Nathan Bransford - The Forums

I have six children who can be very distracting. :)
I put the ear-buds in and crank it up until I can't hear any "outside" noise.
Although it can't be music that I like to sing along to or I get distracted as well.
It has to be fast and up beat as well or I just drift off.
I couldn't do like Nathan and listen to classical or I'd be rockin the z's instead!

Here's my list:
Tomb Raider Sound Track
Everlast-Whitey Ford Sings the Blues
Avril Lavigne-Under my Skin
Chris Daughtry(Any of them cause his voice is divine!)
Sean Paul- Press it up
Purge-Bif Naked

To tell you the truth I have a problem with background noise and can't understand the words most of the time anyways, unless it's a song I've researched the words for!lol
;)

I stick WMP on random and start clacking away, though sometimes i skip tracks until it's a song that suits the scene I'm trying to write. Sometimes, songs have given me ideas for shorts.

Quiet. Music makes me want to dance, or gets me thinking about the lyrics, or puts me in the mood for activity, and writing is a sitting-still-and-thinking-about-my-MS-not-those-lyrics kind of thing. I get a lot of ideas from music, but for the writing I need quiet.

Quiet, always. I just can't concentrate with music on. But music is a great inspiration to me at other times.

To me, music has always equated to partying so when I hear it, I have to get up and dance.

When writing, I require the silence of the dead. A dog barking down the road is enough to drive me insane so when I sit down to write the ear plugs go in and I don't surface again until I'm done.

I usually write with music. There are specific times when I need to concentrate that I turn it off and need absolute silence. Those are usually for focal parts of the story, or scenes heavy with dialog.

I make a soundtrack of songs that I correlate with certain scenes from the book beforehand, and usually when I hear those songs I imagine the scenes from the story, kind of like a movie scene or trailer.

Most of the music isn't instrumental, but when I got serious about writing, I did start to listen to more instrumental music. I've been digging into some film soundtracks for that reason. Also, I'm big on this alternative instrumental band, Mogwai.

While writing songs, i need silence. Well noise is ok, just not inside my ears with my headphones on.

While writing my book, i used to listen to music at leaset 95% of the time.

I prefer instrumental cos my emotions come out easily then. I sometimes choose particular pieces to listen to - depending on the plot i am writing at that time. But then sometimes when i'm on a roll... then i forget what is playing in my 'phones and just keep typing furiously!

Unless for some reason I can't...I always have to have music playing. It just helps. Especially for setting the mood or inspiration. Sometimes if I get stuck and am listening to a song...the words will just hit me, so that's always helpful :)

Right now I'm trying something different. My current WIP is told from three different voices, and unlike previous WIPs--where the overall story has a playlist--each of these characters has their own playlist. I think this really helps the mood for each voice and keeps me on the right track!

So yes. Music? Definitely :)

I have to listen to music when I write, unless it's a fairly dull scene (in which case I probably shouldn't be writing it). But, the music I listen to while writing is limited to Imogen Heap's second album, sometimes her third. I have no idea why it has to be these 12-25 songs, but anything else is very distracting, unless I'm very involved in what I'm writing. Then I can listen to some Venus Hum songs, but still that's about it.

If I don't listen to music, I get too... emotionally involved in the story, I suppose. Meaning that if I'm writing an emotional scene, I'll feel downright strange and often miserable, to the point where I start hating everything about the book. Imogen Heap keeps me from feeling like that, while not distracting me from the story. It also keeps me focused on the story and blocks out all of the noise going on around me.

Also, I have to be listening with headphones for some reason. Trying to write with music coming through my computer's speakers is worse than trying to write while skiing down a steep, rocky hill on one foot while balancing a cornucopia on your head. (OK, I couldn't resist coming up with a ridiculous analogy, but it does convey the point, sort of).

I really need music to write, or I can't focus. I always set up an itunes playlist to help me get into a writing mindset.

I find lyrics really distracting but silence can be a bit creepy if writing a spooky scene. Usually when writing I have the TV on in the background - as long as it's not a show I want to watch! Instrumental music can work well for mood/scene setting.

Music - yes! I write books about epic themes and challenges, and the music I listen to - heavy metal - encompasses those themes. Metal is all about being big, loud, powerful, over-the-top. Shouting to be heard. That's the kind of books I want to write. I've never had a problem listening and writing = it does help that many of the bands I like sing in Norwegian and other languages I don't understand.

I'm currently working on a teen fantasy novel about a group of metalheads surviving the apocalypse - I promise it's not as boring as it sounds. The writing calls for my favorite kind of soundtrack - Manowar, Blind Guardian, Iron Maiden, Eluveitie, Exodus, Korpiklaani, Arch Enemy. Songs about survival, power, and being proud of who you are. It puts my brain in the right place.

I write aboard The Good Ship Pandora.com.
Down-tempo post-rock melancholy keening or jazz, baby, jazz--all without vocals.

E.M. Forster, while writing A PASSAGE TO INDIA, would sometimes by inspired by Proust - I wonder which parts of the novel were inspired by this?

i write to music. but i do almost everything to music. ;) mostly i listen to whatever is on slacker.com