Greetings, fellow writers.
I was wondering if any of you listen to music whilst you’re writing.
I’ve just completed a couple of parts of my first novel, and I listened to music that I thought was related to the ‘mood’ of the piece of trying to write. It worked well, but at first I did find myself unable to concentrate on the writing, but then it flowed fine.
Any thoughts or suggestions from the group?
TAHAGW, AWT.
I am someone who is sensible to (and pays great attention to) the rhythm and musicality of a text (I write in French, if it matters), and therefor,
… I can compose with music playing, but it has to be instrumental. I find it destabilizing if there are lyrics.
… I can’t edit with music. Any music.
… Random noises are not a problem at all. I can totally function in a busy café. (Assuming the ambient music isn’t too loud.) People chatting isn’t an issue. (Unless one insists on talking to me specifically. Then maybe yes, that could potentially be a problem. – Lol)
If you search the forum, there is a thread where a good couple of us listed/suggested nice noise cancellation apps and ambient non-music stuff (rain, birds, a forest) to “listen to” while writing/editing.
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So nice to hear from a fellow writer who does this, too. There are times when the literary phrases I write feel much like the musical phrases I compose—there’s rhythm and meter to them, even a kind of cadence.
In another thread, a fellow writer is wondering about the length of the paragraphs of a first novel. I have been puzzling about how to answer because, for me, it’s a sense of musicality that determines length for me. I have doubted it would be useful to suggest such an approach, and even if I were to try, I wouldn’t know how to explain it–even to a musician. Plus, I’m a new novelist; I shouldn’t be giving fiction-writing advice.
Back to the subject of the thread, my fantasy novel series is set in a musical/magical world, and I’m also composing the music for it. I sometimes will listen to some of the music I’ve composed for the novel to get me in the mood. Since I’ve composed the music, I really don’t have to play it at my piano or via the recorded version; I can just hear it in my head. Still, now and again, I will play a recorded version rather loudly through my studio speakers before writing. Here’s a sign that hangs in my studio, to remind me to wear headphones when the neighbors are home:
With apologies to those who’ve endured my posting of this before, here’s the main theme sketch I composed. This is the one I most often listen to to get me in the right frame of mind to write:
There is no need to keep playing it or any other music while I write, though. My head is filled with music pretty much constantly, and that is more than enough for me.
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As part of getting to know my characters, I “ask them” what sorts of music they like to listen to in different situations.
Then for each of my main PoV characters, I build myself a playlist from their answers, modified to be primarily instrumental (the occasional lyric pieces are ok, if they help me to better write in the “language” of that character, but otherwise lyrics distract me). I also try to intentionally scope out what their various moods will be through the book, and include music in their playlists for those moods. When I’m writing from that character’s PoV, I play their playlist.
When I’m editing, noise canceling headphones are a must-have. I’ve started an editing playlist for myself, and sometimes that works well, but other times I need silence.
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It’s dawned on me that one of the musical sketches* I’ve composed for my novel series, an idea for the hero’s theme, is a musical example of how I hear rhythm and cadence when writing my novel.
I’m sharing this sketch because it’s easy to hear the musical phrases, the pauses to breathe, the cadences. This musical sense is how I know how a sentence should sound and when it’s time to end a paragraph or even a scene. (I have no idea if this makes sense, but it’s the best I can come up with so far.)
*By sketch I mean that, as I work on my novel, I sometimes get an idea for its music. To preserve it for later development, I’ll typically jot down the basic melody and chord progression on a notation pad I keep next to me. If I’m particularly inspired, I’ll carry it further, as I did here, but always with the idea of returning to it for full development once my novel is at least in the revision stage.
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