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Do you listen to music while you write? If yes, what? If no, why?
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Other projects require music. Depending on the project, my listening ranges from classical to heavy metal. Sometimes in the same project even! For instance, I have a historical romance set in ancient Rome in the first century AD. For the heroine's parts, I listen to mostly classical music or anything slow and instrumental. For the hero's parts, it's heavy (speed) metal such as Hammerfall's "Destined for Glory" and "Way of the Warrior" or DragonForce's "Through the Fire and Flames".
If I'm trying to write a holiday-themed story, I have to listen to Christmas music, no matter what time of year it is. Luckily, my husband loves Bing Crosby's version of "White Christmas" (both song and movie) as much as I do! (I'll sometimes watch the movie before I write, then listen to Christmas music while writing.) I need to get the one holiday-themed story I have in progress finished... But I have others that have deadlines to finish first! ^_^
Recently, I've been listening to Nickelback. I'm on a quite aggressive part of my new novel, so it fits. On the gentler parts and for general background it's usually either classical or Spanish guitar - Julian Bream, Manitas de Plata, John Williams - with the occasional retro backflip into 60s music - Beatles, Beachboys, Stones... My novels are fairly complex for horror/supernatural/thriller, so, when joining threads, I listen to silence, since my tired old brain can't cope with too much input at this stage!
I listen to metal all the time anyway so I have it on when I'm writing too. I am able to kind of take a step back from the music and let myself be carried away by it just as if i was listening to classical music hehe. I enjoy the very extreme side of metal, Death, Black, Progressive, Thrash.
I don't listen to music when I write, but sometimes they give me inspiration for new stories. Certain lyrics will take root and from there the characters will develop.
When I am thinking of new ideas to write about or employ at work, I rarely listen to music because I want to be solely focused on this idea. I don't want to be distracted. However, when it comes time to get down to work, I often listen to music because it drowns out outside noise and I can concentrate on the task at hand. In fact, friends and colleagues have quickly learned not to disturb me while I am listening to music because they know "I'm in the zone" so to speak. I'm pretty unique in what I listen to. I will listen to tones of dance mixes or live sets as I find it keeps my mind moving. However, sometimes I will listen to James Blunt, Coldplay, Justin Timberlake, Imagine Dragons, and even Kanye West. I'm all over the musical spectrum :)
Today, I'm outside sitting under a tree and the music is birdsong :)
I can't listen to music when I write. I need complete silence so I can focus on the story playing out in my head. My stories tend to be rich in dialog and I struggle to write dialog when there is background noise.
I've been thinking about this - what sound is still music to our ears? Waves crashing onto the shore? Birds chirping outside?
I do often listen to music (instrumentals only--Celtic music for my murder mysteries and dulcimer/guitar/mandolin for my short stories) while writing but only on very low volume and only when engaged in the re-write or editing stages. When creating new content I, like Amanda, prefer the peace and quiet of the very early morning hours.
Same with Jack. Instrumentals help strew my thoughts carefully together, I feel that music with words may sub-consciously jump scenarios that may alien to my thought process.
Mostly violin. I find if I try to write while listening to music with lyrics, I get all muddled or my writing is not exactly up to par. So, of course, instrumental music it is and personally I prefer the violin. There's just something about the sheer greatness of it that never fails to put my pen to paper.
Believe it or not, lately I've been listening to violin dubstep, or just regular dubstep, while writing. Also, lots of instrumentals and Celtic music. As many here have said I need there to be no lyrics while I'm writing. That said, I usually only listen to music when I need to be in a bubble because of other stuff going on around me. If it's silent at home or wherever I am, I choose silence.
Absolutely no music. (Or any noise, if possible.) I had a college roommate (now a well-published poet) who always wrote with music through his earphones, but that always stunned me.
Not usually but if im looking to ad some twist to my writing I may because I've noticed it changes how my sentences flow. With heavy rock I will tend to use harder and more direct language than say listening to The Fray (not that that is a regular thing). But I agree with some others that listening beforehand sometimes sparks fresh ideas, though In my opinion not to the magnitude that reading other great writing does.
It depends on my mood and what is happening around me, and on the mood of my piece. I find my angsty emotional scenes have more wallop if I listen to emotional, moving music while I write them. I wrote a argument/fight scene not long ago in which I happened to be listening to Evanescence. My editor, who had asked me to re-write it, said it was far better the second time around.I have to have headphones on for the most part, because right now, the kids are home and if it weren't for those headphones, I'd be so distracted I wouldn't be able to write a word.
Sometimes I listen to music when I write. I often have the radio on in the background, but I am not really listening. When I was writing my Beatles-inspired short story collection, I would often have their music on in the background.
What I listen to depends on what I'm writing. I recently wrote a short story primarily set in a country bar, so I listened to a lot of country music while writing it. Right now I'm working on editing a collection of Halloween stories I wrote years ago and listening to a lot of Halloween music. There are a few bands that seem to fit with just about anything I write, such as U2 and Talking Heads, but mostly I listen to what fits the story best.
I listen to mostly classical music when I write, and read. It seems to get my mental flow moving along. Although, sometimes, the silence of the room has a good effect too. Helps me to hear the characters.
I find, depending on where I'm at in the writing process, I listen to different music. Usually classical or instrumental or world music as lyrics distract me.