Being a Better Writer: Opening Pandora's Music Box · 8:08pm Jun 2nd, 2016
This is a post I didn't actually think I'd ever write.
Hyperbole? Not really, actually. As you may have gathered from the title, today I'm going to be talking about music, which is a common enough topic that I've been asked about by many a young writer. They want to know if someone can listen to music while writing, what I listen to, etc.
And for the longest time, I've just said "Yes" and left it at that. I listen to music when I write, you can too.
But the other day, as I was working while listening to some new music, I started thinking about how many had asked me this question, and the nature of my response. And I started to wonder if there perhaps wasn't more to say than a simple affirmation that I did. Because, while true that I do listen to music while I write—constantly, in fact—there's a bit more to it than simply turning on the radio and diving right into whatever I'm working on. Because if it were that simple for everyone ... well, the question wouldn't be coming up, would it? Would be writers would simply turn something on and go, no need to ask anyone else at all.
So today, I'm going to talk a little bit more about listening to music while writing. Because the more I thought about it, the more I realized that over the years I've developed a code of rules that determine quite a bit of my writing process. Or perhaps "guidelines" is a better phrase. Irregardless, the point is, I just don't sit down and hit "play" before I start working. Not normally. There are restrictions I follow, little self-learned requirements I keep to. And now, I'm going to share them with you.
You can read the rest of this post at Unusual Things
An educational post. I'd kinda figured the stuff about lyrics being distracting, but I hadn't considered how important it is that your tunes be as automated as possible.
I already do similar stuff when I reconcile bank accounts in QuickBooks. Maybe I should get on making that lyricless superplaylist...
Would it also be too distracting to listen to an instrumental version of a song that normally has lyrics?
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I don't know. That might be your call. If you find yourself humming the lyrics or thinking about them, then probably. But maybe not.
Did your research cover music with vocals the listener can't understand? For example, lyrics in a language they don't speak, or completely lyricless songs that use the voice as an instrument instead? It seems like those should be at least a bit less distracting than music with lyrics they do understand (and for what negligible amount it's worth, they do feel less distracting), but I haven't actually done a proper comparison.
You know, I had actually noticed the exact same thing about music. When I put on instrumental stuff, I does help me to get into a groove when I need to do stuff (particularly repetitive tasks not requiring much intensive thought), but lyrics are so distracting. I hadn't thought of matching music to what you're trying to do, though. That's a good one.
Lots of variables in this topic. Understandable how a story-driven song can interfere with an author driving a story. Would be interested to see how much of a song actually influences the actual story being written, and if some writers try to use that to their advantage. Would be interesting to see statistics on this. Amused to see I use the flip-side of this idea. Listening a song splits my attention so I do not become bored with monotonous grinding I do in a game like Warframe. At the same time, I remember being more focused when listening to some songs when I played a game like Planetside 2. The only thing that ever bothers me is excessive repetition. It would drive me insane if I had to listen to a single song by Bachman Turner Overdrive thirty-seven times in a row, as catchy as their songs are.
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Same here, usually. For me it seems to depends on how much my brain wants to focus on those lyrics. Most of the time I'm okay, and something like a chant is definitely fine, but there are some songs where when they come up and I'm writing, my fingers snap over to the little "skip" button on my keyboard and move on.
Probably a personal call.
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A lot of authors do it, having either playlist or albums that they write specific stuff to. Sands, Sanderson shares his Spotify playlists on his facebook page for fans to listen to when he's working a new book. Pretty cool.
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Like I mentioned above, a lot do. Usually I'm pretty flexible, but there are times when I'll load up an album or a specific song set to "set the mood." For example, when I wrote Alchemy's afterlife experience in Beyond the Borderlands, I had these two pieces from Gravity on in the background on repeat (mostly the second one) as I felt they perfectly captured the emotion I wanted to convey. It, along with a lot of other things, helped that scene become one of the most powerful things I've written, IMO. The other day, leading up to a pivotal moment in Shadow of an Empire in which one character is knowingly heading into a trap set by an antagonist, I put the Resident Evil 5 soundtrack on, since it captured that tense, suspenseful mood ... and I wanted to feel that as I wrote.
This is why my music collection contains—checks—482 albums, 80.5 Gigabytes of music. I do a lot of writing.
So... I tried writing while listening to some youtube "focus music" instrumental mix.
It was... pretty successful.
I'm surprised I never thought "music with lyrics can derail your thoughts" before but... yeah it definitely makes sense.
So now I need to root out more instrumental musicians so I have more options than random guitar fiddling and ethereal tones.
I've noticed in the past that I focus better when i listen to instrumental music as opposed to music with lyrics while writing or working, but I never really thought about what the reason was for that.
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