Author Topic: Musik to write by  (Read 12644 times)

R H Auslander

Musik to write by
« on: September 21, 2018, 05:47:16 AM »
Do you listen to musik when you write, and if so, what? Here's mine. Our valley is very quiet, but even the quiet sometimes needs drowning out. Selection depends on my mood.





Or, sometimes I'll loop in a long play list.
&t=1
 

DrewMcGunn

Re: Musik to write by
« Reply #1 on: September 21, 2018, 05:52:55 AM »
I put the headphones on and turn on the white noise.


Drew McGunn
 

Mark Gardner

Re: Musik to write by
« Reply #2 on: September 21, 2018, 07:55:14 AM »
I put together an instrumental playlist on Amazon Music. It's got a bunch or trailer length/style music.
 

RCoots

Re: Musik to write by
« Reply #3 on: September 22, 2018, 10:50:16 PM »
My music depends on writing or editing. Editing usually gets film scores or other instrumental music. Halo, BSG, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, etc. Oh, and Danheim, looooove Danheim.

Writing gets music with lyrics. Usually metal and hard rock. I've noticed that if I try to write WITHOUT it, the words come very slowly.
 

Maggie Ann

Re: Musik to write by
« Reply #4 on: September 22, 2018, 11:00:29 PM »
Do you listen to musik when you write, and if so, what? Here's mine. Our valley is very quiet, but even the quiet sometimes needs drowning out. Selection depends on my mood.


That music is beautiful but it is too relaxing to write by.

I never used to write to music. I had to go places where there are people and noise and tea. Now I can't get out because my furbaby gets way too upset when I leave him.

Music is the solution. I get the illusion of people and noise and tea is just two rooms away. Here comes my age. I listen to The Everly Brothers.
           
 

R H Auslander

Re: Musik to write by
« Reply #5 on: September 23, 2018, 12:53:21 AM »
That music is beautiful but it is too relaxing to write by.
I never used to write to music. I had to go places where there are people and noise and tea. Now I can't get out because my furbaby gets way too upset when I leave him.
Music is the solution. I get the illusion of people and noise and tea is just two rooms away. Here comes my age. I listen to The Everly Brothers.

I use the first two as background musik, looped. The third one, I play whole strings of the various musiks that choir, Pyatnitsky, and others do. It's for a little more action in the writing. If it's something quite active, I use other musik, generally 'local' but it can be quite stirring. I write in my little office on the second floor, generally, weather permitting, with the window open. With 7 'children', there are distractions, and we have a 12 grade school 100 meters up the street, so afternoon when school is out it can get, not noisy, but not quiet. Normally in this bucolic little valley, one can hear the dogs breathing as they sleep.

I remember the Everly Brothers well. JFK was assassinated the day of my senior class play dress rehearsal for school.
 

VisitasKeat

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Re: Musik to write by
« Reply #6 on: September 23, 2018, 01:34:03 AM »
I listen if I need to do a sprint. Not while writing longhand. One of my favorite and most effective music is Paulo Arruda's Lounge Beats 8. :band:

I use wireless headphones  :banana: and use Google keyboard on Android and use the word suggestions for faster typing.

I avoid noise cancelling headphones as they can make you unaware of the environment and can create accidents.
 

Maggie Ann

Re: Musik to write by
« Reply #7 on: September 23, 2018, 01:41:51 AM »
That music is beautiful but it is too relaxing to write by.
I never used to write to music. I had to go places where there are people and noise and tea. Now I can't get out because my furbaby gets way too upset when I leave him.
Music is the solution. I get the illusion of people and noise and tea is just two rooms away. Here comes my age. I listen to The Everly Brothers.

I use the first two as background musik, looped. The third one, I play whole strings of the various musiks that choir, Pyatnitsky, and others do. It's for a little more action in the writing. If it's something quite active, I use other musik, generally 'local' but it can be quite stirring. I write in my little office on the second floor, generally, weather permitting, with the window open. With 7 'children', there are distractions, and we have a 12 grade school 100 meters up the street, so afternoon when school is out it can get, not noisy, but not quiet. Normally in this bucolic little valley, one can hear the dogs breathing as they sleep.

I remember the Everly Brothers well. JFK was assassinated the day of my senior class play dress rehearsal for school.

I was in college, so we are about the same age.
           
 

R H Auslander

Re: Musik to write by
« Reply #8 on: September 23, 2018, 02:30:34 AM »
I was in college, so we are about the same age.

You might have a day or two on me, but not many. We are both lucky, we grew up at the apex of American Culture. Lots of good memories from those days.
 

Kate Elizabeth

Re: Musik to write by
« Reply #9 on: September 23, 2018, 06:27:11 AM »
My first choice is always 90s music, but I enjoy an eclectic mix of favorite artists, too.
 

MelanieMRodriguez

Re: Musik to write by
« Reply #10 on: September 23, 2018, 06:54:05 AM »
Enya tends to win or Cowboy Belop. Depends on the mood I am in, as well as how tired I am. If I'm writing something more provocative, I need old school Boyz II men or the like.
 

Rick Partlow

Re: Musik to write by
« Reply #11 on: September 23, 2018, 07:00:31 AM »
I often put on Awesome Mix Volume 1 from Guardians of the Galaxy when I'm writing.
 

JustZoe

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Re: Musik to write by
« Reply #12 on: September 23, 2018, 07:33:42 AM »
I create a Spotify playlist per book that I'm writing so that each playlist reflects the mood of that book (and thus the headspace I want to be in while writing it).

For the most part this is what I do while I am writing. Music with the wrong tone can throw me off the story.

I do have a warm up playlist if my brain is being too stubborn to start. It's usually something upbeat, energetic and uplifting.
 

JustZoe

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Re: Musik to write by
« Reply #13 on: September 23, 2018, 07:40:21 AM »
I often put on Awesome Mix Volume 1 from Guardians of the Galaxy when I'm writing.

I am groot!

(translation: I like that soundtrack.)
 

dgcasey

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Re: Musik to write by
« Reply #14 on: September 23, 2018, 09:13:05 PM »
I have hundreds of hours of long videos set up on Youtube. Music that is battle music from games and movies, dark, evil music from horror, lots of videos "to write and study by," and a boatload of others. I like the three hour videos of epic music the most.
I will not forget one line of this, not one day. I will always remember when the Doctor was me.
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VanessaC

Re: Musik to write by
« Reply #15 on: September 23, 2018, 10:05:11 PM »
Great thread!

I have very eclectic musical taste.  For writing, soundtracks are great - love Lord of the Rings (I write fantasy, so that always feels like a good match).

If it's music with words in it, unless its choral, it has to be stuff I know well otherwise I get distracted by the words - my current favourite album is Dougie Maclean's Inside the Thunder which is about 40 minutes long, and for me a good length for a writing session (fitting writing in alongside working full time).
     



Genre: Fantasy
 

R H Auslander

Re: Musik to write by
« Reply #16 on: September 24, 2018, 04:52:39 AM »
I know the feeling. Nothing like writing about a herd of bad guys coming over the hill in a highly irritated mood and Sacred War glitches to Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies.
 

feste

Re: Musik to write by
« Reply #17 on: September 24, 2018, 05:21:42 AM »
Music is way too distracting for me; I have a collection of natural sounds that help me focus.  MP3s, so I don't have to rely on stuff being available online.  (I digitized some vinyl records from the 1980s--the old "Environments" series, which has some excellent stuff in it, but didn't make it to digital.)  I've also just used earplugs.  What with air conditioners, clompy person who lives upstairs and a dog woofing in another apartment, I could do with some silence right now!
 

PJ Post

Re: Musik to write by
« Reply #18 on: September 24, 2018, 05:38:25 AM »
+1 on Cowboy Bebop. Amazing soundtrack..well, if you like jazz. Cowboy Bebop

I'm all over the place, everything from trip hop to heavy metal to bedroom prog to 60's pop music to punk/new wave. Just depends on what I'm writing. I try to match the vibe of the music with the mood of the book. But I always write with isolation headphones to better block out the world. It can be pretty annoying sometimes.

A few recommendations for people looking for new, mostly instrumental, original music.

Chon
Covet
Sarah Longfield
Hiatus Kaiyote
Animals as Leaders

And for the fantasy folks...

ELUVEITIE - Slania's Song

And just because he's so f*cking cool...

Frog Leap Studios - Sultans of Swing
Frog Leap Studios - Africa
 
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ashleycapes

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Re: Musik to write by
« Reply #19 on: September 24, 2018, 11:29:00 AM »
+1 on Cowboy Bebop. Amazing soundtrack..well, if you like jazz. Cowboy Bebop
Very much agree!


A lot of VGM works a treat too - lately I've been using the Chrono Trigger OST a lot. https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=chrono+trigger+ost

Also, Judas Priest's Painkiller is pretty tops - though, a lot of metal in general tends to work for me, especially when it comes to writing action scenes.

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Captain Cranky

Re: Musik to write by
« Reply #20 on: September 24, 2018, 02:39:09 PM »
I listen to mostly metal and rock, and it inspires all sorts of cool scenes in my head, but I just can't write to anything with lyrics. I usually listen to brain fm, or some random 'studying' playlists on spotify or youtube. If everything is going well, I'll tune it out anyway. But when it comes to plotting etc I can listen to whatever. Not sure why I can't when I'm trying to write a draft specifically  :icon_think:
If you dare nothing, then when the day is over nothing is all you will have gained. -Neil Gaiman
 

WasAnn

Re: Musik to write by
« Reply #21 on: September 24, 2018, 09:32:42 PM »
Love your music choices everyone!

Confession here too: I'm a pantser, but not really. I don't write my plots or outlines much, but I do create the books with songs. Then I simply write them down from what's in my head. So, I do my plotting while on the elliptical with earbuds in my ears.

I like everything from Skrillex to soundtracks. Some of the Portals songs were on the soundtrack for Interstellar and BSG.

One of the novels to go in Volume three of the Dark Collections has the penultimate scene to Journal of Ardency by Class Actress. Now that's a song to write to!

I can't do classical for writing though. It's too soothing or too complex, requiring me to listen.


Science Fiction is my game.
 

VisitasKeat

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Re: Musik to write by
« Reply #22 on: September 25, 2018, 02:08:41 AM »
Anyone knows how to randomise the playlist residing in the SD card of your wireless headphone? :HB
 

JimJohnson

Re: Musik to write by
« Reply #23 on: September 25, 2018, 02:30:40 AM »
I collect movie scores and soundtracks, and have playlists for various genres set up on itunes. I fire one of those up when I need something to listen to tied in to my WIP's genre/subgenre. Been listening to a lot of MCU scores lately.
 

Anarchist

Re: Musik to write by
« Reply #24 on: September 25, 2018, 02:54:44 AM »
My current writing music...




My current AMS music...





"The first lesson of economics is scarcity: there is never enough of anything to fully satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics.” – Thomas Sowell

"The State is an institution run by gangs of murderers, plunderers and thieves, surrounded by willing executioners, propagandists, sycophants, crooks, liars, clowns, charlatans, dupes and useful idiots—an institution that dirties and taints everything it touches.” - Hans Hoppe

"Virtue is more to be feared than vice, because its excesses are not subject to the regulation of conscience." - Adam Smith

Nothing that requires the labor of others is a basic human right.

I keep a stiff upper lip and shoot from the hip. - AC/DC
 

Jeff Tanyard

Re: Musik to write by
« Reply #25 on: September 25, 2018, 06:44:25 PM »
I listen to mostly metal and rock, and it inspires all sorts of cool scenes in my head, but I just can't write to anything with lyrics.


Perhaps this will work for you.   :banana-riding-llama-smiley-em :icon_cool:


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dgcasey

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Re: Musik to write by
« Reply #26 on: September 26, 2018, 04:07:55 AM »
Good for writing battle scenes:




Good for horror or scary parts:




Good for just general writing:

I will not forget one line of this, not one day. I will always remember when the Doctor was me.
"The Tales of Garlan" title="The Tales of Garlan"
"Into The Wishing Well" title="Into The Wishing Well"
Dave's Amazon Author page | DGlennCasey.com | TheDailyPainter.com
I'm the Doctor by the way, what's your name? Rose. Nice to meet you, Rose. Run for your life!
 

Ghost5

Re: Musik to write by
« Reply #27 on: September 26, 2018, 08:29:04 AM »
Music is way too distracting for me; I have a collection of natural sounds that help me focus.  MP3s, so I don't have to rely on stuff being available online.  (I digitized some vinyl records from the 1980s--the old "Environments" series, which has some excellent stuff in it, but didn't make it to digital.)  I've also just used earplugs.  What with air conditioners, clompy person who lives upstairs and a dog woofing in another apartment, I could do with some silence right now!

This is kind of what I do--I listen to nature soundtracks, mostly storms with rain and occasional thunder. Amazon Music actually has a station dedicated to nature sounds and I just play that (included with Prime).
 

Captain Cranky

Re: Musik to write by
« Reply #28 on: September 26, 2018, 09:47:50 AM »
I listen to mostly metal and rock, and it inspires all sorts of cool scenes in my head, but I just can't write to anything with lyrics.


Perhaps this will work for you.   :banana-riding-llama-smiley-em :icon_cool:





Now why didn't I think of that? I'll add that to my playlist and see how I go 😁


This is a song I go to a lot when thinking about my UF fight scenes, especially when they involve demons:





Apocalyptica is awesome for some instrumental music too:









If you dare nothing, then when the day is over nothing is all you will have gained. -Neil Gaiman
 

VisitasKeat

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Re: Musik to write by
« Reply #29 on: October 03, 2018, 12:44:55 AM »
Giorgio Moroder's "Chase" is just superb for action scenes and sci-fi :Tup3a:
 

oganalp

Re: Musik to write by
« Reply #30 on: October 04, 2018, 03:58:20 AM »
I prefer game soundtracks. No vocals (choirs and chants accepted).
 
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VisitasKeat

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Re: Musik to write by
« Reply #31 on: October 16, 2018, 01:46:35 AM »
Fairytale - Elena Ferretti AKA Rose

A nice prologue to your historical romance writing session.

« Last Edit: September 18, 2019, 05:41:08 PM by VisitasKeat »
 

Jo

Re: Musik to write by
« Reply #32 on: October 16, 2018, 03:18:58 AM »
I listen to ambience sounds while writing. At the moment to "train travel at night", "thunderstorm and train whistles", "people in a café" and "rain on a tent roof".
Jo
 

YouMeWe

Re: Musik to write by
« Reply #33 on: October 19, 2018, 07:26:52 PM »
Part of my planning process is to create a playlist for each main character. Can't write without my music. Like it loud, too, so when I first take my headphones off I'm usually a little shouty.
Pleez scoose n e errers, eyes lerrnin diktashun.
 

VisitasKeat

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Re: Musik to write by
« Reply #34 on: October 21, 2018, 12:02:56 AM »
19 (12 inch)  - Paul Hardcastle

A nice prologue to your  writing session involving Vietnam war.
 

Maggie Ann

Re: Musik to write by
« Reply #35 on: October 21, 2018, 12:13:32 AM »
Sometimes old rock like The Everly Brothers. Sometimes folk like Martin and Neil. Yesterday, it was Liszt. Today, it's Rachmaninoff. Maybe tomorrow it will be Streisand. It just depends what thought pops into my head when I'm telling Alexa what to play. I just need something in the background.

           
 

Tonyonline

Re: Musik to write by
« Reply #36 on: October 21, 2018, 01:34:02 AM »
Music is way too distracting for me; I have a collection of natural sounds that help me focus.

Same here. If I listen to sounds it has to be something like this...

 

VisitasKeat

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Re: Musik to write by
« Reply #37 on: October 23, 2018, 02:19:38 AM »
Gigolo by Green Ice

A nice prologue for your bad boy romance writing session! :icon_mrgreen:

« Last Edit: September 19, 2019, 01:14:06 PM by VisitasKeat »
 

VisitasKeat

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Re: Musik to write by
« Reply #38 on: October 28, 2018, 01:33:20 AM »
Especially for you by Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan.

A nice prologue to your sweet romance writing session.  :heart: :kiss: :band: :lalala :angel:

 

VisitasKeat

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Re: Musik to write by
« Reply #39 on: December 21, 2018, 02:14:25 AM »
A nice prologue to your erotica writing session:

Girl's got a brand new toy - TXT

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_wmqe73zs5g
 

JRTomlin

Re: Musik to write by
« Reply #40 on: December 21, 2018, 03:36:26 AM »
I can't have lyrics in my writing playlist. The mood depends on what I am writing.

Tchaikovsky Slavonic March Op 31
Romeo and Juliet Overture
Last of the Mohicans soundtrack
Tchaikovsky Symphony #6
March Slav
The Ride of the Valkyries

A few others but those are the main ones.
 

LilyBLily

Re: Musik to write by
« Reply #41 on: December 21, 2018, 03:30:02 PM »
I listen to foreign-language operas. Even if I know the piece well, including what each line means, my brain can ignore the other language. But not Mozart, or Purcell, or any of those baroque guys. They make me fidgety. 
 

cecilia_writer

Re: Musik to write by
« Reply #42 on: December 23, 2018, 01:10:54 AM »
My favourite playlist is mostly violin and piano concertos (Beethoven, Rachmaninov, Bruch, Shostakovich, Sibelius) plus the 1812 overture. That covers most of my writing. I generally find vocals too distracting.
Cecilia Peartree - Woman of Mystery
 

VisitasKeat

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Re: Musik to write by
« Reply #43 on: May 20, 2019, 07:52:35 PM »
A lovely prologue to writing something hot and steamy! :icon_mrgreen:  :kiss: :band: :lalala



Caution: Please use your headphones! :icon_mrgreen:
« Last Edit: September 19, 2019, 01:11:53 PM by VisitasKeat »
 

VisitasKeat

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Re: Musik to write by
« Reply #44 on: June 10, 2019, 01:17:57 AM »
Repeat forever!

A wonderful prologue for writing vampire fiction. :tup3b

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aDlKbvoHDNw
 

VisitasKeat

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Re: Musik to write by
« Reply #45 on: August 25, 2019, 01:15:30 AM »
A lovely prologue for your YA Romance writing session.

« Last Edit: September 19, 2019, 01:10:29 PM by VisitasKeat »
 

Jeff Tanyard

Re: Musik to write by
« Reply #46 on: August 25, 2019, 11:54:46 AM »
For writing, soundtracks are great - love Lord of the Rings (I write fantasy, so that always feels like a good match).


You might also like this...

Years before the Peter Jackson films, composer Johan de Meij wrote a Lord of the Rings suite for concert band.  This music was actually my first ever exposure to LOTR in any way.  I wouldn't read the book for the first time until a few years later.


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VisitasKeat

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Re: Musik to write by
« Reply #47 on: August 25, 2019, 08:22:42 PM »
Especially for you by Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan.

A nice prologue to your sweet romance writing session.  :heart: :kiss: :band: :lalala :angel:

One more for sweet romance! :kiss: :heart:

 

spin52

Re: Musik to write by
« Reply #48 on: August 26, 2019, 05:18:04 PM »
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVqZmdQzTxv_hecNKwdu73A/

'Morning Call' -- Some good, original instrumental music to listen to or write by.
« Last Edit: August 26, 2019, 05:23:58 PM by spin52 »
     


Traditional mysteries with a dash of humor -- no cats, no cupcakes, no covens.
 

VisitasKeat

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Re: Musik to write by
« Reply #49 on: September 18, 2019, 05:38:39 PM »
Especially for you by Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan.

A nice prologue to your sweet romance writing session.  :heart: :kiss: :band: :lalala :angel:

 :kiss: :heart: One more awesome song as a sweet romance prologue  :kiss: :heart:



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