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TW
Bigger than a Breadbox

Date Joined Nov 2005
Total Posts : 540

Posted 3/15/2006 11:09 AM (GMT -5)

I had an interesting discussion last week with two talented writers -- our own forum mate Swashbuckler and his lovely spouse.

We were talking about playing music, or not, when we're writing.

I don't mean songs that have inspired us to write this or that -- even though that could be a chicken-and-egg debate -- but what is coming out of the speakers during the actual writing process.

For me, it's a mixed bag. When I was writing my first novel, I had various "nature sounds" CDs on the changer. For my second novel, and many stories since, I haven't had any tunes on at all. There are periods when I have written in silence, or to Tschaikovsky, Pachelbel, Aerosmith, Smashmouth, Collective Soul, among others. Last night, I put the coup de grace on a story while listening to a Shania Twain CD.

What do others listen to, or not, when the gray cells are popping and the fingers are flying? How does it help, or not?

Just curious.

thanks,

Tom

"Why just react, when life gives you so many chances to overreact?"

PaulMc
Adept

Date Joined May 2005
Total Posts : 992

Posted 3/15/2006 11:27 AM (GMT -5)

TW said...
I had an interesting discussion last week with two talented writers -- our own forum mate Swashbuckler and his lovely spouse.

We were talking about playing music, or not, when we're writing.

I don't mean songs that have inspired us to write this or that -- even though that could be a chicken-and-egg debate -- but what is coming out of the speakers during the actual writing process.

For me, it's a mixed bag. When I was writing my first novel, I had various "nature sounds" CDs on the changer. For my second novel, and many stories since, I haven't had any tunes on at all. There are periods when I have written in silence, or to Tschaikovsky, Pachelbel, Aerosmith, Smashmouth, Collective Soul, among others. Last night, I put the coup de grace on a story while listening to a Shania Twain CD.

What do others listen to, or not, when the gray cells are popping and the fingers are flying? How does it help, or not?

I think we've had this thread before, but it's always fun to revisit.

I used to write in silence, sometimes I still do. But lately I have been trying to play music that sets the mood for what I am working on. "World Music" (African/Hawaiian) for my exotic fantasy setting, some creaky blues with spooky lyrics for the Western horror tale I'm developing, Holst 'The Planets' for bigger sweeping tales, Celtic tunes for general fantasy, etc.

-- Paul McNamee
http://writer.paulmcnamee.net
http://www.dorancoyle.net

TW
Bigger than a Breadbox

Date Joined Nov 2005
Total Posts : 540

Posted 3/15/2006 2:10 PM (GMT -5)

Oops. Didn't mean to churn stagnant waters... I haven't been posting all that long (or perhaps not paying close attention to other threads).

One of my friends says that she imprints certain tunes to certain stories... when she puts on certain music, it helps her get right back into the story she has linked to that music. Sounds like kind of what you're doing, but my impression was that she was doing by tying specific music to specific stories. Seems like you're doing it more genre by genre.
Interesting.

Thanks for the observations!

"Why just react, when life gives you so many chances to overreact?"

PaulMc
Adept

Date Joined May 2005
Total Posts : 992

Posted 3/15/2006 2:25 PM (GMT -5)

TW said...
Oops. Didn't mean to churn stagnant waters... I haven't been posting all that long (or perhaps not paying close attention to other threads).

No problem. It was a while ago, anyhow.

TW said...
One of my friends says that she imprints certain tunes to certain stories... when she puts on certain music, it helps her get right back into the story she has linked to that music. Sounds like kind of what you're doing, but my impression was that she was doing by tying specific music to specific stories. Seems like you're doing it more genre by genre.
Interesting.

Actually, I am doing it story (or story cycle) level. I guess I use music as an aid to the setting. In fact, usually I just play store bought CDs, but for the horror Western I made a mix CD for myself.

-- Paul McNamee
http://writer.paulmcnamee.net
http://www.dorancoyle.net

Kris
Lost in the realm of Gorthia

Date Joined Mar 2006
Total Posts : 11

Posted 3/15/2006 2:40 PM (GMT -5)

I have found that music has been incredibly helpful while I write. First, I am an extremely visual person. I usually see the scene unfolding in my head, very much like a movie or music video, before I actually write it. I have discovered that certain music has helped inspire a mood that I was trying to depict or helps to get me involved with a character; helps give that character and myself the emotional content I am looking for. I listen to everything from nature cd's to heavy-emotional filled hard rock, obvious standards like Carmena Burana for battle scenes, all sorts of tunes while I write or contemplate my story. In all I have found it to be a very useful tool.

darkbow
Rabbit lord

Date Joined Oct 2005
Total Posts : 1711

Posted 3/15/2006 7:36 PM (GMT -5)

I've tried listening to music while writing, but I always find it too distracting. So, I write in silence.
However, while driving home from work late at night I will often try to listen to certain music knowing it will put me in the right frame of mind for writing an upcoming scene in my novel. Generally it depends upon which character will have the POV in the scene, or chapter.
For my healer/wizard protagonist, I listen to Counting Crows or one of the LOTR soundtracks.
For my main bad guy, I listen to the Conan the Barbarian soundtrack or Wagner.
For my Kron Darkbow characer, I usually listen to Soundgarden or early Metallica, though sometimes I'll throw in a soundtrack from "Once Upon a Time in the West" or one of Sergio Leone's "Dollar" trilogy movies.

"dont let them tell you the future’s electric
cause gasolines not measured in metric"
Jack White

TW
Bigger than a Breadbox

Date Joined Nov 2005
Total Posts : 540

Posted 3/15/2006 8:30 PM (GMT -5)

Ty -- Wow. You're allowed to go HOME from work?!!
Ahh, just kiddin', singing the news editor blues... (now that's one kind of music that actually distracts me from writing. I can get in a typing rhythm with the beat of most anything, but blues just makes me want to sit back and soak it in.)
Tom

"Why just react, when life gives you so many chances to overreact?"

darkbow
Rabbit lord

Date Joined Oct 2005
Total Posts : 1711

Posted 3/15/2006 9:27 PM (GMT -5)

Yeah, they let me go home about 2 in the morning, at least as long as I've got my 12-15 hours in.

"dont let them tell you the future’s electric
cause gasolines not measured in metric"
Jack White

Jeff Stehman
Sage

Date Joined Mar 2005
Total Posts : 1224

Posted 3/17/2006 1:46 AM (GMT -5)

I always have music playing when I write. Usually it is classical: Essential Mozart, Essential Beethoven, Bach for Relaxation. I picked up "Fright Night: Music That Goes Bump in the Night" back in the early 90s, and have spent many, many hours writing to it. I prefer the Conan the Barbarian soundtrack to Carmina Burana--no fat lady singing. I also have a CD by celtic harpist, and another by a hammer dulcimer player. Music is good, but songs kill me. I pay too much attention to the lyrics. (Mozart is fine, as I don't speak the language.) One exception is Rhapsody, which is great battle-writing music, but then, I really don't understand what they're saying, either. (Alas, I haven't been able to find my two Rhapsody CDs since the last move, which has me somewhat distraught.) There are a few Mozart and Beethoven tracks that also distract me from writing--no matter how many times I hear Fur Elise, for example, I am in awe of it.

As much as songs are stoppers for me, I occasional hit upon one that is perfect for helping me write a particular scene. I've done a lot of work on a character whose mind is in chaos except when he is in mortal combat, and then his mind is at peace. I'd written the transition from the POV of other characters, but I could never get the right feel for it from his point a view. A couple of years ago I heard John Walker Blues on NPR and it just clicked. I found the link to it on their web site (still have it bookmarked), listened to it several times, then went up stairs and wrote the scene.

--Jeff Stehman

Swashbuckler
One-man sword-and-sorcery machine

Date Joined Mar 2006
Total Posts : 1280

Posted 3/17/2006 2:15 AM (GMT -5)

I can't listen to music and write. Just can't. I get too into the music; when I listen, all I want to do is listen.

I can do what Ty does, and listen to some good mood-setting music before I sit down to write. But I can't really work mentally on the story to music. If there is thinking to be done, I have to have the stereo off. TV doesn't bug me the same way. I can watch "Seinfeld" or something and muse over a plot problem at the same time. I can ride my bike and consider character development. But music? Nah. If it's on, I get sucked right into it.

aka Steve Goble, formerly known here as Red Viper

Look for: "The Mask Oath" in Lords of Swords II; "The Grey Mother" and "The Bloated Curse" in Flashing Swords; "Snake Eyes" in Freehold: Southern Storm and "Zeerembuk" in Clash of Steel 3: Demon.

TW
Bigger than a Breadbox

Date Joined Nov 2005
Total Posts : 540

Posted 3/17/2006 2:57 AM (GMT -5)

I just piled up a 4,100-word story today, probably about eight hours of typing from first keystroke to "-end-" (even though I wrote the end about halfway through, if you know what I mean) listening to the following: Aerosmith's Big Ones, Smashmouth, two different relaxing sounds of nature CDs, and both discs of Jesus Christ Superstar.
I'm not sure what that means ... either I am really shallow or really focused. Or perhaps I just don't hear that well.

"Why just react, when life gives you so many chances to overreact?"

Rob Santa
Sage

Date Joined Apr 2004
Total Posts : 1456

Posted 3/17/2006 8:23 AM (GMT -5)

Seeing as how I have one daughter in first grade (that's her on the left) and another who's two, my writing tends to happen with only one kind of music in the background: whatever happens to be the music playing during Dora the Explorer, Spongebob Squarepants, the Wiggles or what's on the electronic babysitter.

It is rather amazing I can put any swordfights together at all when going on all around me is "Fruit salad...yummy,yummy" or "F is for friends who do things together. U is for you and me..."

And apologies to anyone who knows what I'm talking about and now has either of those two songs stuck in their head.

Rob Santa

Christopher_Heath
Eternal Champion

Date Joined Oct 2005
Total Posts : 1156

Posted 3/17/2006 12:27 PM (GMT -5)

I have five kids, and my computer is in the living room, so I write to Playstation II and Nickelodeon. When I do put on music, I listen to classic rock/art rock, and one album in particular that is great for writing fantasy is Hawkwind's "Warrior at the Edge of Time". I can write pretty much anywhere. I use to have a union job, where I would literally band a crate of radiators as fast as I could, fill out the paperwork, then write a paragraph---then repeat the cycle. Different jobs I'd sneak in some writing. Working stock was always great for that.

Christopher M. Heath

"Azieran: She of the White Lotus" in Sages and Swords by Pitch-Black Books

"Azieran: Bound by Virtue" in Clash of Steel book III by Carnifex Press

"Azieran: Blood and Kings" novella by Carnifex Press

"Azieran: Frost Scarab of Luunhaat" in Lycanthropes by ComStar Media, LLC

"Azieran: The Young Roué" in Tavern Tales by ComStar Media, LLC

"Azieran: Against the Drimlith" novel by R&R Endeavors, Inc.

"Azieran: The Templar's Chalice" in Prism Quarterly 7.4 by Daybreak Press

+ others

darkbow
Rabbit lord

Date Joined Oct 2005
Total Posts : 1711

Posted 3/18/2006 9:48 PM (GMT -5)

Steve, I'm kind of glad you don't listen to music while writing. For some reason, I find it disturbing thinking of Calthus hacking up his latest beastie while Bill Monroe is tooling around in the background.

And Tom ... Jesus Christ Superstar? While I love the music, and the movie, what the heck kind of writing can you do to that? Hippy halflings?

"dont let them tell you the future’s electric
cause gasolines not measured in metric"
Jack White

TW
Bigger than a Breadbox

Date Joined Nov 2005
Total Posts : 540

Posted 3/19/2006 1:20 AM (GMT -5)

Unlike most people who have weighed in here, I think I use the music -- any music -- to simply act as a layer of insulation -- un-white white noise as it were. I don't imprint to it or get much mood from whatever it is. I think it's more a rhythm or pacing tool for me. If Robin Valerian or Rai Memory-chanter are throwing some verse in between my prose, the music helps me get the rhythm of the lyrics, but I guess beyond that, I'm just a shallow one.

I always thought Calthus was modeled after Bill Monroe, or perhaps Ricky Skaggs ... or was that k.d. lang?

"Why just react, when life gives you so many chances to overreact?"

Frank
Adept

Date Joined Aug 2005
Total Posts : 629

Posted 4/17/2006 9:12 PM (GMT -5)

I've often had the intention of writing to music but once I get involved in what I'm writing I forget to stand up and change the disc. Hours will go by with only the sound of my typing and whatever interruptions I experience.

Bitternut
Stablehand

Date Joined May 2006
Total Posts : 45

Posted 5/12/2006 3:41 PM (GMT -5)

I main groups I listen for inspiration and mood-enhancement are Judas Priest, Lynyrd Skynrd, Marshall Tucker, CSNY, Willie Nelson, Abba, Diana Ross, Steppenwolf, Allman Bros, John Denver, Elton John, and Air Supply. They tweak my writing urge just right and just when I am in a focusing mode with whatever I'm doing. They all have upbeat, energetic, classic rock or solo performance tunes that inspire me and pump me up to be better and more than I would be without them playing...

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