Any strange writing habits?

When I write I have to be listening to electronic music. I don't listen to it any other time but it helps the creative juice flow. Does anyone listen to music while writing? What habits help you write?

 

Hi Hungryjoe! Well I work in the music industry so would find that distracting when I try to write, as I start to analyse the music instead of concentrating on the words I'm trying to create. It helps me to write if I send a few ideas to someone and they come back with some positive encouragement!

I mean, even if they really think what I have written is a load of rubbish, any positive comment will get me fired up to continue, which has to be better than nothing?

 

I think 'do I have anything interesting to say today?'. If the answer is yes, I write it down. If the answer is no, I don't.

And sometimes I do drawings.

 

It really depends. There are words that seem to flow naturally even when there's loud music beside me. But there are times where silence is my companion.

 

lol that's funny. i listen to psytrance when i write papers and stuff.

 

I Need Silence to Do any kind of written Work...

Even the Quiet Hum of a PC is Enough to Distract me From my Concentration...

 

I put my music on too, mostly to drown out any other sounds that could be distracting, though often I find a certain song really fits with a scene so will play that to kick start the muse.

 

i have a bit of a wandering mind, i can only listen to instrumentals while writing. if it was other music, id probly start writing the lyrics down

 

Sometimes I listen to music when I write, but I don't think it's a good idea to do that when you're editing... because the emotional resonance of the music can really interfere with the emotional resonance of the writing, so sometimes you end up thinking that something you've written is better than it actually is.

 

^exactly...music can put me into a creative mood, but if I want to actually build upon what I've created, I really need to concentrate.

I've found Pink Floyd's "Animals" album to be good for writing: long, very driven-sounding songs = perfect.

 

To me music or anything like that is a distraction. I prefer to just concentrat on the work. I don't grt any work done if I do it any other way.

 

I can't listen to music while i'm writing, but i have other little rituals / habits such as i only write on paper, i have to type it up later, i only write at night and i always drink milk while writing, weird i know

 

To really get into my "writing zone", I have to have some jazz on. And it has to be on vinyl. Usually some Gene Krupa or Miles Davis playing helps me concentrate more, and it helps with the flow. The reason I use vinyl though is a personal opinion. Jazz on vinyl just sounds better.

 

I can't have anything on either while seriously writing. Now while I just mess around it doesn't matter so much.
I've been writing every day but only my day to day stuff; I believe to actually write anything decent I'd have to do the prep work first and that's so boring. I've got a bunch of notes from many how to books; seems a lot of work and I don't drink or smoke anymore so my muse is perhaps therein.

 

I take alot of trips across the country and around the world and I find that I get the most inspiration from the travel itself. concepts for songs, movies, and stories come from looking at my surroundings and letting my mind wander. when i sit down to write I usually like to have the tv on and music playing in one big clusterfuck to help me get the juices flowing.

 

it all depends. sometimes i can only write if it's completely silent, and other times i want loud music or sad music or whatever else.

 

Good writting for me is never the same. Sometimes it just flows. Sometimes it flows, and I have to go back and re-work parts here and there. Sometimes I have to start an outline to see what's in my head. Sometimes I just have to forgo the outline, and force myself to start writting. If I'm really stuck, or have been working on something for quite a while, I'll go take a walk, or do something physical. At least get away from the computer. Maybe I'll still think about what I'm writting, or maybe I won't. I often fidget when I write. LOL Most of the time I listen to music, but sometimes I have to turn it off, or I don't get anything done! Sometimes I have to put stuff off until the last possible minute, then inspiration comes and pours out. Although I've had many late nights completing stuff like that. :d

 

right fucking on. Everything sounds better on vinyl in my opinion, but especially jazz. I always listen to jazz when I write. it puts me on a very creative sonic level and vibrates the writer muscle in my brain. I find miles and bird to do the most for me, but occasionally some basie or some free-improv jazz goes hard.

am I the only one that thinks jazz is the greatest form of music ever created?

 

Thinking with every sentence: "could this be said a different way without making it worse?" If the answer's no, move onto the next one. But that's a very slow process. I'm also trying to encorporate compositional techniques I've learnt from studying music into my writing. I just want to be Joyce, basically.

In more general terms, I try to build every character, however minor, into a person I can relate to, so that I know why they do what they do, because it's the only thing they would ever do, in a specific situation.

 

I think I'm finally recovering from college and am starting to get it together, like seeing the types of stories, such as last night's spiderman2 movie, the antagonist is the mad scientist, like Hawthornes, the mark or whatever, these classic themes carry on today.
Blah blah blah, doing the wrong things for the right reasons, see that in a lot of shows. Funny, I'm connecting more to my writing from movies and tv than years of reading.