When I'm at work on my mamaligma of a novel, I don't listen to anything but before I begin writing, I inspire myself with a copa and The Mars Volta's Frances the Mute. Here is the video below for anyone who wants to find out what you're cerebral cortex sounds like on syrup and sangria.
As a long time player, I'm glad to see someone who appreciates the quality of the music. When I say long time, I practically grew up playing WoW. Started when I was 12 and now I'm 24 and although I don't play I still renew my sub just to take in the ambience of the zones. If I had to chose music which would accompany me on a desert island, it'd be the WoW soundtrack.
Everyone's process is different. I actually use music as a way to hyper-focus on some scenes. If my character is listening to a certain song or certain album in a scene, I play it as I'm writing the scene, because it helps get me better connect with whatever emotions the character is feeling. Music can also help with the pacing of certain scenes, or drown out neighborhood noise when writing with the windows open. It's really not an usual thing at all to write with music on. Different things help different people to focus. ETA: Recently it was John Lennon / Yoko Ono Double Fantasy because my character was listening to it. When I'm writing Alexei alone in his apartment getting ready for work, relaxing, or hanging out, or I'm trying to capture his emotions about being a non-native New Yorker, it's Elton John "Mona Lisas and Madhatters."
I've been playing WoW on-off since early vanilla (my memory is fuzzy because I was only 12 or 14 at the time, so I can never decide if I must have started in late 2004 or maybe more towards mid-latemid 2005) and have at least played each expansion (even if I was very inactive for the majority of one or two, like in MoP where I only played sparsely) so it's been really cool to have been with the game and watching its music evolve in real time. They added a ton of new talent to their music team at the tail-end of MoP and in WoD and holy shit has the soundtrack gotten incredibly diverse in terms of style.
