Why Write With Background Music?

I got a dog a few weeks ago. It’s cool to see the world through a puppy’s eyes, wondering how she’ll react to any new thing for the first time—music, for example.

I constantly listen to music, but I hesitated the first time I went to stream some tunes while the dog chomped on a toy beside me. Would it distract her from the important task of beheading her plush pig? Would she like the new Ozzy Osborne album, or prefer his older material (perhaps Bark at the Moon)?

This entire post is an excuse to post this picture of my dog, who lies here while I write. LOOK AT HER.

It turns out that, as with most things, it depends.

Most dogs just ignore music, which says something about their tolerance for our noisy and confusing human antics. There’s a tendency for some dogs to react angrily to metal, be soothed by classical, and have a “meh” reaction to pop—which says something about how dogs aren’t all that different from humans after all.

My dog seemed momentarily confused by Ozzy’s voice magically emanating from the bookshelf, but soon she was back to having a snooze.

That got me thinking about another type of creature that likes naps, is easily distracted, and has mixed reactions to music: the writer.

I know some writers need silence while they’re writing. Others are distracted by words more than the music itself, so it’s instrumental songs only.

Personally, I have music on whenever I’m writing. During the scientific writing of my day job, I’m not picky; usually it’s that meh pop music, or whatever the algorithms decide to deliver to my ears today. When writing novels, it’s different. I like to match the mood of the music to the mood of the story. For example, someone on Spotify created a 20-hour playlist inspired by David Lynch that has been a good fit for my recent writing. My novel Stars and Other Monsters was explicitly influenced by listening to Lady Gaga’s The Fame Monster over and over; it’s a very vampire-y album.

Lyrics are fine for me. Occasionally a line in a song will provide inspiration for a line in the novel, the same way passing strangers can provide inspiration for characters while writing at a coffee shop.

I know others (like friend of the blog Nilah) go so far as to create specific playlists for specific projects, and Mary Fan even wrote a song to include in her novel Windborn! I can’t help but think that a clarity of vision cutting across various media must help the end result feel like its own thing.

What about you? Do you (or your dog) write with music, or let only the tappy-tap of your keyboard accompany your writing?

A post by P.T. Phronk,
of Forest City Pulp fame

Small Change, Big Freaking Difference

Hellllloooooo, ATB readers!

It's a gloomy September day in the Poconos. Perfect weather to write a murder mystery set during gloomy weather in the Poconos. Oh, I need a better outdoor description? Why don't I just crane my neck, look out my living room window, and write what I see? Perfect. Easy and done.

I'm drafting a new book. And in typical KGG fashion, I was 53K words into the story before I recognized that it needed to be fixed. Normally this would be depress me but I took a class (Write Better Faster) last summer that enlightened me to my strengths. It turns out that this is part of my process and I should just go with it--so I am. And I feel loads better for it. Not all is wasted. Most of my material can be used in the new draft. So everything's truly fine.

This class also taught me to focus on forming one new habit to help my efficiency, and that is what I'm here to talk to you about today. Everyone has a different stumbling block. For some, it's finding time to work but for me, it's making efficient use of the time I have. I'm a stay-at-home mom but during the summer my kids are home. They're running around outside, throwing on swimsuits to play in the neighbor's pool, asking for snacks a bazillion times a day. It's constant interruption. And the minute I get out of my mental zone, I check Facebook and Reddit and Twitter.  

I've lost my train of thought. What's on AVClub?

So what's the change I made? Did I swap out my kids for noise-canceling headphones? Did I barricade myself in a soundproof room? No. I did this:

I woke up earlier than them.

5:15 am to be exact.

Blech. It's so early. It really is. And I don't like getting up early. But there are so many pros to being up before everyone else.

First, it's so damn quiet. Just me and the dog. I pour a cup of coffee, grab my laptop, and head downstairs into the basement where my desk is. I don't browse Facebook nor do I check my email (who's sending me anything important at 5 o'clock in the morning?). I simply open up my manuscript and work.

Second, it's a hyper-focused 90 minutes. Sometimes I get a little done--half a scene written. Sometimes I'm on a roll. Sometimes I finish up in the afternoon. Sometimes I don't. But all the time, I'm making progress. There have been one or two days where I couldn't wake up. I was sooo damn tired, and that's fine. Better to recharge than burn out.

Lastly, I'm not a night owl. After a long day, and a hectic evening trying to do homework, make dinner, attend soccer practice, I don't want to write. My brain doesn't work. It can't form words right, let alone sentences. For some reason, I am my best self in the morning. Tired, but best.

While I don't looove my early alarm, I do love getting words on the page before breakfast. I love feeling productive. I love feeling like I'm moving toward the finish line even if it's by inches and not miles. I wrote 2K words yesterday, half of them before sunrise. Go me!

So...have you recently made a small change that has a made a big difference in your life? Sound off below.