Music + writing

Music.

music music music music music.

There is some incredible stuff out there in the music world. Not all of it is great - most of it is from a worldly perspective - but there are some gems. And music can tear emotion out of you like nothing else.

So: Do you listen to music while you write?

Many young writers recommend it. They have playlists with different styles of music for scenes requiring different emotion. They write with earbuds in and hearts singing.

For me, that's the problem. My heart singing. And then my head. And then I'm not writing, I'm singing, and my pen keeps wandering off my own sentences and into the lyrics.

I can't listen to songs while I write.

Well, let me clarify that: I can't listen to singing, anything with lyrics, or anything tied too strongly to a story. I get - distracted. (and I get enough of that from Pinterest)

But! But but but.

I'm not saying you can't. I'm saying this is what I do, myself, in my own writing routine.
(not that I have one.)
Instrumental music, in particular, is awesome and I really should try writing to it. Lindsey Sterling is my new favourite find. Piano Guys are also really good, and most of their songs don't have singing (which distracts me, because it's so good). I haven't listened to much by 2Cellos, but I think they have potential - I liked their 'With or Without You' cello cover (I don't know the original song... but my mum says it's vastly improved by removing the lyrics). [Lindsey Sterling's and the Piano Guys' stuff should be suitably free of swearing etc. 2Cellos, I'm not sure; maybe go on a case-by-case basis. I just don't look up the original lyrics to their cello covers of songs.]

Also!

Ambient-mixer. If you can't work in silence, this provides background noise. You can create your own setting - using rain, book pages turning, clocks, fires, soft footsteps, and heaps more. Or people have already created some mixes (there's a heap of rain ones). I like The Perfect Storm, Tardis Library, Tavern Inn, Calming Ocean Rain, Small Creek in the Forest, and Travel by Sea - Ship Sounds. And you can adjust the settings of what someone has already done, if you prefer (if, say, a constant clock really ticks you off). Unfortunately it costs money to download them... but there doesn't seem to be a limit to what you can listen to free online.

Do you listen to music while you write? Or do you have the same problem I do?

Or is your home full of enough background (and not-so-background) noise already?
(Family? Children? Younger siblings??)