Music I listen to while writing
First of all, an update on the edits for The Trouble With Demons: I'm due to turn the edited manuscript back in to my editor at Ace Books (The Amazing Anne) by the end of this month. Well, I'm happy to announce that I have two more chapters to go. WOOT! But of course then I need to go back to the beginning and go through it again for tweaking and smoothing out any remaining rough spots. But, I still hope to hand it in before the deadline. And as soon as I hit "send" on that email to get TTWD back to Anne, I have to immediately start writing Bewitched & Betrayed (Raine's fourth adventure). My goal was to have it started on Aug. 1, but the TTWD edits kinda got in the way of that. That's another thing I'm getting better at the more books I get under my belt -- you gotta go with the flow. You may not like it, but you gotta go with it. ; )
About 80% of the time, when I'm writing I have headphones on listening to music. It blocks out household noise and helps immerse me in the scene I'm working on. I favor movie soundtracks. There's no voices to distract me and it sets the mood I need. I think I like movie music because that's how I write -- I see the story in my head like scenes in a movie. My favorite soundtracks for writing are LOTR (Howard Shore is a genius), and the Harry Potter movie soundtracks. I adore John Williams' music; and even though he only composed the music for the first couple of HP movies, subsequent HP soundtracks have built on his base. MLTF was written to some LOTR, but mostly to Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone. For Armed & Magical, I mainly used The Chamber of Secrets and The Prisoner of Azkaban for the darker scenes. The Trouble With Demons was written to The Goblet of Fire and The Order of The Phoenix -- a slightly darker book calls for darker music. And for vocal inspiration for any of Piaras's scenes, I listened to Josh Groban (magnificent baritone voice).
So what's on your iPod or coming through your headphones when you write? Also, do you have any recommendations for other soundtracks that might work well for my books? A friend just recommended the original Batman sountrack by Danny Elfman (dark and moody). Thanks, Rebecca! ; )
Upcoming event tomorrow: My author friend, James Maxey will be signing and discussing Dragonforge, the sequel to the acclaimed Bitterwood tomorrow:
Thursday, August 7 at 7:00 p.m.
Barnes & Noble
The Streets at Southpoint
Durham, NC
I'll be there to support James; so if you're in the area, please come by and you can talk to both of us. As an extra bribe, there'll be cake. ; )
I'll be doing a signing next month with James Maxey and Mark Van Name at the Cary, NC, Barnes & Noble (see my EVENTS page for details).
Some upcoming blog topics: How I plot a book, analysis of my query letter for MLTF, book writing is hard work, writing momentum matters, how to schedule writing a novel, writing is a business, take it one chapter at a time, and if you want to be a writer you gotta grow a thick skin.
And if you didn't read yesterday's blog, scroll down and take a look -- we're having a photo contest with cool prizes.
Lisa
About 80% of the time, when I'm writing I have headphones on listening to music. It blocks out household noise and helps immerse me in the scene I'm working on. I favor movie soundtracks. There's no voices to distract me and it sets the mood I need. I think I like movie music because that's how I write -- I see the story in my head like scenes in a movie. My favorite soundtracks for writing are LOTR (Howard Shore is a genius), and the Harry Potter movie soundtracks. I adore John Williams' music; and even though he only composed the music for the first couple of HP movies, subsequent HP soundtracks have built on his base. MLTF was written to some LOTR, but mostly to Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone. For Armed & Magical, I mainly used The Chamber of Secrets and The Prisoner of Azkaban for the darker scenes. The Trouble With Demons was written to The Goblet of Fire and The Order of The Phoenix -- a slightly darker book calls for darker music. And for vocal inspiration for any of Piaras's scenes, I listened to Josh Groban (magnificent baritone voice).
So what's on your iPod or coming through your headphones when you write? Also, do you have any recommendations for other soundtracks that might work well for my books? A friend just recommended the original Batman sountrack by Danny Elfman (dark and moody). Thanks, Rebecca! ; )
Upcoming event tomorrow: My author friend, James Maxey will be signing and discussing Dragonforge, the sequel to the acclaimed Bitterwood tomorrow:
Thursday, August 7 at 7:00 p.m.
Barnes & Noble
The Streets at Southpoint
Durham, NC
I'll be there to support James; so if you're in the area, please come by and you can talk to both of us. As an extra bribe, there'll be cake. ; )
I'll be doing a signing next month with James Maxey and Mark Van Name at the Cary, NC, Barnes & Noble (see my EVENTS page for details).
Some upcoming blog topics: How I plot a book, analysis of my query letter for MLTF, book writing is hard work, writing momentum matters, how to schedule writing a novel, writing is a business, take it one chapter at a time, and if you want to be a writer you gotta grow a thick skin.
And if you didn't read yesterday's blog, scroll down and take a look -- we're having a photo contest with cool prizes.
Lisa
posted by Lisa Shearin at
7:40 AM
6 Comments:
Huh. I listen to soundtracks usually too. And for the same reasons. I haven't updated my cds for years so I've gotten pretty sick of Ever After, Mask of Zorro and Pirates of the Caribbean. Moulin Rouge 2 and Coheed and Cambria are played more often lately.
Hi Christina! I love the Pirates soundtracks, too -- and Johnny Depp. ; )
Ooo, yumm....Johnny Depp.:) I listen to Italian opera (Andrea Boccelli is the most BRILLIANT, talented singer I think I've ever heard!), Hindi music and Irish traditional music... yes I know my tastes in music are all over the place, but oddly enough if I can't understand what the lyrics are saying, it makes it easier to write to.
I don't listen to music while I write. I have tried, but I tend to concentrate on the music, not my story. Since I'm an amateur musician, I tend to treat music the same way I treat any novel that I read. I parse it and really concentrate on it, trying to understand all the nuances. I'm the kind of person who would like to bring sheet music to an orchestra performance, just so I could follow along (not that I ever have).
That said, I often have music in mind as themes for my novels. For my current spy fantasy, it's Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik. Which of course, would be the music I would use for the book trailer.
I too listen to music when I write. I'll pull up one of my iTunes playlists, turn the volume down to about 1/3 normal, and go to it. As it happens, right now the soundtracks playlist is up. But I'll let anything play; I have written with my hard rock playlist on...
I highly recommend Danny Elfman's "Batman" soundtrack, and "Batman Returns" is good too.
Tia, good point. I can see where it would be more of a distraction than a help.
Hi Robert, I turn the volume way down, too. The music has to be playing in my mind's background so the story can come through, if that makes sense. ; )
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