Do you write to music? Or do you prefer silence? Does it matter how the music is played? (Huh?) No, really. I can't listen to any music with words when writing. Unless I'm wearing headphones. Somehow, the words being right in my ears makes them fade to background. If they're on speakers, I focus on the words. Weird, huh?
So I'm listening to my MP3 player the other night and I'm working on a chapter. The words are in the background, just doing their thing. Then Journey comes on and I had this aha moment: this book is a Journey book! So now I've got Mike compiling all our Journey music so I can listen while writing. The last book was a Bon Jovi book. The medieval I wrote was a classical book (lots of Mozart, Beethoven, and Ravel's Bolero for some reason). That might have had something to do with the fact I hadn't yet figured out the headphone thing and was only listening to music without words.
So what kind of book are you writing?
—I love being a writer. What I can't stand is the paperwork.~ Peter De Vries
Interesting comment about music. I can write to music of any kind, talk radio, my kids beating on each other with blunt instruments—basically anything but TV. If the television is on, it’s over.
How’s Hawaii these days? (I lived in Kailua for six years.)
Hi, Jamie. Thanks for stopping by. 🙂 It’s interesting you can write to a variety of sound, but not to television. TV would distract me too, I’m afraid.
Hawaii is fabulous, or so I think. Took me a while to get used to it though. I had rock fever for about two months shortly after I arrived. Now, I can’t imagine being anywhere else. We have friends in Kailua. It’s very busy over there. Always a lot of traffic.
I have a Bon Jovi book, too — wrote #2 to Young Guns 2 soundtrack. 🙂 Another I did to the Maverick soundtrack. I like soundtracks in particular because they have an arc to them similar to that of a chapter.
Now I write mostly to middle eastern music, primarily Lebanese. My knowledge of Arabic amounts to a smattering, so I pick up the gist of the song without focusing on the words.
Hey, Terry! I remember when you were writing your Bon Jovi book. I remember thinking, “How does she write with those words for distractions?” LOL! Now I’ve found my own way to do it.
I love ME music as well, but don’t have an ME book yet. I also like to listen to Celtic, but the books I write now are contemporary and they feel like they need modern music. What are some of your favorite ME albums, btw? I’m always on the lookout for something good….
I love anything by Warda – she’s a fabulous torch singer. I discovered her when I was bellydancing. She has probably a dozen cds, and each one is a winner.
A current favorite is Khaled’s Kenza. It’s Algerian rai (political pop). Great rhythms. Anything by Adel Kassab is wonderful, too.
A great source for new Arabic music is Amazon free downloads. I discovered Samy Farag there.
Thanks for the tips! I’ll check those out. 🙂
I love listening to Jackson Brown when I’m writing a emotionally charged scene, especially the song In the Shape of the Heart. There’s something so heartwrenching to his music that gets me on the verge of tears and the words start flowing.
I also find writing to the tv good too because it blocks out the internal sensors and I can just bang out the words and deal with revision later. When I’m really crafting though I need silence.
Hi, Amra! I think it’s interesting that we write to music that creates a certain emotion in us. Maybe it goes back to how we felt when we first heard that music. I don’t know.
I can’t write with TV though! I watch it so rarely that having it on would be very distracting to me. The web is bad enough! 🙂