Tenners Tell All: Writing Music

[jjhoutman]

When I'm writing, I like to listen to music, especially when I'm writing in my usual coffee house. There's usually someone at the next table complaining about the food on her last trip to Spain or speaking too loudly on the phone about profit margins or standard deviations. When that happens, earbuds are my friends.

But it can't be just any music.

Comments

[sbrezenoff]

I usually make a playlist for a WIP, one that maintains the right mood for what I'm working on. For |-1|, that was a lot of Helmet and stoner metal and Kittie, which was all kinds of fun. For my current WIP, it's a lot of these current groups that have a little 60s throwback to their music, like the Noisettes, Girls, Animal Collective, and Camera Obscura.

[jjhoutman]

OK, I'm old. I haven't heard of a single one of those groups.

[michaelamaccoll]

I like Indie music. Each project gets its own mixed CD. The last one was the soundtrack from Garden State. Just hearing the opening chords of the first song puts me in a mellow mood.

[cynjay]

I use music for inspiration and to get in a writing mood. For Dirty Little Secrets, my agent sent my a Pricilla Ahn album which set a great mood. I hate to say it, but I use a lot of Taylor Swift when I need to put my teenaged head on. She just pulls me right back to sixteen again. When I actually write however, I need it completely silent. No coffeeshops, no library. I don't even like it if other people are in the house.

[jamerichards]

Barenaked for the Holidays is very big in my house right now!! (In case you haven't heard of it...)

Yeah, I can't do anything with words music-wise either. And I so crave silence when I finally get the time to write, so no music is my first choice *putting up deflector shield for all the stones thrown at me* but I have developed some tolerance for things like my daughter praticing her recorder when I'm trying to work, etc.

[jjhoutman]

Just got Barenaked for the Holidays this year. Along with Straight No Chaser. Both are a big improvement over Andy Williams.

[mindiscott]

I find that each protagonist I write needs different music. It isn't necessary what the character would listen to (although sometimes it is), but it just, in some way, makes me feel them.

While I was writing my first (unpublished) manuscript, I listened to nothing but Janis Jopin, The Doors, and Jimi Hendrix.

For FREEFALL, I started out listening to rockabilly, but I found that the The Killers "Sam's Town" album, Staind, Social Distortion, and Tom Petty (a very recent discovery, that one) also helped me get into the right mood for writing Seth.

Right now, I'm listening to Placebo exclusively for my writing, but I think I'm going to throw in Silversun Pickups, too, and see how that goes. Then maybe some Smashing Pumpkins and Blind Melon can be incorporated. I really have no idea why, but I feel like kind of whiny-voiced male vocalists are the way to go while writing this new character. :-)