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object>I have deja vu. Last year I participated in a blog of the same title. Apparently many writers use music to lure their Muse out of hiding. Can’t imagine why…
So you’re home, after a long day. You’ve shuttled kids to activities, muddled through dinner, fielded, “I need that folder for TOMORROW” leading to an eight p.m. Staples run, and then from a separate, equally as stressed young adult, ”The printer won’t PRINT!”
Your spouse is away. Your Muse pricks up. You could get in one hour, if you want it badly enough. You briefly think of jabbing the pencil in your hand into her eye socket…but it passes. She can’t help herself. She’s a junkie. A word junkie.
A thesaurus wielding, plot juggling juggernaut. Sigh.
You slip into your bedroom, and open the document. You need to get ’in the zone’ and fast, or you’ll be snoring loud enough to resurrect the zombies floating around in your head. So you pop on the headphones…..BANG! Your there.
Nothing gets me to the pages quicker than music.
I know many writers who make playlists for their books…Jeri Smith Ready, for one. I also love Pandora.com. If you’ve never been…you must visit. You won’t believe the variety of mood setting musics!
I also use film clips, and movie soundtracks. The soundtracks seem to ellicit a mood ‘deja vu’ as it were. So I can hear the music, visualize the scene, and BAM, instant mood.
I was a premature infant, and have some abnormal sensory problems…but one definite perk…is that I am able to hear, and sense, music spatially. Mostly with layered, orchestral pieces. Meaning, I hear and feel the cello to the right and down (probably where the musician sat on the risers). Wierd, I know. It’s actually amazing.
Other musers feel very strongly about music, as I expect you’ll see in the comments. I’ll rat out Marley Delarose, and tell you she had the opportunity to sing with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir…
So. Inspiration. Let’s express Desperation:
(sorry, i like videos, too. But everyone seems to disable embedding nowadays)
Excitement:
Yearning:
All encompassing, comsuming love. (Sorry for the repeat, you know how it is with music, your favs make it in)
So, what about you? What moves you? If you havent tried the Music route, you must.
Don’t forget your headphones. 
I don’t listen while I’m actually derriere dans chair, but I play it in my truck while I’m plotting–vintage Dave Brubeck, late Brahms piano, Queen (of course), Marshall Crenshaw, the bigger Chopin pieces–music for dancing dinosaurs, I know, but it gets me going. For writing, must have quiet.
Im with ya on the queen
Hmm, like Grace I listen to actual emotional plotting music in the car, like Bonnie Raitt, Nora Jones, Queen, John Mellancamp, Love Drunk, even MTC’s Battle Hymn.
When I’m writing especially if I need to tune out everything (I’d really like a black sheet I could drape over me and my computer) I’ll turn on the Itunes visualizer on a computer nearby and either Avatar soundtrack, Brahms’ Nanie, or Last of the Mohicans Proment. The color and music is very stimulating.
In revision, I just need the bayou and time to sink into the story. No noise please.
Haven’t listened to Star or Jane or Marshall Crenshaw. Looking forward to some new music!
I know every word to every John Mellencamp song. When I get back from the road–we should play a game…you start the song and ill finish the sentence in less than 10 seconds LOL i have a mental ipod. If only physics and caluculus came so easily…
and if i spelled calculus correct–it would help too. I shall return later today–duty calls
Total music junkie here. Not only do I have sound tracks for every book, but I listen to them while I write. I can’t write in silence.
The overall theme of my Last Chance series: “Our Town” by James Taylor (Cars Soundtrack)
The overall theme for Welcome to Last Chance: “God Bless the Broken Road” (Rascal Flatts)
The overall theme for the 2n’d book in the series tentatively titled Rules of the Road: “She went from Good, to Bad, To Worse, to Gone” (Ricochet)
And my favorite invocation to the muse, from David Wilcox (who is my personal muse even if he’s a real person living in Ashville, NC): “Grateful for her Beauty.” You can listen to this wonderful song about David’s Muse at:
http://www.davidwilcox.com/index.php?page=songs&category=Vista&display=788
I love the words to that song, beautiful. The yearning is one of the key emotions to good romance. Can’t wait to hear more about that 2nd book, lol.
Nickleback, Taking Back Sunday, Fall Out Boy, 3O3, Simple Plan, The Vettes, Theory of a Dead Man, Good Charlotte…those are a few my favorite groups that are good for characterization. No Way I can write with this music on. And if the music is playing, it must be at sonic boom level
Cadence, this is the music I listen to as I write. LOL. I make a soundtrack for all my books and what’s on them depends on what the character likes to listen to and what I feel suits the character. For the story I submitted to Nocturne Bites I had a lot of alternative and punk music for the heroine, while the hero liked Molly Hatchet, AC/DC, Krokus, etc. I love exploring different kinds of music and finding new things and putting together the play lists.
You should have seen my kids faces the first time they heard Molly Hatchet! It was priceless!!
Unlike Steven King who used to listen to hard rock while writing, I used to listen to Narada stuff, or Windam Hill. Now I’m into solopiano.com over the web. A relaxing mind tickler. Even the muse likes it….most of the time.
I have to stop commenting so fast. that’s solopianoradio.com
Piano music like that would just put me to sleep and I’d never get any writing done. LOL. What different muses we have.