Music and the Writing Muse
I’ve noticed recently that there is an interesting pattern with the music I’m listening to and the ease of my writing. I think the most surprising part was that it has absolutely nothing to do with my mood at the time! No, I’ve found that each story has a certain type of music that acts as a “muse”, so to speak. When listening to the right type of music for the story, it all comes so much more easily to me.
For example, my current book. Listening to Kajiura’s darker/eerier instrumental music makes the words flow for that story, for some reason. For the Philosopher’s Society, on the other hand, the writing goes most smoothly to guitar-driven hard rock and metal (especially progressive-ish metal).
It’s basically like each story has a specific sort of soundtrack that it wants or that suits it best, which is so much cooler than just having a type of music that helps you write. But that might just be me. Either way, I’m excited about eventually discovering the soundtracks for the other stories that are in my writing queue!
What kind of music-for-writing habits or patterns do you have?
i rarely if ever find i have the nerve to sit down and write (sadly, i know, i know) but i feel my imagination is most active when listening to folk metal, power metal, and epic orchestrations like the soul calibur soundtrack (these all stimulate the part of me that is constantly thinking of fantasy-type scenarios).
industrial and techno or trance, however, tend to make me think more along hte lines of scifi and/or modern realistic stories, especially ones involving lots to do with cars or giant robots pounding the crap out of each other. (i have initial d and armored core to thank for that latter part, respectively).
Well, I find that the best music for my creativity in general is usually a mixture of soft rock, instrumentals(especially violins, piano, and cello) and sometimes even spanish guitar.
For writing specifically, like in my current story, I find extremes in music help, depending on the mood of the chapter i’m writing. For this story I think melodious music(like the soundtracks of Hayao Miazaki films) and metal, grunge, or classic rock, help advance the chapters quickly. Its all quite interesting really.