Writer’s Desk: Whistle While You Work

Do you need absolute, deafening quiet when you work?

Maybe you’re one of those people that likes to work in a loud cafe.

Or are you the type that writes at home but with music on? And if so, what’s your album(s) of choice? Do you prefer background noise so that the lyrics don’t interrupt your train of thought?

In the acknowledgments to his newest novel, the Oprah-pickedThe Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead has some very specific notes along these lines:

The first hundred pages were fuel...