I am not a big fan of silence. Those that know me well can attest to that–if it is too quiet, I will start chattering about anything and everything (consider yourself warned). I don’t even sleep in silence–I fall asleep every night to the sounds of Friends on TV. 🙂
The same is true for my writing. I need to have some sort of background noise, whether it is the television that hangs over my desk or some type of music. While I can usually tune out the TV, music does one better…it invokes emotion.
Now, I have to admit–I can’t listen to that great new song I just found while I attempt to write. I can only listen to something tried and true–something I know so well, that it won’t distract me, even if I decide to sing along. Jimmy Buffett classics fall into this category. Same with Billy Joel.
When that fails, I turn to classical music–no words, no distractions. 🙂
I am a bit of a playlist addict, making happy playlists, and sad playlists; angry playlists, and playful playlists. I do this with regular music and classical, although I rarely mix the two. Then, when I am writing a happy scene, I grab a happy playlist; a sad scene gets a sad playlist. I read years ago that it makes the transition between scenes and chapters a lot easier, although I always wondered how much of an impact it really has.
Lately, I have been planning my NaNoWriMo novel for next month. For this, I have been playing a variety of classical music in the background–everything I have, all moods lumped into one. It has worked well, and I am a whole lot further along than I planned to be at this point. 🙂
Still, through all of this, I have been craving Christmas music. I mentioned on Tuesday that, in my opinion, it is never too early to plan for Christmas. I am well into this year’s shopping already. Still, I do try to wait until November 1 to break out the Christmas music (my favorite NaNo music).
Usually, a week or so before, I start itching for holiday music–my favorite part of the season. For some reason, this year, I have been tempted to turn it on for weeks already (although I am still resisting). I couldn’t figure out why.
Earlier this week, it hit me. I was looking through iTunes, and realized that one of the two Nutcracker Suite CDs I have (which I always associate with Christmas) is classified as Classical in iTunes rather than Holiday, which means I have been listening to it for weeks.
And craving Christmas music for weeks.
Hmmm… maybe the whole idea of music setting the mood really does work! 😉
What about you? Do you listen to music while you work? Do you ever use music to set a particular mood? What is your favorite Background music? Favorite Christmas carol? I’d love to know!! 🙂
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