Hello, fellow NaNoWriMoers. I'm currently taking a break from writing my novel after hitting my goal for tonight, and allowing my shoulders and wrists to relax to some pleasant jazz music. I saw a topic regarding live music, but I thought I would ask all of you anyways: What're you listening to?
As we write, perhaps people like the complete silence, and only the sound of their words flowing out to keep them going. For others, some want the sound of music to help guide them throughout the month, inspiring more than just words, and maybe full-out scenes or who knows what.
We can also recommend music to each other if you find someone with similar musical tastes as you.
This year, I've mostly been letting jazz and new age be my musical selection. Keiko Matsui completely invaded my 'Writing Music' playlist, but I've also got some Dream Theatre, Pieces of a Dream, Nobou Uematsu, Yanni, and a couple of video game soundtracks to push me through this year.
Discuss your writing music!
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16,485 / 50,000
Nov 7, 2009 - 19 38
Currently listening to Opeth as I try catching up on a crazy week of too-busy-to-write nonsense. =) I'm mostly a metal kind of guy, so I listen to "themed" metal when I'm writing, or stuff with a mythology blend to it (I'm writing fantasy). So I enjoy listening to stuff like Blind Guardian, Nightwish, Hollenthon, Amon Amarth, and if I really need to get into an agressive mood, some Nile (which has an amazing egyptian sound that's actually working quite well for me on this novel considering it's set in something equivalent to the ancient middle east).
Just tucked the kid in, digging into the halloween candies to get the sugars up, and hope to blaze out another 4k words tonight. Iiieeee!
45,167 / 50,000
Nov 7, 2009 - 19 49
My best writing normally comes from when I'm working in a public place with a low humm (not too loud) of background noise. Cafeteria's and coffee shops normally are good places to provide that sort of atmosphere so when I'm at home I actually have a looped soundtrack of coffee shop sounds that I play out loud on speakers and then I listen to my mp3 player overtop. My hubby say's I'm neurotic ;-).
As for actual music I have a different soundtrack for each character and different types of scenes (romance, battle etc) right now I'm floating between a lot of Sarah Slean, Sarah McLachlan and Loreena McKennitt for my main character, and a mix of Disturbed, Within Temptation, Billy Talent and Three Days Grace for everything else.
I pull a lot from the top 10's that are on the radio right now, for years to come I'll listen to some song that was constantly on the radio this month and it'll make me think of my novel.
----------38,561 / 50,000
Nov 7, 2009 - 20 39
I don't try to gear my music to my writing, but I do like to listen to stuff, at home, anyway. I haven't been bringing music to the write-ins, though I suppose I probably could.
I have a number of different ways to choose music for my playlist. One of them is going through my MP3 collection alphabetically by title; I'm up to the C's, in fact right now it's "Cancel For The Cure" by Eels. I just bought a bunch of second-hand CDs on Whyte Ave today, and when I'm done ripping those I'll probably listen to those ones.
My musical taste in general seems to be "quirky pop", with wide variation. Today I bought Christine Lavin's "The Bellevue Years", Veda Hille's "Spine", Newton Faulkner's "Hand Built By Robots", Matt Bianco's "Matt's Mood", and Cake's "Pressure Chief". Plus I have a bunch of eMusic downloads to use in the next few days or they'll expire.
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--Alfvaen(Web page: http://www.telusplanet.net/public/alfvaen/ )
Current Song--Ween:Candi
Current Book--John M. Ford:How Much For Just The Planet?
"The Sun will pass between the Earth and the Moon tonight for a total Lunar eclipse."
47,063 / 50,000
Nov 7, 2009 - 20 50
I really wish that I could listen to music with lyrics while writing! I have to skip so much music because I get so distracted. I either start singing along, or the words from the lyrics get imposed in my writing, lol.
So everything I listen to has to be unstrumental. Andy McKee is an excellent guitarist, Yiruma on the piano, Zoe Keating is an amazing avant garde cellist, Joshua Bell on violin, Wide Awake City is a trio of guitars, Rachel's is a great group, Carter Burwell has lots of great movie scores, the Amelie soundtrack is great too.
I also have a couple of game soundtracks too, hee. The Eternal Sonata soundtrack is perfectand Kingdom Hearts is good too.
Oh, and I lied! There's one album with a moderate amount of lyrics I love to write to. The soundtrack for Where the Wild Things Are by Karen O and the Kids is so inspiriing.
And that's pretty much my whole nano soundtrack now...
----------Fight the good fight. Write the good write.
50,097 / 50,000
Nov 7, 2009 - 22 53
For this year's nanowrimo: Deftones, Rammstein, Metric, and Lacuna Coil. I've had the songs My Own Summer by Deftones and Blindness by Metric on repeat for most of what I've written so far.
----------NaNo '06: Fallout - 50,013
NaNo '07: Dark State - 55, 133
NaNo '08: Living in the After (awaiting a better title) - 50,088 (and readable!)
NaNo '09: Hunger - ???
23,045 / 50,000
Nov 7, 2009 - 23 02
I pick at random from my music collection when I"m on my desktop, everywhere else I listen to silence, unless I"m at work then I'm normally listening to my XM radio and it decides what I hear.
Tonight as I try and blast out almost 10,000 words I've listen to Green Day (the whole 21st Century Breakdown album) and Ubiquitous Synergy Seeker (both their albums). Both are awesome writing music choices for totally different reasons. Welding the C:\ just finsihed so I have to find something else. I think I'll go with Bad Religion now...
39,474 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2009 - 09 37
I come and go on whether or not it's a good idea to be listening to music with lyrics... Depends on the scene, really. My always-useful writing music playlist tends to be a lot of trance and techno (so Paul van Dyk, Juno Reactor, Talamasca, Afro-Celt Sound System, Enigma, and Delerium, with some Apocalyptica thrown in for good measure). But I'll frequently go with what's on my mp3 player as well, which this year happens to be a fair amount of industrial -- Oomph, Edge of Dawn, VNV Nation, Stromkern, and Nine Inch Nails. :)
----------Harper Grey
Sensei for Clan Commandment
59,438 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2009 - 10 14
Woah there's a lot of music I listen to. I have playlists for different situations, for intimate ones I have one entitled 'slower', for major events in my stories I have ones like "Valentine Ball" or whatever. For my playlists I go through my music and find ones that suit the situation. I find that music really really stimulates my brain but too much gives me a headache or makes it hard for me to write which gets me quite depressed. Most of the time it's good though, I try for softer artists like Damien Rice or Joshua Radin or Imogen Heap, and they're very depressing-sounding but so wonderful. :)
----------"No need to be afraid. It's real love. Yes, it's real love."
--Regina Spektor
61,555 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2009 - 10 28
It depends what scene I am writing. If I am really into it, lyrics won't matter, and sometimes I even have the perfect song that I will loop over and over again until the scene is over. If I am less into the scene, I try to avoid songs with lyrics, or at least lyrics I know I will sing to.
When trying to avoid lyrics, I will listen to Japanese music (Girugamesh and D'espairesray) or Apocalyptica. I have a few good Armin Van Buuren songs too. Otherwise it's things like Nightwish, Death From Above 1979, Muse, Sins ot Thy Beloved, and those sorts of songs, depending on the scene, the mood of the scene, my mood, and the level of motivation I need. I find fast paced songs really get my fingers moving.
100,002 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2009 - 11 38
I listen to a lot of electronica when I'm writing. Cosmic Gate, Above and Beyond, David Guetta, DJ Tiesto, DJ Mangoo, Gigi D'Agostino, Armin Van Buuren, Paul van Dyke and Pakito usually make it into my playlist somewhere. I have no problem with writing to music with lyrics, I can concentrate on the scene pretty well.
If I'm writing something particularly sad, or something with a lot of action, playlist changes a bit - Tegan and Sara, Imogen Heap, Death Cab for Cutie, Within Temptation, Bloc Party, The Arcade Fire, Metric, NIN, Nightwish, Linkin Park, Shiny Toy Guns, Feist and MSI are good for either of those things. Uh, yes, I have WAY too many favorite bands. Heh.
39,474 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2009 - 12 51
@Joe -- Eee, you listen to D'espairsRay? I love them! How about MUCC or Dir en Grey? (And if you don't mind bands in other languages than Japanese as well, I recommend Mor ve Otesi and Siddharta!)
@Paige -- I maintain that there is no such thing as too many favourite bands. ;)
----------Harper Grey
Sensei for Clan Commandment
45,088 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2009 - 16 13
MSI! I adore MSI.
I've been listening to a bit of My Chemical Romance, some Fall Out Boy, and a lot of Amanda Palmer and some Matthew Good. I also have a queer/genderqueer mix a friend made that I really enjoy, with some Alix Olson, Le Tigre... I should put some Sleater-Kinney on, too. I just turned on The Faint to maybe do a bit of writing.
I don't know, weirdly, I am not big on lyricless music -- a lot of my enjoyment of music is based on clever/interesting lyrics, so i have next to no non-lyrical music. i tend to tune out music while i'm writing, but i often enjoy having it, if only as a way to tune out the conversations that otherwise I would take part in rather than writing. ;)
----------50,128 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2009 - 20 11
Despair'sRay is quite good, as well as Dir En Grey. Just doesn't suit my story, though...too loud for me. :') I also just can't have lyrics (that make sense, anyways), or else I get to distracted. I wish I had the ability to tune out lyrics though, and focus on writing! It would expand my horizons so much.
27,543 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2009 - 22 09
I'll listen to certain podcasts as I write, such as the Drunk Tank podcast (the fine folks who brought machinima to the forefront of awesomeness), Podtoid (featuring a semi-rotating cast from the Destructoid.com staff), LRRcast (a sketch comedy group based out of Victoria B.C.) or finally my boys from Gundamn! @ MAHQ.net (the best mecha-cast this side of the Earth Sphere).
Or I'll just listen to random music.
----------61,555 / 50,000
Nov 9, 2009 - 06 54
@ Harper I am trying to poke Crystal into sending/giving me more Japanese stuff. I would love some Dir en Grey, but alas, I am not a pirate. Maybe I should change that.... but then my computer would be sad from music overload... Hmmmm.
5,182 / 50,000
Nov 9, 2009 - 07 29
People are always surprised but this when they know me in person but I listen to mostly prog rock, goth metal etc when I write. Porcupine Tree, Three, Iced Earth, Type O Negative etc. Though sometimes I pull out my classical or opera and other genres. Celtic music can be wonderful for me to write to and so can Kan'Nal ( psychedelic tribal rock band)
33,553 / 50,000
Nov 9, 2009 - 11 28
It's almost exclusively pop music for me - mostly bubblegum pop, with some classic rock, country-pop, and soundtracks thrown in for good measure.
If I'm writing something dramatic, you can't get much better than a John Williams orchestral march/theme - I'm particularly fond of the theme music for 'Jurassic Park' and 'Schindler's List'. Stuff like 'Indiana Jones' and 'Star Wars' are for more fun stuff, but generally the bouncier it sounds, the more likely I am to write to it. John Williams is the exception because he is a Musical Genuis/God on a level I can only aspire to. (For good soundtrack stuff, Marc Shaiman is also a good bet.)
37,122 / 50,000
Nov 9, 2009 - 11 43
I will often use songs with lyrics to put me in a mood to write a scene, but while I'm writing it must be lyric-less tunes. Otherwise I get too distracted with wanting to sing along or I start typing lyrics to keep myself from singing along (nobody wants to hear that at write-ins!). I made the mistake of starting off my novel listening to 'La Vie Boheme' (from RENT) which put my talking pirate-cat outside a small restaurant, watching a group of people singing and dancing on tables inside, and musing over the loss of their Akita (Evita!), who was her catnip dealer. Oops. ;)
I go with techno, instrumentals, and movie soundtracks/scores mostly. I don't mind the occasional lyric in a techno song because it usually just repeats itself in a way that doesn't stand out outside of the song to my brain.
My favorites are Robert Miles, Paul van Dyk, Orbital, Ian Van Dahl, Enigma, Enya, Bela Fleck, and Andy McKee. The NIN album 'Ghosts' is also quite good to write to. I'll pretty much listen to anything, to be honest. I'm a music junkie.
As for movie scores, I default to Requiem for a Dream (I think I wrote my entire novel to this last year... Clint Mansell is amaaaazing), Pan's Labyrinth, K-PAX, Titanic, and Legends of the Fall. I should definitely get some John Williams stuff - thanks for the tip, Cendari! It also occurs to me that Fantasia might be a good one to get!
-----------=-=-=-=-=- Earth. Air. Fire. Water. Write! -=-=-=-=-=-
40,446 / 50,000
Nov 9, 2009 - 21 37
I join the long list of writers listening to soundtracks. Animatrix, Mr and Mrs Smith, STOMP, Helsing, Mists of Avalon, Nutcracker, Serenity, 300, Cirque's Ka, Bon Cop Bad Cop, Resident Evil, and various songs with tons of energy and not much English.
Only the last few days have I ben listening to stuff with lyrics. Normally I can't help but sing along, however once the adrenaline gets going and the word war is well on it's way, I no longer hear anything but the story. After a quick read through though, I found that what I wrote was a mashup of what I listened to.
Eg: Calm Like a Bomb + Crystal + PPR:Kut = Juggler who goes on a psychotic rampage and waves a gun around at a fair because someone didn't tip him. When I started the word war, the juggler was supposed to be touchy feely. That's angry music for ya.
100,002 / 50,000
Nov 9, 2009 - 21 53
YEEESSSSSSS. Such a good soundtrack, and movie. And yet anyone I mention it to is all 'WTF?"
51,690 / 50,000
Nov 10, 2009 - 13 26
Lyricless for me as well, or lyrics in a language I don't understand. I've had Beats Antique and Ali Farka Toure on random repeat for a couple of days.