# Music and Writing



## curtis (Aug 18, 2015)

What are your thoughts regarding music and writing? Does music serve as a stimulus or a distraction? What kind of music do you listen to? In movies, some characters have theme music. The music foreshadows an event in a scene. Do you listen to certain music when writing a scene with a particular character?


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## InstituteMan (Aug 18, 2015)

The older I get, the more music distracts me while I am writing. 

I may be biased, but I think my writing has improved as I've gotten better at focusing.


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## aj47 (Aug 18, 2015)

I think it depends on the music.  "Elevator" music or classical orchestral music isn't really a distraction, but put some lyrics in there and >bam< my focus is not on what I'm writing.


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## Crowley K. Jarvis (Aug 18, 2015)

I'm an auditory learner.  Mostly just language. So, if I hear a person talking, I can't 'tune them out.'My brain immediately processes what they say and sharply commits it to memory. Very often, I remember conversations, things my friends said, that they don't even remember. 

When I write, I have to think about the words, obviously. 

So anything with lyrics is a massive distraction. 

I need techno, trance, video game soundtracks. I'm fond of 'wasteland' music that gives me the image of wandering a post-nuclear accident desert. 

I only write while playing such music. 

I cannot write in silence. It doesn't work. I need music. xD


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## Bishop (Aug 19, 2015)

Non-vocal, ambient music helps keep my hands typing. Usually space-y stuff. Stellardrone is best, and all his stuff is 100% free.


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## Kyle R (Aug 19, 2015)

I'm a fan of both James Newton Howard and Hans Zimmer. JNH's soundtrack to _The Village_ is awesome to write to for dark, moody pieces. Epic violin work.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKjwHY_5nfk)

His soundtrack for _After Earth_​ kills it for action pieces.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzwn0hAYQK0)

Right now I'm working on a steampunk adventure, and Hans Zimmer's soundtrack to _On Stranger Tides_ is, in one word: incredible.

Give it a listen:
[video=youtube;fTco5ruzT5M]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTco5ruzT5M[/video]
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTco5ruzT5M)

:encouragement:


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## Terry D (Aug 19, 2015)

I listen to a shuffled mix of classic rock, Celtic, and alternative rock on Pandora while I write. At one time lyrics distracted me, but no longer. The mood of the music is neither a help or a hindrance to the tone of the scene I'm writing, I can write action while listening to Simon and Garfunkel as easily as I can while listening to Ride of the Valkyries, or Black Sabbath.


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## Riptide (Aug 19, 2015)

When I'm just writing without much thought I keep it on, but when I focus on my writing, like a word, or phrase, or meaning, I turn the music down low. I don't really care if I listen to it or not. My music is just pandora. I can't do it with the TV on, or slow songs, like the practically speaking ones.


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## ppsage (Aug 19, 2015)

Be-bop


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## Sam (Aug 19, 2015)

It really doesn't matter. 

When I don't listen to music, I have no problems writing. 

When I do listen to music, I'm focusing and concentrating so much on the writing that I don't hear a thing.


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## Lyra Laurant (Aug 19, 2015)

I listen to music that is somehow related to what I'm writing (right now, it's celtic and japanese music), but only before I write, just to set the mood and let my mind fly and get some ideas. Once I sit and start writing, I turn off any sound.


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## T.S.Bowman (Aug 19, 2015)

Music, specifically the music of Ronnie James Rio, is what inspired me to write the things I write. His music almost always had Fantasy inspired lyrics and for some reason, they just spoke to me in a way that no other music did. I listen to a lot of European Power Metal bands to this day. On occasion, I find some nugget of an idea.

The path for my current WI came to me while I was listening to a Dream Theater album. 

I also have an internal D J   who keeps a constant soundtrack running in my head. Sometimes he has really crappy  taste in music, though.

I have tried to write without any music playing to "distract" me. But I have found that when I do that, I just wind up "listening" to the silence.

Music, listening because I couldn't play an instrument to save my life, has always been a huge part of my life. I always have it playing in one way or another.


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## bazz cargo (Aug 19, 2015)

J. M. Jarre, Tomita, Jean Luc Ponty, Rick Wakeman, classical, jazz without lyrics.

I do listen to stuff with lyrics, in fact I have had some good writing ideas from songs.


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## DaBlaRR (Aug 19, 2015)

If I have writers block. I turn on a song related to my characters personality or related to the theme of what is currently going on in the story. That really helps me. But I turn it off when I write.


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