Do you prefer to listen to music while you're writing? Or do you prefer silence? Do you find music helps to inspire you while writing? Do you listen to music that fits the mood of what you're writing? Or do you just put your favourite music in the background and it inspires you to write better because it motivates better or it helps bring out feelings that enrich the writing? Or do you find that any background noise distracts you from writing so you prefer silence? I'm interested in these questions because I find that music in the background often helps me to write in a more inspired, emotional and atmospheric way. But the music doesn't necessarily have to fit the mood of what I'm writing. But some music distracts rather than helps (rap for example) and I can also write fairly adequately with absolute silence (though music helps me to feel happier and thus more motivated) I'm just interested in other writers' opinions on listening to music while writing.
Depends. I suppose I need relaxing music and tend to listen to Michael Buble when just doing normal writing but has to be low. If I am writing a battle scene I need a good rock song. Not metal, just solid rock music. Other times I don't have music on and to be honest, can find having no music distracting because the beat of the music can keep me going whilst having No music can make me easily distracted
My answer is no and yes. No, I cannot listen to music while I write: background noise of any kind distracts me when I'm trying to organize thoughts into words. I even speak more articulately when it's quiet! The right music, though, can really shape a story for me. As a writer, the writing process is always going on for me. You would probably say the same thing. I know that about 90% of my writing gets done in my head before it's allowed to be incarnated in ink or pixels. I used to call it "daydreaming;" now I know it's writing. It's when I'm doing this head-writing that music shapes my story. In the car. Washing dishes. Everything major that I've written has, in my mind, had its own soundtrack. Many times, I've changed the direction a story was taking because a particular song gave me a good idea. Sometimes, a character that was foggy-ish in my mind was clarified for me, because I heard the right music. Right now, the novel I'm working on is turning out to be highly influenced by Celtic Woman.
I use music for anything artistic. I heard some director on television say that music is the root of all art and I really believe that's true.
Actually I watch TV. Law and Order, or the Sci-fi Channel. I turn on the tub adn walk around. While pacing with the TV in the background stuff just pops into my head as I ponder. I listen to music when I'm up walking around or to calm myself when I can't sleep. Sometimes I'll listne to music when there is nothing good on.
I too find TV a better background for my creativity. Music actually distracts me, and silence makes me too restless.
I do most of my artistic thinking in the shower, with music blaring. Many times the songs I listen to help create a mood and story in my head. Music helps me go into a trance like state and I find that to be very helpful while I write.
Music really helps me write. It's not always necessary, but I find my best writing is when I'm listening to music. It doesn't need to match the mood of the writing, most of the time I forget the music is even playing once I start writing. I just need it in the background.
Sometimes I write better with it on, sometimes I dont. I can't write lyrics with music playing though, unless its music of mine or another band members creation.
I'd find TV far too distracting. spoken words just totally disrupt my creative process (that's why I can't listen to rap while writing) In fact I find that the best music to listen to while writing is instrumental - like dance music or classical Interesting how people differ in these respects
This is exactly like me. I need it in the background but I don't pay a lot of attention to it while I'm writing - but it helps somehow.
This is very true. Can't write lyrics while listening to music. The best times/places to write lyrics I find is when I'm on the bus or simply walking around.
I always have to listen to something when I'm writing, even if it's just the TV in the background. I find silence quite unsettling and generally can't work when there's no noise around me. Often I'll watch a movie when I'm doing an assessment because I find it comforting. It's rare that I don't have some form of noise around me when I'm awake, I feel more secure when I have the TV on or my iPod playing, I don't know why. I don't think music inspires me, but it does help
I listen to anything while doing anything. (Hence, the iPod was the greatest innvention known to man, hehe. ) I use anything; the television or music. I just need background noise, really.
Well, I like to listen to sound tracks of the mood, of the scene I'm writing. Though I never litsen to sound tracks with words. it messes up my train of though and that could be very bad...
I tend to have music on in the background, but it's not essential for me. I used to try to listen to different types of music depending on what I was writing (metal for fight scenes, something mellower for descriptive passages etc. Now I just listen to whatever's new.
I dunno know 'bout you folks, but I ussually listen to music when I write and it's starting to show. Soundgarden. For the last week. I still have no idea what a "black hole sun" is, but a fallen god of light has lost all hope and his eyes have turned black in my writing. A character about a song has seriously appeared in my writing. e.e And just the entire mood of what I was writing about has changed. It's all dark and Dismal, when I started to write a story with the idea of hope in mind. Anything like that ever happen to you?
I normally write to music. When I write to music my story is better then if I didn't. And yeah that's happened to me before. When I listen to light music with out the dark tones I write lighter happier fluffier songs. When I listen to dark heavy toned music(believe me I do a lot) my stories are dark and very aggressive. I don't music gives me ideas. lol1
I find listening to music very helpful--I just have to pick a song that matches the situation. But yeah, I've noticed that when I'm writing a dark scene, if I listen to a dark heavy song while I write it, it's a lot better and more convincing. But sometimes on days when I'm easily distracted, music is a bad thing, because I can't focus on my writing, and none of it makes sense. There unfinished sentences here and there, and a lot of it is just nonsense.
I always seem to write better when I have my Ipod with headphones on. I'm a big fan of hiphop music (not that garbage you hear on the radio), and I'm sure 90percent of the people on here dislike hiphop, but that is what makes the words flow.
It shouldn't matter what kind of music it is, as long as it gets the words flowing. Sometimes I need metal to write. Sometimes I need classical. Sometimes I need random stuff from the radio. That's just how it is.
I find music is too much of a distraction and that it tends to alter the way I write as well. So when I am writing I like to sit in perfect silence somewhere so it doesn't affect what I write. Though I tend to think that music would affect poetry more than stories. That is just my opinion though. I for one have come up with some great lines after hearing music yet not used them as they are just a variation of what was said in the lyrics of the song I was just listening to. Too similar of a variation though.
I write whenever the impulse takes me - so I am influenced by a host of media, including music. Just as music may influence my writing so may a squirrel playing with a golf ball. My preference when consciously writing is for near silence though as to concentrate though some music from time to time won't hurt - I can well imagine that the type of music influences your style of writing as in my opinion the type of music someone listens to often influences much more than their style of writing - their clothes, role models, ideals, friends ....
That is very true Gannon. You can often tell quite a lot about a person from the type of music that they listen to. It is rather interesting as well.
That's why I always judge a person by the content of their iPod... =P (No, seriously.) Yeah, I'm always listening to music, including while writing. When it's an exciting scene, I pull up some fast-pace music to get the action hopping. When it's pretty much anything else, I like cool instrumental stuff, like...I dunno, classical music, the Firefly soundtrack, that sorta stuff.
