Do you listen to music when you write?
I know writers who insist on silence. I know others who need or like music when they write, but it can't have lyrics. Classical is a favorite for many of those writers. Others need to rock.
I often have music playing. I have a lot of music on my computer, and often I'll put it on shuffle. Sometimes, I want a certain kind of music for the right mood for a scene. And, sometimes, if I'm trying to tackle a tough problem in a story, the music becomes too distracting and I have to turn it off. Usually, though, I need the music to help block out other household or office noises. It becomes a kind of white noise for me, although I usually notice what's playing. I don't understand the mechanics of it, but the music seems to distract a certain part of my mind that needs to be distracted when I write.
Occasionally, music intrudes a little more than I want, like if a song particularly interests me because I really like it, didn't expect to hear it, or makes me want to immediately hit the skip button. I think that's fairly rare, though. The deeper my writing focus, the less I actually notice which song is playing.
But then, I wonder if that's really true. I'm betting that if I could track my reaction to music while I write without the tracking becoming a distraction of its own, I'd notice that it distracts me more than I think.
In any case, music seems to help me when I use it as background noise when I work.
How about you?
6 comments:
I sometimes listen to music to get in a certain type of mood before writing, but I can't have music at all when I write. Other noises don't bother me, but my brain connects to music too much, I guess. I always wished I could, though.
Thanks for the comment, Gaylene. Which music puts you in which writing moods?
Lately, I've been using sounds of the beach in the background. Sometimes I listen to loud rock music to drown out my critic but that's mostly when I'm free writing.
Maybe that's it, Taffy. Maybe that's what music does for me when I write. Maybe that little bit of a distraction is keeping my inner critic busy. Nice observation!
I can't listen to music when I write. Music is never background noise to me. I'm too in tune to it and it always occupies a space in my mind when it's playing. Even classical or instrumental.
I LOVE music. I listen to it all the time to be inspired to write. All my manuscripts have a playlist and I'm constantly trying to find new songs that inspire me about a work in progress.
But when I'm writing, I can't tune it out. I hear the lyrics, I'm picking out the different instruments, I'm wondering how the composer came up with that sequence of chords. I ALWAYS hear it.
I always write with music on. Sometimes the lyrics will spark a phrase or a scene, so I listen to the same song over and over to recreate the same feeling. I can't listen to rock music though, but I love soundtracks, especially Gladiator, Braveheart and Pride and Prejudice. They go with all my stories :-)
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