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What's the best music to write to?
I write to movie soundtracks. John Williams, Danny Elfman, Henry Jackman, Hans Zimmer. Whatever score catches my fancy.
I find it hard to concentrate when I write, but when I'm getting ready to write romance, I like to listen to some songs to get me in the mood. I have my own CD compiled of favorite songs. Two of the most romantic are Faithfully by Journey and You'll Accomp'ny Me by Bob Seger.
Currently writing very happily in silence, with Doritos, a cigar and box of wine. Words flowing.
I don't play any music while I am writing, but if it is on in the distance it doesn't really matter. Once I get into what I am writing it is as if I am in that world and I don't hear anything of this world anyway!
This is quite a fun one as an alternative to silence or music. Ambient coffee shop sound.http://coffitivity.com/
Hi Jenelle. Christmas music? Even in the middle of the year? Carols, Slade, or must solo music? Might give it a try if I'm writing something that suits that time of year, but can't think of any other time. Still, whatever works, works.
Lawrence wrote: "Hi Jenelle. Christmas music? Even in the middle of the year? Carols, Slade, or must solo music? Might give it a try if I'm writing something that suits that time of year, but can't think of any oth..."Yep. Any time of year (I don't subscribe to the "you can only listen to Christmas music from the day after Thanksgiving till Christmas" philosophy!) It's the only cure for writer's block that I've found that works every time. Mostly just instrumental: e.g. Manheim Steamroller, Classical Guitar, Jim Brickman, etc. although I do sometimes throw in Sarah Brightman's album or Collin Raye Christmas...
I think it's the familiarity that does it. I don't have to "listen" to those songs, my brain just sort of allows it to become a sort of "white noise," which apparently frees up the creative centers of my mind... or something... I'm sure there's a technical explanation, but I have no idea what it is! :)
I'll give it a go on youtube. If it cures writers block for you, maybe it'll work for me too. Take care Jenelle.
Christmas music is one of the strangest I've heard of, but if it works, it works!
When writing, I love listening to Delerium or Enya - but the volume has to be low enough to just hum in the background. Anything with words or too loud distract me too much and I start singing instead of writing :)
Hi Marissa Enya especially good, but haven't tried Delerium yet, but off to youtube to have a listen.
Tony wrote: "Christmas music is one of the strangest I've heard of, but if it works, it works!"Thank you! I try :) my uncle once told me his motto was, "Y B Normal?" and it's sort of stuck with me...
I love to write listening to the sound of silence...and no...not the S&G song.
Lawrence wrote: "Currently writing very happily in silence, with Doritos, a cigar and box of wine. Words flowing."That sounds perfect!Minus the cigars..lol
Primarily, I go for Bach or a mixture of Celtic, but I agree with the above - sometimes got to find the tune to fit the scene. And sometimes I get so wrapped up writing that I don't even notice the music is over. Those are the good days! :D
If my scenes need to be descriptive, I listen to celtic or classical. If they need to have action of some sort in them, it depends. Pandora is my best friend. Action in a natural setting demands country music, action in a club demands techno (Unless it's a honky tonk bar, then it's honky tonk music), love scenes dictate some sort of ambient music. It totally depends on what I'm writing.
I actually have an account on youtube where I made a playlist of the music I listen to while writing in case people were curious. (Just another way to get people's attention, really.) But I like some nice rock, techno or anything with a good heavy beat. It makes it easier to tune out the rest of the world I find.
Leigh wrote: "I used to listen to music while I wrote, and it had to be genre-specific: classical for literary; alternative for sci-fi; and heavy metal for horror. Sadly, what used to add to my writing experien..."I agree. It may seem cool on your bio to write while listening to Mantovanti or 50 Cent, but if you want to write intelligently enough for someone to spend their valuable time reading your work respect your readers enough to give your writing 100% of your attention.
I do love to have noise while I'm writing so that I know there's a world going on around me....but I don't usually listen to music. I usually have the television running in the background--especially movies I've seen before, so I'm not tempted to watch them. Though, The History Channel would murder by career.
J DeWayne wrote: "Leigh wrote: "I used to listen to music while I wrote, and it had to be genre-specific: classical for literary; alternative for sci-fi; and heavy metal for horror. Sadly, what used to add to my wr..."Honestly, I find this kind of insulting. Suggesting that simply because we have music playing as we write that we're not respecting our readers or giving 100% to our writing or that somehow playing music dumbs down our writing.
I don't think you understand the purpose. It's not like we're getting bored while we're writing and we crank up the tunes to rock out and sing along to. Having music in the background helps to block out the rest of the world, so that we CAN focus on our writing and give it our best. Most of us here don't have the luxury of sitting somewhere to work and getting complete silence. The phone is ringing, kids are running up and down the hall or have the tv cranked up in the other room. The neighbor's lawnmower is revving from outside and cars and trucks speed past down the road. If we can't have silence, the best we can do is background noise of our own choosing to help block out all the extra sounds of the world around us.
That's not even counting the effect music can have on our moods and mindset, helping us "zone in" to a certain place while we work on a specific scene.
Hell, even Stephen King listens to music while he writes.
It depends. Sometimes I listen to the Doors, other times I have Indian music playing in my headphones. Music helps me keep a steady rhythm, and by using noise canceling headphones I can stay very focused.
Silence most of the time. But for two crucial scenes at the end of the third book of my Southern Son: The Saga of Doc Holliday, I listened to instrumental music to set the scene and emotion: Indian flute music while writing about a Ute Indian Sun Dance, and Jon Boswell's "London: 1892" while writing about Holliday's last snowy winter in Denver. The latter left me weeping, and the scene does the same for readers, so it must have worked. I already have a piece picked for a scene of a naval battle in my next book. But nothing with words, ever!
I downloaded the soundtrack for "Tron Legacy" by Daft Punk and discovered the music is better to write to than actually listen to!
I enjoy listening to music too much to interrupt it with work. As an aside, I just read a new posting from an author who was sued by the Charlie Daniels Band because he drew inspiration for his titles from one of their songs. So, it you listen to music while writing, be careful what it inspires you to do.
http://blackwellauthor.blogspot.com/2...
If that's the case, then how petty of the Charlie Daniels Band. you would have thought that they could have turned it into a PR opportunity that would have benefited them both. Think I'm safe with Chopin.
I usually listen to Joy Division or The Cure while writing.
Lawrence wrote: "If that's the case, then how petty of the Charlie Daniels Band. you would have thought that they could have turned it into a PR opportunity that would have benefited them both. Think I'm safe with ..."I don't get it either. The blog posting isn't sufficiently comprehensive to understand what is going on. I don't think he used the title of one of their songs as the title of his book. Indeed, I had always been under the impression that titles couldn't by copyrighted. Also, although both a song and a novel are works of art, their markets are vastly different.
It may be that the lesson here is that don't get sued if you don't have the finances to defend yourself. It appears that the author in this case didn't have the wherewithall. You'll notice that half his earnings from the sales of his novels were $6.66 (I hope he didn't quit his day job).
Shaun wrote: "J DeWayne wrote: "Leigh wrote: "I used to listen to music while I wrote, and it had to be genre-specific: classical for literary; alternative for sci-fi; and heavy metal for horror. Sadly, what us..."Shaun wrote: "J DeWayne wrote: "Leigh wrote: "I used to listen to music while I wrote, and it had to be genre-specific: classical for literary; alternative for sci-fi; and heavy metal for horror. Sadly, what us..."
You are entitled to your opinion.
My genre is romance; therefore, I have an eclectic mix of Sade, Jeffrey Osborne, Barry White, Sara Vaughn, Cello Concertos of Vivaldi by Han-Na Chang, Concerto Veneziano by Giuliano Carmignola, etc.
Hi Urenna.Sounds (if you'll excuse the pun) like a nice relaxing mix. Thanks for sharing.
I often find lyrics distracting, but I really like writing with Radiohead on in the background--I usually can't understand Thom Yorke anyway.There are some great suggestions in this thread!
I can't listen to songs that I know well because, like someone said earlier, I'll end up singing along. My most recent book is the first one I ever wrote while listening to music, and I think it really made a difference. There was a particular scene where my character was really angry and taking out his anger in a very violent swim, turning things over and over in his head while slapping the water hard. A friend had recently loaned me the Hunger Games soundtrack, and "the Ruler and the Killer" by Kid Cudi came on, not something I normally listen to and not at all related to my story, but the more I listened to it, the angrier my character got. I think it turned out much better than I had planned. But on the whole, my book is more of a love story, and Lady Antebellum provided the soundtrack for most of it, even inspiring some scenes that I hadn't even considered before. The lyrics don't matter usually; it's the mood or feel of the song that helps build the story.
Occassionaly I have been known to put on some tension/action music while trying to get a real actiony/tensiony feel in my writing. It came up well I think.But usually I need silence.
And yes, I reckon the movie soundtrack would probably be the way I would go - because you can get so many different atmospheres - there's bound to be one you need.
Seems like a lot of you guys like movie soundtracks and as a result I've tried a couple and they do work well.
I need to be able to concentrate, and sometimes I can just block out the world, but sometimes I can't, and I need musical help.If there is silence, I usually stick with that. But if there is not silence, I'll go with either Mozart's Requiem (rousing, moody, and a good blocker of children's screams), or the Jurassic Park soundtrack. That may sound pretty lowbrow, but it's actually very conducive. Enya is soothing, but Mike Oldfield's Orchestral Tubular Bells is more evocative.
When I was 15 (many moons ago) I spent hours making a plan of a castle, not for a story, just for kicks, and I played the same cassette over and over again for hours. Now whenever I hear anything from INXS's Listen Like Thieves, I think of castles.
Trying Streamingsoundtracks! you can listen for free through your ITunes or other ways as well.http://www.streamingsoundtracks.com/
Thanks Dinah! Listening to the classical channel right now :)
I definately prefer silence. Hearing the TV, other conversations, someone else's music, etc. is very distracting. If I can't have quiet, then I put on the earbuds and crank up something recognizable that I can ignore. For me, that is usually Joe Satriani (mostly instrumental). I've tried writing to Yes since some of their material is abstract. Unfortunately, their lyrics are so pretentious, I can't ignore them. If I listen to Rush, I want to play along. Listening to Genesis makes me want a nap. I would probably do well listening to an ocean surf or a thunderstorm.
Depends on what I'm writing. I write film scripts as well as novels/novellas. For film scripts I more often than not listen to modern music than when writing novels/novellas. For the latter I often listen to classical music or movie soundtracks that work well in the background but doesn't need to influence the mood of the scene unless I want it to.When I write a scene for a film script however, I visualize the scene complete with camera angles and editing very actively, thus making it very important to listen to music that matches the "flow" I want the scene to have when it appears on the screen, more so than when writing a novel/novella. Oh and, I work off the beat, not the lyrics. Good examples are these songs, that I listened to when I wrote a film script this summer;
Foster the People - Houdini: I listened to this song when I wrote a scene that more or less was a montage featuring a teen who was skateboarding through the city on roads/streets/sidewalks, careless in traffic because he had done it several times before and thought himself invincible. He obviously thought himself the coolest kid in town. I wanted a smooth flow that indicated his skill as well as how he viewed himself.
The Temper Trap - Sweet Disposition: This song I listened to when I was writing a scene that featured two characters that were out bicycling together, discovering each other and starting to fall in love, laughing and teasing in the sunlight on a sweet summer day. I liked the flow of this song for that scene because it has a smooth flow that works with moving at speed, hints at summer, joy, fun and happiness.
Chromatics - Mask: This song I used for inspiration for a club scene that was supposed to be sweaty, dark, intense, suggestive of drug abuse and alcohol, no limits and so forth. Her voice has a certain darkness to it, and the beat is slow as well as somewhat heavy. It felt perfect for that scene.
Some songs I like to listen to help me tune out the rest of the world, letting my ears focus on the song as the rest of me can focus on writing.Kendall Payne - I Will Show You Love
Also I like early 2000 songs
Music is too distracting. I have to have complete silence when writing. Music inspires in me music videos I'd like to make, nothing to do with the story I'm writing.
Music really helps me write when I can't concentrate. I can't listen to just classical or any one genre though. Here are six of my favourites including Janacek as recommended by Haruki Murakami, and a few of my all time favourites such as Alice Coltrane. Depending on my mood I need a range of albums from the slow to the speedy to help me meet a deadline.http://www.bestmusictowriteto.com/top...
Simon & Garfunkel & Neil Young for stringing words together and The Killers for everything else
'Spearhead' for poetry. 'Uncle Bob' for short stories. Still working out what works for novels :-)
House music for high energy scenes, and Portishead for the depressing ones.
Oldies, classic rock, jazz, classical...whatever the muse demands. Different times call for different music...or no music at all. Alternatively, I've done a fair share of writing to the soundtrack of a three year old with a My Little Pony obsession. Proud to say that not once, not EVER have I had the urge to call a character Pinkie Pie...
As you can see, it's a wide and varied collection of music.
I've now added some pieces from Facebook based on recommendations from contributors.
Keep the suggestions coming and thanks again to everybody.
Lawrence