugely inspirational for me in my writing.

At the moment I'm listening to my daughter playing guitar and singing 'Let it be me" by the Everly Brothers.

She's in her jammies with her freshly-washed hair wrapped up in a towel. She's sitting on the floor here chilling and singing.

Life is beautiful.

The 12-CD set of Robert Burns' songs, pure magic.

I work well with ambient noises (including music) as long as they stay ambient and don't command my attention - people talking too close by or putting on their music and changing it every half-minute or my flatmates clonking about with pots in the kitchen, that kind of stuff just drives me mad. Strangely, restaurant ambience and suchlike don't unless the conversation at the next table is too loud. Anyway, I always have music running to drown that stuff out and even when there isn't noise, to make some. I call it "giving the part of my brain that gets distracted easily something to play with so the grown-up part can work".

I'm pretty peculiar about the music I need for that. It can have vocals but not in my native tongue German. English is fine because despite being fluent in it I can ignore it well enough. Or choose not to. Sometimes, I'll take a minute and sing along to a favorite line before diving back in. It shouldn't be too simple because then that part of my brain won't stay engaged and will come bothering me again, but it shouldn't be too engaging either and demand active listening. Also, no playlists or (shudder) radio. I need albums. I do like vinyl albums because they make me get up and move a little every twenty minutes. I like music that has layers to it, rich harmonies or a strong beat, preferably both, don't much care if the depth comes from a horn section, an orchestra or heavy guitars. I've also experimented with playing two ambient albums at the same time and stuff like that to make it more textured. Then again, sometimes I'll just launch a drum machine on a semi-random pattern and be done with it. Within those parameters, it can be just about anything, no connection to what I'm writing needed and no particular style either. My mood is more of a factor than my project or any notion of process.

Yep, I have to have music on when I'm writing. But I generally have the radio on in the background all day anyway so that's nothing unusual or me. With writing though, I can't have the radio on. It's too distracting with DJs jabbering on. For writing, I need just music.

I had a huge binge of two particular bands earlier this year. Played all their albums pretty constantly on random. But recently I've discovered the Spotify Windows app so now have a large playlist on that that I play on my laptop when I write. I'm too cheap to pay for premium so it has a few adverts but not enough to bother me. I like that I can pick and choose tracks as I like which the phone app doesn't let you. It's a very eclectic selection like my music tastes, everything from Metallica to Faithless. My WIP is about a rock band so I finding the heavier tracks fit the mood nicely and those on the more poppy/dance end of the scale are fairly upbeat. I find I write better when I'm slightly manic

I listen to whatever I'm in the mood for in the moment. If I'm having writers block and having a hard time getting out of my head (which is pretty much all the time right now) I tend to try to write with netflix in the background, because the split attention gives my mind more space to wander. When I sit and listen to music it's either piano instrumentals (for when I'm writing something emotional that will make my heart either soar or make me want to cry) or a variety of lyrical music, like Punk/Metal for days I have ideas flowing or the Lumineers when I need more calming vibes. I tend to write with a fan blowing at me as well. I find it calming to have the white noise as an extra in the background.

I prefer silence, but if I need to drown out annoying background noise, I listen to instrumentals. Lyrics are way too distracting. I’ve recently been listening to soundtracks like The King’s Speech and The Theory of Everything. I could never ever write in a coffee shop or anywhere public other than a very quiet library.

I do. Youtube or radio.

As a rule I tend to favour silence but I have been known to listen to 'rain' noises (although this tends to lead to the characters getting caught in the rain) and Disney instrumental soundtracks . I can't listen to anything with lyrics, I get distracted.

No music. As quiet as possible, except for my own voice (I tend to read my work out loud to myself a lot). This is true not just for writing but any work that needs concentration, including my workout. Maybe being a musician myself, I tend to pay too much attention to what is going on in the music and not enough to my own work.

I need Broadway whenever I write XD Or RWBY. Or Disney. It all depends on my mood, but I have to have music when I write.

I need to listen to something while I am writing. Sometimes anything will work, but I often go for something that fits the mood of the particular scene I'm writing. Lately I've been listening to a lot of anime sound tracks. They are usually familiar enough to ignore and have a wide variety of moods to listen to.

I also had a weird experience once with the music somehow imprinting on the scene. Basically I wrote a scene listening to a particular song. I had my friend read the story later on (what I had done anyways) and even later had him listen to the song. He said the song reminded him of the scene I wrote. It was really odd since I never told anyone what I listened to while writing since it's generally more of a spastic dash to find the right song to fit the mood at a given moment. It has't happened since, but I'm curious if anyone has had a similar experience.

I can't write without music in the background, but then again, I find it hard to do anything without music in the background. Like so many others here have said, it helps me to focus. In my first novel, I ended up using song titles as chapter titles. It was a game I played with myself, coming up with the right one, and it has carried over into my second book. It's habit, now, but still fun.

I absolutely cannot work in silence. I need some sort of background noise. That being said some background noise is better than others. Traffic, people having conversations, babies crying, stuff like that is too distracting but when I'm home alone I almost always have either music playing or the TV on just so there's some type of noise.

I'm with all the people who use music to inspire characters and scenes. I think the entire tone and feel of my work in progress came from listening to Blondie. It helped me imagine the world I was writing in.

I do, except for the last flash I wrote. I actually think I started writing from inspiration I got from a song.

I tend to listen to the songs by a particular artist on repeat to help keep myself and the tone of the novel in the same place. Right now, it's Demi Lovato's music.

I do a lot of my writing while on my lunch breaks at work, so I listen to music mostly to drown out other noises while I write.

Yep, I listen to music at least 90% of the time when writing. Not sure if it's the best method for writing a coherent first draft, but it helps grease those wheels. It also helps when I'm trying to come up with the initial idea.

I have Peltor Optime 3 earmuffs.

If I write and there is any background noice, my dear Peltor's take care of it.

I can't write without listening to music! I like listening to really mellow/ sad stuff. For some reason it gets me in the mood - that's why I love Spotify radio. You find the right song and then Spotify just keeps playing you more like it.

I love listening to rain sounds, jazz, acoustic music but I find Audiobooks help me write a lot longer.

I'm writing fantasy, and I've found the perfect background music for when I'm writing my Fae characters in my fantasy world: Blackmore's Night. Richie Blackmore on guitar and Candace night on vocals. Has an upbeat, yet ethereal and medieval sound perfect for my world.

But when I'm writing my human characters in the human world, Blackmore's Night doesn't work. That's when I turn on the A Capella station on Pandora and listen to Straight No Chaser, Pentatonix, Home Free, and the like.

And I like the music to have lyrics, because instrumental alone doesn't use up enough of my "floating attention" so I can concentrate and I end up getting distracted too easily. A common hazard for us ADHD writers! I've reached the point where I can sing along to some of the songs without breaking my flow of words as I type.

When I'm doing something graphic design related, I can listen to music. But if I'm writing, I find it way too distracting.