I can’t write a line without music – it provides just the right amount of distraction to keep me focused. Clearly, I still miss the noisy roommates.
~ Stacy Schiff
I can’t write a line
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I write best in total (or near total) silence, which fortunately I can get most of the time when I’m at home. When there’s some noise/distraction around, I generally either listen to the same song (with the right tone for what I’m writing) on an endless loop or “sleep sounds” (usually rain or similar). Sometimes instrumental music will work for writing, but (unless it’s a single song on a loop), anything with lyrics is a total no-go for writing.
While I’m writing, I listen to classical with a preference for pre-Baroque, but anything is usually okay; The Art of Jazz from Ken Wiley on KNKX; some weird alpha wave crap from YouTube; silence, glorious silence. Like them all, in moderation, at the right time.
I have to have music going all the time to mask the noise outside.
“Whey is that truck running idle for the past five minutes, either drive away or turn it off.”
“Who keeps slamming their car door.”
“What’s all that hammering going on.”
“Why are the neighbor’s dogs barking. There is no one in the back yard and they are going wild and will not stop.”
“It must be fire season again because that is clearly a Sikorsky crane flying low overhead. Ratchet-ratchet-ratchet-rathcet…”
Or when I can’t sleep and it’s 3am and the automatic weapons fire starts up at the firing range down the street.
“3am, really? you are going to do that now.”
Then the weapons fire falls silent when the 50 caliber opens up. Thud-thud-thud. Thud-thud-thud. Everybody has clearly stopped to watch that happen. Then the automatic weapons fire staggers back to life again, hesitant after the big gun fires. (At least I saw some great stories when that happens. The sound of the 50 caliber is drowned out by the sound of giant ants flying across the sky. The invasion has begun.)
The music ends, and the silence is a pressure forcing me to get up and start the cd again or switch cds, so that I’m not frozen in front of the screen for hours on end.
“What was that.”
HA!
Need the right type of music for the lines you’re writing. 😉