Friday, February 4, 2011

Playlists


Music is often influential to mood/tone and many authors take advantage of music while they are writing. Some have a playlist for each book they're working on because each song represents a scene or a character. Others use certain pieces to give them a sense of calm and to block out unwanted noise during writing sessions. Do you ever use music with your writing? If you do, in what way do you use it?

If you have never used music to guide you through writing before I want you to try something this weekend...

1. Find four songs you love that reside in similar (if not the same) genres.
2. Put them on back to back and just free-write until the songs have all played.
3. Go do something else without looking at what you wrote, save it.
** Then, after you do other household things or wait until the next day...
4. Find four songs you hate or are in a genre you dislike.
5. Free-write until they are over.
6. Compare your two pieces of writing.

Do you see any differences? Let me know!


Photo copyright: Peter Witham


7 comments:

  1. Ooh what a cool idea! I'll try that this weekend!

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  2. I use music a lot when I write. I've written entire scenes around a song. Sometimes the music I'm listening to sets the mood for the scene as well. It's amazing how much of an impact it can have!

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  3. I use certain love songs when I write romance scenes. And if I need to create a fantasy setting I use movie scores like LOTR or Avatar or Stardust. But if I'm working on dialogue, which is what my stories revolve heavily around, I must have total silence.
    I love your idea tho. I wanna do that when I'm not working on any project and just let the music inspire a free flow. :)

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  4. Alyson: Do you have to write dialogue in silence like PK or doesn't it matter to you? What genres do you write?

    PK: I love the movie Stardust; it's one of my guilty pleasures. And I don't know if you're going to GET to a point where you're not working on a project, you just don't seem like the type to be still.

    I wonder if Saumya tried it yet...

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  5. This is a really nifty idea. I don't know if I'll be able to do it because I can't concentrate very well when there is any background noise. I'd probably just sit there and listen to the music lol

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  6. Michael: Do you think instrumental music would help with the distraction part or are you just sunk?
    Maybe using music is more a women thing but I haven't had enough people comment to even begin to test that theory, though I do see playlist track lists more in books written by women... hmmmm.

    Thanks for stopping by!

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