Fill Your Soul and Writing With Music

Hi readers,

Here's another different post for this week, but I'm still staying with the writing theme. Two things actually gave me the idea for this post. The first was an article from helping writers become authors; 'how music affects writing process.' (linked below) Which discusses how listening to music can be important during writing and how it can have different affects. The second, though off topic, but just linking in, comes from a conversation about Sonic the Hedgehog Underground characters getting their own music themes. This was due to someone posting and suggesting pieces of music-which actually didn't match the characters- in the comments of that particular review on my boyfriend's YouTube channel.

Everyone has their own place and system for writing, even if you don't realize it or you do one or two simple things. I'd be shocked if anyone told me they just sit at their computer or notebook and wrote solidly for a few hours. Most people have chores or other jobs or must grab a coffee first. I'm not saying its impossible to just start writing straight way, but its rare to do that. At the start of my degree, I remember being given a task/writing technique to try, which meant that the first thing I had to do when I woke up was to write. Now it could be anything; a dream, a stream of conciseness, recording what I could sense, a story idea. It didn't matter as long as I spent my first awake moments writing.  I never actually got in the habit of that, but it was the beginnings of my thought documents, where I write a lot of stuff, mostly personal/story relented and often in a diary like way. It gives me a private space to just write and not think or edit.

I don't think I have an actual 'set' way of preparing myself to write. I know that I like to have eaten something and have a drink at my side. I will have checked out my favorite websites and updated things. I'll have watched some internet videos, but now have iTunes, Spotify, media player or my ipod on shuffle. Or else playing music from a certain artist or album. I still like to write in the afternoons and evenings, when I've had time to do other tasks and wake up fully. I've only recently become a fan of flavored coffees and have been drinking them to stay warm more then anything else! I might write in my thought doc or read a chapter/short story of my current book, before officially starting to write.

The one thing I couldn't write without though is my music. I find it impossible to work in silence or with the TV/movie on or with an internet video. The only time I've wrote without it was during school/college lunch times and free lessons, when I didn't have an ipod. Back then I was still learning about writing and found my stories very easy to escape into. Now though I sort of relay on music to help me escape. Listening to certain songs reminds of things, like right now Before I'm Dead by the Kidneythieves is on and it reminds me of the Queen of The Damned movie because it's part of the soundtrack. Thus, I think about vampires, Anne Rice novels and Lestat. It's not just about the lyrics or the singing though, when I write I feel more focused on the actual music. Is the beat fast or slow? Is it heavy or soft? Does it change or is it constant? How this going to affect my writing; speed wise, ideas/inspiration and the flow of the words?

In my brief research and thinking about it, I've found that music is a popular subject with writers. There are lots of different articles, posts and discussions out there. It was hard to stop myself reading them and becoming influenced by them whilst I'm writing this. There are recommendations for the type of music you should listen to whilst writing to achieve the highest out of it. I found some science also relenting to how and why music affects the brain -you can read all about that in the link below-. The interesting part is of course what you should be listening too. I half fancy following the suggestions and seeing what happens, though I'm very set in my choice of writing music!

This is a summary of the suggest way; (for it in full see the link to Keep It Lit below)

 Choose instrumental music. 

 Choose songs within a 50–70 bpm range. 

 Choose music with lots of repetition to encourage your brain to let go. 

 Consider the tone of the project you're working on. 

Pay attention to how you feel while listening to music. 

Experiment. 

 I recently got into listening to Natural Sounds-especially rainfall and stormy weather- I actually started listening to become more relaxed and sleep to, but I found it good to listen to during writing as well. The almost white noise/constant sounds just help you keep the flow going and also can help picture the settings a lot more. I've always said I write better when it's raining and now I can listen to it all the time without it actually raining! Brad McBride has a good YouTube channel for these; 

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBoTun54dQmzQMTxWTdJ9Sg

Secondly, I've been listening to some Japanese instrument music. I'm not into classical or instrument unless its' heavy metal relented. My boyfriend got me into the Studio Ghibli movie soundtracks which I do like listening too, but I'm sure it's only because I know the music from the films. Expending out from this though, someone else introduced me to the Yoshida Brothers. I have found their music to be fascinating, though it can be a little bit too fast for me to write too. A YouTube channel for some of their music can be found here;  http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIvFJmgxa8wXAHs3AKVEsog

Another thing to consider relates to the second thought in my introduction; characters and music within the inner workings of the story. We are surrounded by music and sounds daily, but what about characters? In some stories music has no or a small role to play, whilst in others its' a major theme which helps the plot and reader along. For example Haruki Murakami's Norwegian Wood, named after The Beatles song, has a large part in the plot and has other connections with the characters. Music and artists named in the story can say a lot about characters, (though it can also conjure up stereotypes for readers) and also the writer. So, what kind of music your character likes is important for making a complete picture of them, even if you don't include it in the story.

The last part of this is that the story within the lyrics of songs can inspire you to write stories based or around them. My MA dissertation piece was a story inspired by Bullet For My Valentine's Your Betrayal. That actually helped create one of my best non-vampire antagonists, who also fascinated my tutor. Though she did make me concerned about which part of me she had come from. Though as I looked at in another post some time ago; when we write we aren't actually ourselves...

Hopefully, that's been useful for some people. All the other links are below for you to check out. Next week I'll be back to a book review. I wonder which on it'll be though!

Images from:
http://pitchfork.com/features/staff-lists/7967-words-and-music-our-60-favorite-music-books/
http://images.firstcovers.com/covers/flash/m/music_and_writing-12360.jpg?i
http://www.musicteachershelper.com/blog/words-worth-reading/


Websites:
 http://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/2012/12/how-music-affects-writing-process.html
http://www.backwoodsauthor.com/2013/08/26/guest-post-how-music-can-affect-your-writing-by-marcela-de-vivo/
http://keepitlit.squarespace.com/blog/2012/7/30/listen-up-how-music-affects-focus-creativity-and-mood.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-bRvd4-oHA