 | 17 Sep 08 |
The other day I heard two author friends talk about the music they listened to while writing. One preferred classical music, the other heavy metal. I’ve heard this from writers before, how music seems to stir their creative juices and really get it flowing. For some reason, it has the opposite effect on me. If I play music that has lyrics, I find myself wanting to sing along with the song. If it’s an instrumental piece, I eventually wind up waving my hands like an idiot, trying to play conductor. Either that, or I start humming to the tune. At one time, I even tried using a cool sound-effects CD while working on a spooky piece, particularly the storm track that played nothing but the sound of rain, wind, and thunder. It didn’t help at all. In fact, I found it even more distracting than listening to regular music because, to me, every storm is a unique song in and of itself, and I can’t help getting caught up in it.
So I gave up music and sound tracks, then began to realize that even white noise bugged me, especially if I’m working on a really tough scene. At that time, the whir of a ceiling fan, the hum of a refrigerator, the tick of a clock, ANY noise seems to bite into my last nerve. Oddly enough, though, when my writing is clipping along at a decent pace, and I’m caught up in a scene, a twenty-man band could strike up a swing tune in the same room I’m in, and I’d probably never notice. Funny how the brain works, isn’t it?
Of course, never being one to leave well enough alone, I have to wonder, why do certain sounds affect different people in different ways. If you think about it, there are only a few sounds that seem to produce a consistent reaction in most people. Like fingernails on a blackboard. Mention that to just about anyone, and more times than not, you’ll see them visibly cringe.
Now that I think about it, sound doesn’t seem to be all that important to me while I’m writing, but it is an important part of my writing process. In that respect, I pay very close attention to sound, often attempting to see it as a word in my head. Then I think about how the word would be spelled or try to relate a particularly unusual sound to another, more common sound. Sometimes, though, you can’t relate the sound of a common ‘thing’ to anything else because it is the ‘relator.’ For example, the sound of a mop being pulled and pushed across a wooden floor. If I wanted to emphasis that sound in a story because I thought it was important, for whatever reason, there isn’t any common ‘thing’ I can think of to relate the sound to. So I’d have to give it a sound ‘word. Something like shooop-fump—shooop. Now as a ‘relator,’ I can take that same, poor ol’ mop and easily reference it to something else. For example: There was no sneaking into the room, not with his bum foot thumping and thudding alongside him like a threadbare mop on a wooden floor.
Sound doesn’t always have to relate to sound, though. Sometimes I’ll tie a particular sound to a feeling to make it more vivid in the reader’s mind. For example: Her voice grated on the nerves, irritating like wet sand trapped under the waistband of your shorts.
Anyway, that’s my little diatribe on sound. Geez, can I get on a tangent or what? Lol
So do you listen to music when you write? If so, what type of music? And as a reader does an occasional emphasis on sound enhance the story for you, or does it act more like wet sand in the waistband of your shorts? :
© 2008 – 2009 Deborah LeBlanc. All rights reserved.
Deborah LeBlanc is an award-winning author and business owner from Lafayette, Louisiana. She's also a licensed death scene investigator and an active member of two national paranormal investigation teams.
She is the president of the Horror Writers Association, president of the Writers' Guild of Acadiana, president of Mystery Writers of America's Southwest Chapter, and an active member of Sisters in Crime, Novelists Inc, and International Thriller Writers Inc. In 2004, she created the LeBlanc Literacy Challenge, an annual national campaign designed to encourage more people to read, and founded Literacy Inc. a non-profit organization dedicated to fighting illiteracy in America’s teens. She also takes her passion for literacy and a powerful ability to motivate to high schools around the country.
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I like background music. I also like “familiar’ background music so it stays in the background. I’ve got a rather eclectic mix on my iTunes that runs for about an hour, and it seems to clear the pathways. Looking at the list, it’s more that the songs evoke an emotional reaction.
Hubby’s home office is across a small bathroom from mine. When he’s home, he turns the television on and I absolutely cannot write to Law and Order, or worse, when he’s just sitting in his chair doing the ‘man with remote’ thing, because my brain isn’t able to tune it out. I’ll definitely have my music on then. But always a playlist; never the radio which is random.
Visual descriptions are tough enough for me — having to describe what something sounds like (and then to spell it!) would kill me, although I tend to use those same kinds of words when I’m talking. So, I might ask if anyone’s seen the ‘ca-choonker’ when I want the stapler (isn’t that the sound it makes?) I wish I could remember the sound of the electric envelope opener they had at one office. You could always tell when the secretary was opening the mail — and I used to refer to that sound ‘verbally’ as well. But it’s lost now.
Smells are even harder for me to describe. Something smells like what it smells like. Why try to describe it as smelling like something else. I tend to get rather ‘generic’ when describing those, too.
I’m so NOT a metaphor/simile, whatever person. I have to dig for those. I remember being elated when my last editor said, “Don’t overuse them, they’ll distract readers.” One of my crit partners LOVES metaphors and I have to agree with my editor; they do tend to distract me, although he swears by them. I think they’re more the ‘literary fiction’ thing.
As a reader, yes, I like to see, hear and smell stuff. As a writer, it drives me nuts trying to do it well.
by Terry Odell September 17th, 2008 at 5:11 amI do enjoy music when I’m working, but it has to be jazz or downtempo electronica. Anything else distracts, including story “soundtracks.” Those I listen to when I’m not working but want to stir the pot a bit.
by Christa M. Miller September 17th, 2008 at 5:43 amHey Deb,
by Debra Webb September 17th, 2008 at 6:51 amMusic definitely inspires me. I actually like having it play softly in the background when I’m writing. Music makes me feel alive and ready to take on the world!
I’m with you, Deb. I can’t listen to anything while I’m writing. I’ve gotten used to my husband watching TV in the next room, but anything else derails me. The worst sound for me, though, is the bass from someone else’s stereo. Nothing like a boom-boom-boom I can’t identify and can’t stop. Drives me batty. I once tried to talk my husband into buying a particular house because the ad said it had 2-ft thick brick walls. Heh.
I’m big on using sound in my stories, even if I have to make up words. My favorite is whoompf – which I use for explosions. =oD Dripping sounds, clicking sounds, skittering sounds. It all goes to make the scene richer. (As long as it’s not overdone, of course.)
by B.E. Sanderson September 17th, 2008 at 7:07 amHey Deb! I find I have to tie my writing to the rhythm in my head and many times, music interferes with that. Especially with the deeper, more emotional scenes. I have my iPod on my desk, but I only use it during fast paced fight scenes, or to tune out other noise that’s irrirtating me.
I love LOVE my iPod when I go for walks!
by Jen September 17th, 2008 at 7:23 amAs a reader, sometimes the onomatopoeias will throw me out of a story, especially if the writer is describing a sound I know well. I have to stop and sound out the spelling, think about what I think the item/action in question actually sounds like, and then figure out how to change what the author wrote to make it “right” before I can go on with the story.
I do write with music playing, or the TV on. If I don’t have some sort of low-level background noise I get distracted by every other noise in or near my apartment.
by Bithalynn September 17th, 2008 at 7:28 amI have the unfortunate (at least for anyone else in the listening vicinity) habit of listening to the same song over and over again for hours. Hundreds of times. (the song does change day to day though)
by Jen September 17th, 2008 at 11:02 amI love my iPod when I write. With the earphones on I can’t hear a thing my family is doing. LOL I listen to Celtic instrumentals. It is just a soothing background sound, if I get in the zone I don’t hear the iPod anymore but I don’t hear the family either.
by Amanda September 17th, 2008 at 11:59 amOddly enough, the sound of fingernails on a chalkboard doesn’t bug me. I’m the mean, sadistic one who will scrape them across the chalkboard to tease people.
But I do really, really hate the sound of a package of lunch meat being opened. The sound of the plastic and glue coming apart just makes my teeth shiver. And I’m betting most people probably never notice it. But that’s my kryptonite of sounds. So I generally make other people open the lunch meat if I can, while I cringe and plug my ears.
Hey, I have odder quirks, believe me.
As for listening to music while I write, I find that it relaxes me, and allows me to enter the creative zone. But once I’m in the zone, I generally don’t notice the music much, and it becomes background noise. The number of times that I’ve suddenly awoken from my writing frenzy to realize that I’m wearing headphones that have long since gone silent because there is no music playing are innumerable.
I will also put certain songs or types of music on that seem to fit a character, scene, or mood of the story, sometimes, because it helps me get into my writing groove.
by ALR September 17th, 2008 at 1:42 pmI write best with the iPOd cranked.
by Karin September 17th, 2008 at 2:02 pmHey all, Deb wanted me to let you know she is on the road, and will respond to the comments as SOON as she is able to get to a computer…..
by Natalie September 17th, 2008 at 4:15 pmYes, I cringed when I read the description of fingernails on a chalkboard. But you know what’s even worse? Fingernails scraping on the outside of a car. Makes me shiver just to think about it. Oh, and the buzz made by fluorescent lights in a very quiet room drives me out of my mind, it is so distracting.
I do listen to music when I write. Not all the time…I just turned it off because I couldn’t find anything good on the cable music channels (I don’t have an iPod, and I get tired of getting up and changing CDs), and I’m listening to an airplane go over my apartment right now, and a car just turned into the alley. And the breeze is making the most lovely sound in the leaves of the trees across the street. That bird needs to quit complaining, though. All that is music to me, as well. But when I’m writing about the finance markets for my paying gig (I’m waiting for oil prices to update right now), almost any music goes, depending on what kind of mood I’m in.
When I’m working on other writing, what music I listen to depends very much on how serious what I’m writing about is (for non-fiction) or what kind of tone I want to set in what I’m writing (for fiction, and sometimes also for some non-fiction). If I’m writing about the sixties, I’ll listen to sixties music, for example.
by Elaine September 18th, 2008 at 11:00 am