The music is the key...

[matrixleap.livejournal.com]

So, for all you writers out there plugging away this month, what type of music do you listen to while writing your novel?

Are you the type that the music is specific to the genre you are writing in, or, do you just put your iPod / whathaveyou on random?


Give a shout out to what you are listening to!


So far, the music has been leaning towards (for me)...

"The 5th Element" soundtrack
"Blade Runner" soundtrack
"2001" soundtrack
And a mix of "VNV Nation", "Velvet Acid Christ", "Depeche Mode", and "NIN"


NaNo user = "Matrixleap" in Portland, Oregon.

Comments

[bigbabydarkness.livejournal.com]

yes. awesome. i tend to go classical or non-annoying jazz. sort of depends, obviously, on what is happening in the room, the brain, and the story.
i was just trying to figure out the theme this time. whew.

[matrixleap.livejournal.com]

This is the first year I have participated and I'm doing a sci-fi story, hence the soundtracks. I try not to listen to anything with lyrics as they tend to get in the way, but the industrial thing works well for the setting.


~D.

[thiefjuice.livejournal.com]

Michelle Branch's Hotel Paper is pretty much on infinite loop, for two reasons: 1)It's part of the inspiration for my story and 2)It's really easy to write to. Of course, the CD is less than 50 minutes long so I find myself listening to it like...5-6 times a day.

[perfectinpart.livejournal.com]

I try to listen to mellow music that has no words, or words in a language I don't understand. Usually it's a lot of Sigur Ros and Yiruma. I also have some soundtracks as well (some Disney love songs with no words, the Star Wars [original trilogy] soundtracks).

[matrixleap.livejournal.com]

You have to have the SW trilogy in there...

I AM going to assume you mean the REAL trilogy, not the cgi bloated pre-quels or "Corrections", yes?


~D.

[ice-elf.livejournal.com]

Various soundtracks including 'The Lord of the Rings', 'Dragonheart', 'Pirates of the Carribbean' and 'Doctor Who'. But there is also some Nightwish, Within Temptation and Muse in there too.

[agdhani.livejournal.com]

Preferably music without lyrics...or lyrics that aren't in English so I'm not tempted to sing along, lol.

Most of my mix is celtic, especially harp music, though I also have several soundtracks in the mix (Gladiator, Troy, Kingdom of Heaven, Alexander, and a lot of the the Cirque du Soliel music)

[random-acts.livejournal.com]

I'm writing a Christmas story set in a department store, so I have all of the Christmas songs in my itunes library going on a loop so that I can sympathise with the workers!

[sarahrose.livejournal.com]

Last Christmas I worked at a Sears Portrait... Good golly. I LOVE Christmas music but sheesh!

[pullmytrigger.livejournal.com]

I've been putting artists on loop. Last night it was switching between Frank Sinatra and Depeche Mode. Today it's been Coldplay and A Perfect Circle... I guess I'm just listening to whatever I'm in the mood for. Though really, it's just white noise for me to tune out.

[matrixleap.livejournal.com]

I wrote my first novel a couple of years ago (not NaNo) and I was listening to the Gladiator, Interview with a Vampire, Croutching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Pirates of the Cribbean soundtracks ALL THE TIME. Specifically Gladiator and Pirates.

[sarahrose.livejournal.com]

I listen to whatever I listen to normally, but I seem to favor country story songs. Country is my favorite in general, but something about it just makes me want to write.

[aka-meerkat.livejournal.com]

I pick something that's either related to my characters or gives me a feel for the story.. for whatever reason. I didn't have time to come up with something last year, the year before that it was all music from the Silent Hill games because one of my POV characters was really into video games.. particularly of the survival horror variety. I don't remember what I listened to for the other POV character.. I think the Ramones Spiderman song was in there, he was a comic book geek. This year I'm listening to Tool and A Perfect Circle. I can't explain why it works, but it does.

[matrixleap.livejournal.com]

I understand "What works", believe me, I do. I have my certain playlist that just works for me. And when I get stuck writing ALL day, that list is looped thru so many times.


~D.

[honore.livejournal.com]

I want a copy of YOUR NaNo soundtrack! *laughs*

So far, my music has been the obnoxiously loud Mexican party across the alley (a weekly happening), sirens from emergency vehicles as it was *OMG!!!* raining here in SoCal yesterday, and this morning the lovely percussion music of pseudo-La-Z-Boys being shoved off the third floor fire escape. (I live in the back so get all the goodies like this.)

Maybe I should just sit at my window and write about all the strangeness happening day-to-day in my neighborhood!

[matrixleap.livejournal.com]

I'd love to send a copy of what I've been listening to!

Are you writing in the sci-fi genre?


~D.

[noted.livejournal.com]

Mostly really slow music or music that fits the theme I'm writing about. Snow Patrol, Elisa, Aqualung, Grace Potter, City and Colour, Placebo, OneRepublic, Ray Lamontagne, and Missy Higgins. But if I'm writing a particularly angst driven scene, I go for Marilyn Manson, Smashing Pumpkins, and Nine Inch Nails.

[syntheticjesso.livejournal.com]

So far there's been a lot of Kaiser Chiefs, a collection of mix CDs from a friend, and Pandora.com. I just made a 45-minute playlist in iTunes of my top 13 most-played songs, I'm gonna write to that in a minute. I also am feeling the need to write to Styx for some reason, I'll probably do that later today.

Usually, I just write to whatever I'm in the mood for. Last year was a lot of my "Fall" music (Athlete, Nickel Creek, Fair, Imogen Heap, The Notwist, the Pale, etc), and the year before was almost all Muse.

[starsandauras]

Well, there's a lot of HIM going on, since that's part of my November in general playlist. A lot of sad, lost love songs. My Chem, Seether, Savage Garden, Within Temptation... yeah, I have really diverse tastes.

When I'm not playing my usual soundtrack, I have my NaNo playlist over on youtube playing. Link for those interested, but a fair warning that it's pretty diverse as well and there is Japanese pop on it.

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=9483840E4708A420

I'm usually adding to it every so often, so it'll probably hit 100 songs by the end of the month.

[shiny-rosie.livejournal.com]

gosh, all kinds of stuff, I tend to create "mood music" play lists for what ever kind of scene I'm working on at the moment, I do have a few pieces that are inspiration for the entire project like PJ Harvey's "Who Will Love Me Now" and Missy Higgins's "Dancing Dirt into The Snow" (I know right...happy times ahead! Oh Angst...how I love thee!) I also have several instrumental pieces that are really specific to a scene, character or moment, these are pieces that if the story was a movie (like it is in my head!) would underscore certain moments such as "Rex's Death" from Desperate Housewives, "The Death of Toshiko" from the Torchwood Soundtrack, and "The Greatest Story Never Told" From the new Doctor Who soundtrack. I've also got stuff from Eastmountiansouth, Hem, Mogwai, Josh Groban, Sinead O'Connor, Trashcan Sinatras, Coldplay and many MANY more...I pretty much can't write without music! Thank god for my ipod! :):):)

[graycatbird.livejournal.com]

hmmm....

last night was mostly:
pretty hate machine / nin
the lost highway soundtrack
most stuff off of bad religion's stranger than fiction
a lot of random stuff by the Cure, Stars and Pink Martini




(*and ha. i know you off bellybalt's lj! :p

[matrixleap.livejournal.com]

HA! Small world, eh?

=)

You have some really good music choices there. Well done!


~D.

[saltintheoven.livejournal.com]

Today, it's been Off Course - All Time Best. Upbeat enough to keep me energetic, but I can't understand most of the lyrics so I don't get distracted.

[tael87.livejournal.com]

72 song playlist that's about 4.5 hours long altogether on shuffle. The last few bands have been Tori Amos, Cobra Starship, Savage Garden, Prozzak, Olivia Lufkin, Liz Phair, Cascada, Gavin Degraw, HIM, Switchfoot, and currently, Lovex is playing. The next few bands are Fall Out Boy, Great Big Sea, Dropkick Murphys, Lullacry, Barenaked Ladies, Avril Lavigne, Paula Cole, and The Rasmus. Yeah, pretty diverse. Lyrics-wise, it almost all somehow completely applies to the story at hand, but the individual songs are pretty varied (so I bounce from Newfoundland traditional to love metal to dance to Irish punk in a fifteen minute time frame. XD).

[beckyblack]

I usually just have mellow chillout stuff, or nothing at all. But most of what I wrote this afternoon was set in a nightclub. So I've had the ol' hard house banging all afternoon. Just perfect!

[m-barnette.livejournal.com]

American and Japanese metal bands, some NiN, and a section of techno/rave dance music. The whole playlist is around ten and a half hours long and was specifically created for a particular series I write. I'm doing the forth book for NaNo.

[step6error.livejournal.com]

"Iron Man" soundtrack
Ars Arcana - The Savage Tongue
My Chemical Romance - The Black Parade
Skillet - Comatose
Assorted classical
Assorted electronica

You can see my last.fm (http://www.last.fm/user/step6error) here; and if anyone would like some music from my library, let me know and I'll be happy to upload it to MediaFire so you can download it! :)

[sirgimpofbaath.livejournal.com]

I listen to the soundtrack from a fairly obscure, little-known anime called Simoun.

[nscangal.livejournal.com]

I'm not doing NaNo this year due to time constraints from school (19 credit hours plus an honors thesis = no time at all, so instead, I've set a goal of 50k over two months, from November till the end of December), but I'd recommend a band called Forgive Durden if you're in the mood for music that will set a tone of dystopian future. Their song, "I'm a Sucker for Fakes" is the one I plan to set as the sountrack for my betrayal scene, since it really fits with the type of anger that my protagonist will be feeling at the time.

But I'm really flexible as to what I'll listen to, and it all depends on the mood I'm trying to make. Last year, I listened to everything from dance pop to classical, and this year will probably be broader. XD

[matrixleap.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean about time...

I'm pulling 17 credit hours myself and cramming nearly a 40 hour work week into 3 days. On the graveyard shift! I head into work at 1am on Saturday. I work Sat/Sun/Mon...Monday afternoon I stay up until about midnight to get turned around. I'm back up at 7am to be in class by 9am. Tuesdays and Thursdays I'm in class from 9am to 9pm...friday I'm up around 7am usually, hang out, do homework and go back to bed at 4pm to get some sleep before going back to work.

I try to find time to do homework also...Plus hang out with a few friends here and there, plus do some freelance photography. I'm an adult returning student going back for a second degree bachelors in Graphic Design and Animation.

I know all about the lack of time...it sucks.

=)


~D.

[highmagemaxwell.livejournal.com]

I don't listen to music exactly, but I usually have a Freelance Astronauts video playing in the background. They're a bunch of guys who play video games and make commentary on them. It helps because whenever I get too angry at my writing, I just listen to them for a minute or two and start laughing XD Very soothing.

[ticklemecheeky.livejournal.com]

I don't listen to any music at all! >.>;

[knitchick1979.livejournal.com]

I tend to stick to instrumentals when I'm writing, working on homework, or reading books that require concentration (like reading Tolkien or Shakespeare), helps me focus.

That said my instrumental mix is pretty varied. Lots of Torchwood and Doctor Who soundtrack scores, plus scores from Apollo 13, the Incredibles, Pirates of the Caribbean, Star Trek, Star Wars, Harry Potter, Quantum Leap, Angel, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Highlander, 2001 A Space Odyssey, X-Men, Sneakers, and more. There's even some classical music (Bolero), classic rock that doesn't have words (Classical Gas), and the occasional piece of bagpipe music. :D

I usually just put the list on shuffle. I have been leaning toward the Apollo 13 tracks a bit more lately, though the Torchwood ones are still the best especially since I'm writing a Torchwood fanfic for my NaNo novel. I really need to load a bit more music on my laptop for when I don't feel like digging out the iPod on top of all the cords for the laptop. Right now it's only got about 50 tracks, all of Doctor Who plus Angel and a smattering of other stuff.

[shiny-rosie.livejournal.com]

I am totally in love with the Torchwood soundtrack, there is so much emotion packed into it, particularly those final few tracks...I love it so much! I've also just gotten the new Doctor Who soundtrack and I must confess that it's distracting me from my nano a little because I can't listen to it and not get sucked into Doctor Who musing...this would be fine if my nano was about the good Doctor, but it isn't so... :) Oh well! Its wonderful so I don't mind. :)