Music for writing

I find that I need different music for different types of scenes. I listened to a lot of heavier, faster paced music when I wrote the car chase scene in my first nano novel, crossfire. And one time, I went to sit down and try and write a short story outside of nano, the first song that came on was blaze of glory by bon jovi, and I felt so totally inspired that I wrote a single shoot out scene for a western. I haven't gone back to it since I wrote that, but then, that could be because I don't have a plot, or characters, or anything.

NanoWriMo Efforts:
2006: Crossfire - 57,000 - Success!
2007: Untitled - 33452 - Epic Fail!
2008: Untitled - 50,727 - Success, sort of.
2009: Dancing on a Dirk's Edge - see for yourself

I listen to different music depending on what I'm writing. Last year I listened to a lot of Evanescence and Nightwish to write my novel. It was dark and sad and the music really helped set the mood for me since I was revelling in my new love and that really doesn't help a death scene. :)

This year I'll be listening to Rammstein, Metallica, Nightwish, Evanescence, Linkin Park and probably a few others. I'm writing sci-fi and I'll probably use Sia and Kate Miller-Heidke for the mushy bits and stick to some stronger music for the other parts.

If you don't already have one check out www.last.fm because they can link you to artists similar to the one you're listening to. It's great for discovering new music!

Mel / Calliopes.Sin
ML of Adelaide, Australia

"I write for the same reason I breathe - because if I didn't, I would die." - Isaac Asimov

I used to use Last.fm, but this was years and years ago and it wasn't really very effective. I don't think it helped that my music wasn't correctly tagged :). I try not to listen to anything with lyrics when I'm trying to write, as I get easily distracted. This is especially true when it's something I know and love. In preparation for Nano I've been borrowing a lot of instrumental music from The Library. This is mostly stuff with a lot of rhythm like African drumming and Indian music (Sitars, drumming etc etc). I'm yet to see how effective this is :).

Mostly I work best when there's music in the background that doesn't take my full attention.

I don't listen to an awful lot of music when writing either because i'm pretty easily distracted. But since i've changed my novel idea recently and there's now going to be a huge music theme since its set at a music course i'll probably need to crack out the classical and slightly unusual non-mainstream music (of course i'm up for recommendations of the weird and wacky if anyone wants to share). Oddly though, at the moment i've found myself on a weird folkish trip... dunno why but my 2 favourite bands right now both seem to fall into the folk/alternative category...

I have always found it easier to write whilst music is on in the background. Genre is more along the movie scores area than rock/pop etc. It helps give me that cinematic feel to a story.

2007 - All That Can Never Be
2008 - Reign of the Super-Men: Book 1 - Origins - Winner!
2009 - Untitled

Just putting in another "I can't focus on music and doing things at the same time", so that anyone else who has that feels slightly less weird. Or uncomfortably weirder, depending on their impression of me I guess :)

Mostly I write with my generic list of ~1200 songs. Songs I know so well that I can sing along and not get distracted. I find new music to be way more distracting than familiar music.

As for having it be appropriate to my writing - yeah, a bit, I supposed. I might skip a faster song if I was writing a death scene, or something, but not intentionally find a slow song. (Does that make any sense?)

"My job, as a writer, is to explode."
- Neil Gaiman

I've been hunting around on ITunes searching for music that matches what kind of thing that I'm gonna be writing. Listening to music on the radio then searching up song names/lyrics so I can see whether it would be right for my novel is the way that I go about it.

Much fun :) Finding all kinds of things :)

Heaven's Garden NaNoWriMo '08 - Won 50,018 words
Love and Angels Script Frenzy '09 - Won 102 pages
Big Red Motorbike NaNoWriMo '09

I am once again another person who gets distracted by music and so doesn't write with it on. However, I am quickly learning that I also get distracted by everything else around me, so perhaps putting music on to cut out that outside noise MIGHT help it a bit.

Cate
2009: Flowers for the Fallen

I usually listen to music while writing. The bands I foresee listening to a lot of would be Pinback, The Appleseed Cast, Death Cab For Cutie and Paper Rival; especially Pinback.

ΩPR!

2008: 'We, the Disappeared' - Win
2009: 'Chaos and Other Theories" - Promising

Sometimes music helps, sometimes it hinders.
My first Nano I seemed to enjoy Frank Sinatra and a swing CD by James Darren- although this was because my first novel was some Star Trek Deep Space Nine fan-fiction and the character Vic Fontaine (played by James Darren) from the last two seasons sung a lot of the Sinatra classics.

I know last year I found that Sarah McLachlan was high on my playlist, even though her music had nothing to do with my novel. I think it was just her voice and the softness of a lot of her songs. It was good background noise which is sometimes needed in noisy public places.

This year I'm writing a novel set when I was in high school, so songs of the late 90s are going to be on my play list. Actually I'm just about to put the call out on Facebook to all my high school friends and see what they come up with. Unfortunately there will be some songs omitted from that list. Particularly a song by Mousse T which my friend just put in my head.
Not the kind of song you want me singing along to at a write-in!

NaNoWriMo- Day 3
Given up on current idea and going back to finish last years!

I tend to write a lot of New England based stories that have some maritime element, be it sailing, lobstering, fishing or about nautical folklore so I listen to a lot of folk-type music witha strong Celtic influence or even just some sea shanties if I feel like it.

I tend to listen to some Canadian unknown bands like Hadrian's Wall and The Great Big Sea. Also, I don't rule out some good Pogues songs and Flogging Molly. You can never go wrong with them. Generally, I just put the music on and let it play.

I do find that the music helps me more when I'm in the planning stages, I can visualise everything perfectly on my walk home from work!!!

-Sarah

I do need music while writing or actually doing anything, I can't even sleep without having music in the background, most of the time I'll be leaving it on Fresh FM while not actually doing anything, but when I'm actually writing or graphic design, my huge library of Radio 1 Essential Mixes handle my focus.

The Essential Mix is the area of music I love, with how a DJ actually can make the music flow together for two hours while you do not even notice that it's gone into another track, and each week, a DJ adds in his own flavour to the mix, it's just amazing to calm me and can get me into my muse.

This one's mainly for SAM. Hadn't heard of Hadrian's Wall or The Great Big Sea, but they look really interesting - I'll have to check them out.Thanks for the tips. There's a lot of good stuff comes out of Canada. Have you come across Bruce Cockburn, another canadian who's almost unknown in Oz - very different style from the others you've mentioned, but he's an amazing artist in so many ways. Give him a try. I think you'll be impressed.

I like to listen to music without words or else I get distracted. Movie or TV scores are great, as is classical music. Another artist I listen to is Libera, which is an alt boys choir. They sing a lot in Latin, and because I don't understand it, it's basically like it has no words either

If anyone is into soft instrumental music, I would recommend Yann Tiersen, who's a french composer.. His piano scores are really inspirational for me. At the moment the one that makes me want to write is Comptine d'un autre été. There's another called A Ton Etoile as well, which has lyrics (but in french).

2006: The Hateful Game - Failure
2009: Crash - In progress

I'm obsessed with the Beatles - and so, incidentally, is one of my main characters - so that's my soundtrack at the moment. Currently I'm listening to Abbey Road, which I find is a great album to write to - different tracks set the mood for different scenes.

I've been in a "Within Temptation" phase, so thats been good, a lot of classical/operatic/rock/goth mix thats not too distracting....good thing i've got17.6 hrs worth of the stuff :P

I've pretty much always got Some music on when i'm on my computer. though i'm usually fairly eclectic. definitely depends on my mood. usually i just have iTunes DJ going... and i'll have a look at the upcoming playlist and delete what i'm not in the mood for.

2008: Of Cats and Stargates - Fail by 2000 words (still not finished lol)
2009: Dragon Quest (working title)