30 Days of Writing Meme - Day 7
7. Do you listen to music while you write? What kind? Are there any songs you like to relate/apply to your characters?
Nope.
...
...
... Oh you want more of an answer than that?
No, I don't listen to music while I write. The problem with music is that for me, for quite a while, music was an escape from wherever I was. Stuck with my parents in the car, with whom conversations are stuck to the most boring forms of personal fiction, for example. Coupled with the fact that my musical exposure was very... limited? Until I reached college. So any music even remotely interesting, moving, or with a strong enough beat to get my blood pumping? Puts me somewhere else. I unfocus from whatever is going on around me and start imagining things.
That being said, it's really good for my writing. It lets me fiddle sometimes, without the stress of putting words on a page. Or it distracts me - I go for a walk and think about something that I'm not writing, just make up some bullshit whatever plot to go with whatever I'm listening to and just unwind, and when I sit back down at my computer, it's like coming back fresh.
Is that last question trying to ask if I soundtrack my characters? That's adorable. Like, really.
Ummm. Sometimes. I guess? A song might stick to a character for a few months but it's never lasting. It's more specifically tied to writing a scene than it is to a character. I love Kane's House Rules and Gorillaz Feel Good Inc for bar scenes (possibly involving poker), and Daft Punk is good for a lot of things, especially a good con (for instance, I think I used I Like My Sex when figuring up some of Perseus!Beth's run out of the Bomer estate...). I've got a lot of music that are good for fight scenes... what can I say, I also love it to walk to. I like Nickelback's Burn It to the Ground for that too... I can't remember who does it but there's a song Mitternacht that's always good for a fantasy battle.
I have to admit that when I listen to music, unless I'm really, really in the mood for a particular album it's always on shuffle. My muses take what they get and they roll with it. They jump around because I'll go from Marylin Manson's Rock is Dead to Johnny Cash's cover of Hurt to Regina Spektor's On the Radio...
Nope.
...
...
... Oh you want more of an answer than that?
No, I don't listen to music while I write. The problem with music is that for me, for quite a while, music was an escape from wherever I was. Stuck with my parents in the car, with whom conversations are stuck to the most boring forms of personal fiction, for example. Coupled with the fact that my musical exposure was very... limited? Until I reached college. So any music even remotely interesting, moving, or with a strong enough beat to get my blood pumping? Puts me somewhere else. I unfocus from whatever is going on around me and start imagining things.
That being said, it's really good for my writing. It lets me fiddle sometimes, without the stress of putting words on a page. Or it distracts me - I go for a walk and think about something that I'm not writing, just make up some bullshit whatever plot to go with whatever I'm listening to and just unwind, and when I sit back down at my computer, it's like coming back fresh.
Is that last question trying to ask if I soundtrack my characters? That's adorable. Like, really.
Ummm. Sometimes. I guess? A song might stick to a character for a few months but it's never lasting. It's more specifically tied to writing a scene than it is to a character. I love Kane's House Rules and Gorillaz Feel Good Inc for bar scenes (possibly involving poker), and Daft Punk is good for a lot of things, especially a good con (for instance, I think I used I Like My Sex when figuring up some of Perseus!Beth's run out of the Bomer estate...). I've got a lot of music that are good for fight scenes... what can I say, I also love it to walk to. I like Nickelback's Burn It to the Ground for that too... I can't remember who does it but there's a song Mitternacht that's always good for a fantasy battle.
I have to admit that when I listen to music, unless I'm really, really in the mood for a particular album it's always on shuffle. My muses take what they get and they roll with it. They jump around because I'll go from Marylin Manson's Rock is Dead to Johnny Cash's cover of Hurt to Regina Spektor's On the Radio...