Instrumental is my favorite music to write to because lyrics and voices have a greater tendency to distract me from my writing, as they're often louder and harder to ignore. Instrumental sounds tend to fade into the background, where their style and pacing can energize me and satisfy my love of music (too, I am an amateur pianist, although other instruments interest me heavily). They also do a good job of drowning out my surroundings and capturing a wide variety of moods that I can convey in my writing. So, I find those are easily the best type of music to write to.
S'io credesse che mia risposta fosse a persona che mai tornasse al mondo, questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse. Ma per ciò che giammai di questo fondo non tornò vivo alcun, s'i' odo il vero, senza tema d'infamia ti rispondo.
Gonna echo Fox and Dest with the Instrumental deal! It may not always be instrumental insofar as classical, though that plays a heavy part in worldbuilding and generating/focusing thoughts for new and unrefined ideas. Sometimes there's just a song with a good beat that keeps my fight on tempo that I listen to with the words stripped out.
I am a forest fire and an ocean, and I will burn you just as much as I will drown everything you have inside.
-Shinji Moon
I am the property of Rydia, please return me to her ship.
It's hard for me not to jump on classic rock! as an option for something because I love it so much. But knowing me, if I tune into my favorite, self-constructed Pandora station of classic/folk rock while attempting to write, I'll just end up typing the lyrics on accident as I sing them.
Classical's the best for this. Movie soundtracks, specifically.
John 14:27: Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
"The mark of your ignorance is the depth of your belief in injustice and tragedy. What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the Master calls the butterfly." ~ Richard Bach
Apocalyptica. Cello metal band, haha. I love original soundtracks that you can only find on YouTube that are titled something like 60 Minutes of Epic Symphonic Metal Music (Dark and Witchy); it's pretty cute. That kind of music is great for writing for me.
I picked Other since I listen to a bunch of different stuff when I'm writing. I do poetry so it's usually softer stuff whether it be with instrumentals or vocals. It only really distracts me or bothers me when its really loud or when I can't pay attention to the thing I'm writing. I listen to more quiet or sad things just to get into the mood but when I'm really in the zone I kind of just ignore the music I'm listening to and let it play in the background.
Almost everything I regularly listen to is instrumental anyway, so I suppose it's not particularly surprising that what I listen to while writing is instrumental, too.
Something I will do is try to get the right song to fit the mood if it's a particularly intense scene. Like, I love listening to epic battle music when I'm writing an epic battle - it's how I wrote the climax to my first novel. A two-hour epic Celtic music video on Youtube, and then I just wrote away.
We're all stories in the end.
I think of you as a fairy with a green dress and a flower crown and stuff. -EternalRain
I think you, @Deanie and I are like the Three Book Nerd Musketeers of YWS. -bluewaterlily
I only picked other since I listen to Instrumental, Jazz, choral and A Capella music when I write. I'll also throw in certain rock music as well (well, rock with classical twists, like the 2Cellos, or Guns, Drums and Steel, etc) So yeah...
I really don't mind what I listen to, since when I write I tend to mute/muffle out everything else around me, but music helps stimulate my thoughts and connect the strands of ideas that would otherwise just be drifting around in the chaos that is my head.
But I prefer Instrumental and choral music over other music usually (mostly because I'm a fantasy writer, and this music helps set the mood)
Former incarnations have been: TheWanderingWizard TheClockworkConjurer TheIllusiveIntellect TheSunderingSorceror And, TheMaieuticMesmerist
I find Classic Rock to be the best. But before you jump on this opinion and I fall into the abyss of embarrassment, read the following.
Spoiler! :
You all are probably writing beautiful poetry and deep novels that seem simple on the surface but are in fact about some war or controversy or something. (and for that you are great people.) For purposes like that, I'm sure classical music is great. But I don't write like that. Rock music plays a very big role in my novel as well as classic country. So for my writing tastes, which aren't great, I wouldn't be able to follow classical music while trying to write about the invasion of aliens from one place to another.
Usually it'll be instrumental math rock, some alt-folk. I try to listen to things where the lyrics aren't too strong first, but once I'm really into whatever I'm writing I'll get into the heavier stuff.
My favorite playlist for when I'm doing coding or writing something is the Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross soundtrack for The Social Network. It's great!
Remember: the plot is nothing more than footprints left in the snow after your characters have run by on their way to incredible destinations. — Ray Bradbury
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