Young Writers Society

Do you prefer to listen to music or not? How come? What types inspire you? Does it affect the storyline?

I almost always listen to music when I write. Actually one time, I was writing a story while listening to a certian CD, and I realized after that my characters did pretty much what the songs were talking about. But right now the two things I listen to most would be The Killers and Jason Mraz.

I voted "Not usually", because I can't really focus on writing if there's any kind of noise. But I think I could do it if I tried, I'd just rather not to.

I agree with Demeter. I listen prior to writing, though, so I put Sometimes. I used to listen when I wrote, but I kept writing typos, so I gave up.

I voted sometimes, because half the time I'm writing about an idea that came into being while listening to a certain piece of music, so it makes sense to listen to that music while I write, but otherwise music can be distracting.

The music I tend to listen to are The Killers, Coldplay, Queen, Beatles/John Lennon, Scatman John, David Bowie, Oasis, Ozone, various Classical pieces (I'm particularly fond of Pachelbelle's Canon, both the original and the rock version) and a few other things. Sometimes I don't even listen to the lyrics, the music itself is usually enough to have a significant effect on my mood.

I voted that I like to, but can easily do without.

Sometimes it can really help. Bands or artists that seem to work for me are The Decemberists, The Shins, Sufjan Stevens, Bright Eyes, Death Cab For Cutie, Okkervil River, The New Pornographers, Guillemots, and similar type music. Movie soundtracks and scores are also good.

Yeah, usually music helps me concentrate a lot, but more often then not I go without it, because most of the times I get the chance to write, I don't have music on me to listen to. Or I do, but am not exactly allowed to be listening to it. XD I love to make playlists and stuff for my books, and half the time when I'm listening to songs I'm trying to work out how they fit with one of my characters.

Music has affected my storylines a little before: one time I had this one character, and I had no idea what to do with her and didn't really understand her at all. Then I found this song that was totally her theme, fit her perfectly, and within a day I understood her better and had figured out the perfect way to wrap up her arc, giving a huge amount of development to some related characters in the same swoop. To this day, that's my favorite part of the plot. XD

Most of my music is in Japanese because... I'm just a dweeb like that. XD I'm a big fan of Do As Infinity-- great because they can't seem to pick a genre, so their sound is in a huge range of different moods--, YUI, moumoon, Kanon Wakeshima, Utada Hikaru, Rie Fu and many others. XD I've been poking around with English music a bit, though, too... A friend recently led me to discover Laura Marling, who I love to death, and pandora.com is my new best friend of finding songs and artists I've hardly every heard of. XD

I like to write with music in the background, but I can write without it as well. I usually make a playlist for the story I'm working on with music that fits the scenes I'm writing or the characters I'm writing about. Music inspires me and helps me get into the right 'mood'. The fact that I listen to music while writing doesn't affect the storyline, but sometimes certain lyrics get stuck into my head resulting in new story ideas.

My playlists cover quite a large amount of artists and bands, but I usually fall back on just a couple of them in particular: Demons & Wizards, Dream Theater, The Gathering, Stratovarius, Tristania and the classical compositions of Yoshiki.

Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. It generally helps me concentrate better but sometimes it does the opposite. The kind of music doesn't really matter to me so as long as I have Pandora and don't have to use Youtube, all is well.

Songs infulence me sooo much, with out some song there would be sertan sences and story lines that I would not have evan come up with and I know that if I have to write a happy seance I will listen to a fast song also if I liten to a fast song I find that I write faster and can get into it more.

Unsung War from Ace Combat 5.
IA-Style Toho - Judgement Days/Lunatic
Nightwish - Fantasmic, Beauty of the Beast, Kinslayer
Then Sabaton, Rhapsody, Dragonforce and you got my picks

Music drowns out thoughts and noises around me, I also tend to write about 2-3x faster with it on. So yeah, it is good for me.

I always listen to music when I'm at the computer period. For writing, I like to put on Neutral Milk Hotel Of Montreal, Man Man, or something sweet sounding like Cat Power.

Ooh, I have to have it on when I'm writing, or I go insane. It really depends on the scene that I'm writing--some all-purpose stuff includes The Decemberists, Neutral Milk Hotel, the Rural Alberta Advantage, and Belle & Sebastian. Sufjan Stevens is always good, as is Johnny Flynn.

And for "up" scenes, something groovy is needed--Of Montreal, Franz Ferdinand, etc. Though it has to be in English; my brain can't do one language in the ear and another out the fingers quite yet.

I vote for "manna," which is both Greek and Japanese for "eat."

These people have been doing the impossible: bringing all of the world to light. We can see it all with our earthly eyes. So yes, the word for me is "manna": eat.

This is like the perfect thing for me! I HAVE to listen to music when I write. I listen to pop punk when I write. My Cobra Starship and All Time Low music helped inspire one of my characters actually. My favorite character ever in one of my stories. The mood of the music made me think of him. Music really inspires me, when I write so I always listen. And quiet is just boring.