What Music do you Listen to While Writing?

Anything with lots of energy, I really like Mighty Mighty Bosstones and music similar, also celtic music.

Instrumentals for me.....music that has lyrics just makes me want to get up so I can dance and sing---which isn't conducive to the writing muse :)
I started my NaNovel with the soundtracks to the Lord of the Rings movies....It was funny, but I could see a difference in my writing style and focus when the tension in the music changed.
Now I'm writing to a nature's mood CD called Scottish Moors---Love it! All the haunting instrumentals make for haunting scenes in my writing!!!!

But, I must have music or I lose focus completely :)

Scottish Moors-- great suggestion! I need more haunting instrumentals.

I was thinking of maybe investing in the Braveheart soundtrack. Anything to get me to the halfway point on nov 15th!

I find I am unable to listen to music whilst I am writing. It just puts me off. It also reminds the children I am there and then they come into my study to see what I am doing when they should be in bed sleeping. So, it is easier for me to focus without music.

i listen to the beatles, marilyn manson, pink floyd, the yeah yeah yeahs, garbage, j-pop, supergrass, donovan, rob zombie, and yoko ono while i write. i think the yeah yeah yeahs, yoko ono, and garbage help me the most in my writing though.

I usually listen to things such as Three Days Grace, Kelly Clarkson, stuff like Rock adn Alternative. It helps me when Ineed to write certain scenes for a story. : ]

great feedback.... i love the yeah yeah yeahs. i will give them a try

Yeah, I have that soundtrack too....It's awesome! There is something about the eerie sound of bagpipes or mostly any Celtic music period that lends itself to crafting those spooky scenes in stories ;)

I love Debbussy, classical piano music, and Handel's violelin sonotas

When I first started writing I was listening to a lot of mellow music, just the stuff I usually listen to, but at this point I've gotten into a lot of upbeat, rock groups.

And my current Musical Muse is Paramore, a group I'd never listened to before now.

Everything I write ends up with its own soundtrack, I make a playlist in iTunes and play while I write. I can't stand background noise normally, but I have some mean sensory memory and playing music from my own youth really brings back what it's like to be 11/12/13 for me. Which in my case means, cheesy 80's music. :)

I have Music Mixes I create on Imeem (www.imeem.com) and they vary from mellow, oldies, and country, thinking I may do some showtunes and spiritual too. Any music encourages me and helps me. I got a whole chapter finished this morning....word count is still low though.

Pandora.com for free online music. I have my Jewel radio station playing now because it's nice and mellow and not distracting. it's just loud enough to cover up some of the background noise in my house.

Mostly things without words. For me with songs with words it really screws up my story. Then the part I'm writing will end up with a theme like the song. It's irritating. XD

I love 90s pop! Usually I'll use love songs and breakup songs depending on the mood of the story...I also use some hip hop and R&B when I have to stay up to catch up on my word count.

I listen to bands like Breaking Benjamin, Modest Mouse, Muse, Interpol, The Decemberists, The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, and The Shins when writing.

But usually it's only Breaking Benjamin, Modest Mouse, and The Decemberists since they seem to help my muse the most.

I listen to a bunch of different things, from Movie soundtracks to slipknot. But at the moment trying to do NaNo it's all punk. Why? Because punk keeps me energized and happy lol, I can't write when I'm sad, at least not at a fast pace. So right now it's mostly Sum 41. I love them ohhhh so much.

Love Fallyn xXx

Now I'm listen to David Bowie, otherwise like I Kent, a Swedish pop/rock-group.

Muse, Placebo, Nine Inch Nails...my favorite songs on repeat, usually. I stop paying attention so much to the lyrics and just listen to the rhythm.

I will seriously listen to anything, though (except experimental jazz!), instead of writing to silence. I have zero musical talent but I like to have a soundtrack for everything I do.

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See Girl Write: the life of a college writer, trying not to flunk out.

In the last two years I preferred to write in silence, but nowdays it's just impossible. My flatmates listen to the radio a lot, and I find it hard to turn it off in my "inside ear".

Still, when it finally silent I find classical music, most specifically baroque quite helpful. It is silent, sweet, filled with harmonies and it's just something little and perfect. It makes my mind relax and lets my thoughts run free :)

Well, I suppose next year I will be over this phase, but now I'm so in love with Pachelbel and Lully and Händel and Bach and Purcell and Telemann and Monteverdi and all the others, and Corelli and Pergolesi and even Vivaldi... :)

I listen to soundtracks in the main - like many others I find lyrics distracting.

My favourites are Soundtracks - Gladiator, Lord of the Rings (all 3 discs), Band of Brothers (a wonderful album) Troy (some good atmospheric stuff there)

I also have a collection of snippets of soundtracks (Classic fm at the movies) which work well.

awesome music, because im awesome, mostly: green day, nirvana, fall out boy, the academy is, my chemical romance, bullet for my valentine, kanye west, panic! at the disco, foo fighters, cobra starship, death cab for cutie, rise against, senses fail, the smashing pumpkins, paramore, shiny toy guns, the sex pistols, and others

Right now I am listening to the latest Complete Recordings from the Lord of the Rings: the Return of the King. I started listening to it yesterday and wrote more words in an hour than in any other hour before.

I've made my own NaNo playlist which consists of this:

Classical Music.
I might be in the minority group for that one.

I made a NaNo play list as well, but it's fitted with some Bach, and Mozart.
And yeah, really melodic or intricate parts of the song always get me thinking, and then the words just sort of come.
Bad explanation, I know, haha.

I also listen to Debussy, it's wonderful. Also the symphonies and string music of Ralph Vaughan Williams. Inspiring! For those of you who are moved by film soundtracks, you should try RVW's symphonies no. 5, 2, 7, 3, and 8. And then there is his incomparable Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis, some of the most beautiful music you will EVER hear.

In addition to this 20th century symphonic music, I listen to a lot of music from the middle ages through the 16th century, everything from church choral pieces to viol consorts and the like. It can be remarkably mood-setting!

Evanescence, Paramore, Relient K, Jonas Brothers, Miley Cyrus, Christmas carols (after Thanksgiving!), Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire sound track, Barlow Girl, and the list could probably go on for a bit longer. Also, my characters will end up with their own soundtracks!!!!!!!

Well I listen to pretty much anything while writing but I actually wrote the main portion listening to the Waltz of the Snowflakes from the Nutcracker on repeat! It gets progressivly faster and I find that I keep typing to match the pace of the music. It was amazing to see haw much I had written by the end of the piece

I listen to music every time I write. I cannot write without it. I listen to the music I normally listen to -- boys like girls, the red jumpsuit apparatus, fall out boy. Things like that.

And songs make really good titles. :p

xoxo.

I have tried and tried to listen to instrumental or classical music while writing but it just doesn't work!!! Crazy, considering I can multitask other things without a problem. Then again, writing is relaxing for me, so maybe my brain can't relax by doing more than one thing at a time...
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