I know there's a board for this, but I thought it might be fun to discuss it here too!
What music do you listen to when you write? Do you listen to whatever's on, do you have a playlist, or do you prefer silence?
What songs do you recommend? (Don't worry about including silly songs! Share them! It just may inspire the next great chapter in our stories!)
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Personally I just set my iTunes on random and let it go. Sometimes the music fades into the background and other times I'll hear a line or phrase and it pushes me forward in my writing.
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15,092 / 50,000
Oct 16, 2009 - 17 28
My iPod ate all my music, so I don't have any. I've turned my iPod into a second language learning system. I plan on listening to that while writing so I'm at least getting some practice passively while I'm doing so much writing. I'll see how that goes.
I normally don't really like lyrics while writing, unless I know the song very well.
57,528 / 50,000
Oct 20, 2009 - 01 50
My i-Tunes library is just under a terabyte so I start up i-Tunes and just let it suffle through.
17,690 / 50,000
Oct 20, 2009 - 08 30
Music is what gives me ideas (that and talking to my wife and kicking around ideas! XD). I listen to different genres for different scenes. I also listen to songs that remind me of characters to get a feel for who they are, their texture, if you will. For my protagonist, Lucas, I listen to "Viva la Vida" by Coldplay, haha. During the climax of the book which is a huge turning point, I listened to "Attack" by 30 Seconds to Mars when I first visualized everything. For the relationship between the characters Aspen and Zoma in the sequel to the novel I'm working on now, I listened to "Guardian Angel" by Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, and also "Rebirthing" by Skillet. Their story still makes me tear up, haha.
I think that music is definitely something like brainstorming steroids, and I highly recommend it for anybody. Find some music that really moves you while thinking about your characters, and just let it happen. It will, I promise.
----------2009: Genesis
4,104 / 50,000
Oct 20, 2009 - 08 55
I definitely agree! There are songs that just help make the story in your head come to life or things you would have never thought of until a song started playing and you just visualize how perfect it is for your characters and your story.
Most of the time I have my iTunes on shuffle, and there's a wide enough variety there where I can sort of have it in the background and focus on the lyrics if I need to. And then when I write certain things I have to have a song on repeat until I'm finished.
There's not any specific songs tied to the story I'm outlining for NaNo yet, but by the end of it there will probably be a playlist dedicated specifically for this story.
I really enjoy the song Fireflies by Owl City. I heard it a few days ago for the first time and it's awesome...I can imagine my character listening to it and I really like it a lot myself, so I'll have to buy the song soon.
----------38,672 / 50,000
Oct 23, 2009 - 12 13
Hi all,
Okay, normally I listen to my XM radio while writing. I flip through the stations until I find something I like and go from there. For this upcoming story though, I've actually started catching ideas of songs to help me get into my main character's head (she's an assassin and it's a romance, so bear with me).
So far, I've got 'Blood on My Hands' by The Used, 'Forever in Your Hands' by All That Remains, and 'Oblivion' by Mastadon. I can almost picture my character listening to the first and last, while the second song is mostly the theme for the entire story.
Danica
----------Danica Avet
Paranormal and Contemporary Romance with a touch of Cajun spice!
http://www.danicaavet.wordpress.com
14,263 / 50,000
Oct 25, 2009 - 06 20
I listen to LOTS of Ryan Adams, especially the Ryan Adams station on Pandora. Pandora is great for setting a music mood, since you can tweak it. I also listen to Jason Isbell, Wilco, Carla Bruni, Babyshambles, Ray Lamontagne, and Phosphorescent. I tend to like slightly ambient music that doesn't get in the way of my thought train, but rather enhances it. I tend to make playlists for my chapters when I'm stuck and need something to do to get back in the right frame of mind.
Great topic!
----------J. M. Hunter
http://belleslettriste.blogspot.com/
34,036 / 50,000
Nov 1, 2009 - 07 40
I have been directly inspired to write by Paramore. Right now I am writing about the Kpop star Rain so I am listening to a lot of Kpop. Its funny because I don't like American Kpop. Bands I recommend are Super Junior, DBSK, MBLAQ, and Shinee
Classical music is always good for inspiration too especially Vivaldi.
22,397 / 50,000
Nov 1, 2009 - 18 55
I like listen to what fits the mood. I'm writing a football story, so I use a lot of the pump up songs I used to get me ready for a game. I also like other songs, mostly orchestrated songs with no lyrics for other scenes. Since I'm a Zelda fan, I own a lot of soundtrack music, mostly reorchestrated. They sound real good and so many have so many different styles and moods, I just have to listen to them to write. If I'm writing a sad scene, I have a song for that, if I'm writing an uplifting one, I have a song for that and so on. So for this time around, mostly rock/rap pump up songs and reorchestrated Zelda songs. Wierd, huh? XD
36,014 / 50,000
Nov 2, 2009 - 10 14
My story usually determines what music I listen to. Since my novel is about revolution and civil war and discovering the truth, my playlist is varied. Mostly it's Green Day--their latest CD inspired the novel, Muse, 3 Doors Down, and Linkin Park. I like to listen to the playlist while I'm driving to get ideas for the novel and then I rush home to put them in the story.
----------2009: Revolution: Countdown
When the world is tumbling down around you, the only people you can trust are those long thought to be enemies.