Getting the Mood Right

                                      Getting the Mood Right


      So I'm writing late at night watching the Jimmy Fallon show. It's hilarious. But I have to get another chapter done if I want to make my manuscript deadline. So I keep writing with half my brain on the show. I chuckle periodically. Once I even laugh out loud.

     Then I look at the computer screen. I have my characters smiling and laughing in the middle of a gruesome crime scene. Oops. Back up. Rewrite.

      Has that ever happened to you?

      Is your writing affected by what's going on around you? I envy those people who can put on their headphones and write away, hour after hour, listening to the latest hit music but never losing the thread of their story. They use the headphones to blot out other distractions, and somehow the music doesn't both them. It's a mystery to me.

     Don't get me wrong. I'm good at blocking out the world. I could write in the middle of a bustling subway station. But put headphones on me? I'm singing along, head bobbing, feet tapping, and I lose all track of the atmosphere of the scene I'm supposed to be writing.

      With one exception...

      If I match the music or the TV program or DVD to the mood I want to create on paper, I'm golden. Kickass scenes call for music like Chain Saw or Tornado, if you're a country music fan. Or how about Miley Cyrus's Wrecking Ball? And big romantic scenes needs something entirely different. One of Bocelli's CDs might be my ultimate choice, but there are tops hits performers that are just as good at setting a romantic mood. I just punch one on my player and hit repeat. The right background music or show can enhance almost any setting for me. The other night I wrote an entire fight scene while the cast of Blue Bloods was shooting bad guys on TV.

      How do you get the right mood into your scene? Can you multi-task while writing, ie write one thing and listen to another?
Thanks for stopping to chat. Have a great week!