Who listens to music while they write?
If so, what kind of music do you like to listen to?

OR, do you plot your books to music? (like a music video in your head?) My sister and I loooove doing this, so I'm wondering who else does.

Myself, I've been crazy about movie soundtracks lately for whatever reason. Narnia 1 soundtrack (amazing), and the Passion of the Christ soundtrack (which has one of the best sound tracks ever, ever, ever. EVER.)

Also, lately, This is Home by Switchfoot and Middle of Your Heart live by For King and Country.

I could add so many others, but I won't be annoying.

I don't listen to music all the time while I write, but sometimes when I'm having a blah writing day, it helps me get off to a better start.

What about y'all?

-Grace

Yes!! I listen to music whenever I am writing as much as possible. Lately I have been mostly listening to my "John Williams" station on Pandora. It includes John Wiliams' music as well as the LOTR soundtrack, The Hobbit soundtrack, Chronicles of Narnia soundtracks, and other soundtracks and songs similar to those.

Oooh! John Williams did the 1978 theme to Battlestar Galactica.

Mainly I listen to classic rock or ballads.

Usually I listen to instrumental music like Yiruma. Or classical music. Or music by The Piano Guys, or soundtracks from movies like Finding Neverland, Pride and Prejudice 2005, etc. Or The Lord of the Rings when I feel like writing something epic.

I listen to lots of movie soundtracks. Selections from LotR, Narnia, and then lots of stuff by Hans Zimmer. I have difficulty writing epic battle scenes when I have a quiet classical music piece playing in the background.

Yes, I do.

Let's see....

Avengers theme, Iron Man theme, LOTR, The Hobbit, Brave, and Piano Guys.

*should get Narnia soundtrack*

I use music to help me write the emotion of the scene. I have many "mood" playlists in iTunes that use everything from movie and TV soundtracks to pop and good ol' Elvis.

I listen to anything without words. I'm writing, after all, and the words of a song distract me. So, I listen to a lot of soundtrack stuff too. The problem is that I often want a specific mood to be playing in the background while I write a specific scene, so sometimes I spend a little too much time tweaking my Pandora stations and not enough time writing. This has led to the creation of way too many Pandora stations of which I have to try and remember which one matches which mood.

If you want something truly epic you should look up some stuff by E. S. Posthumus, Audiomachine, Two Steps From Hell (sorry if the name offends), or Thomas Bergersen. Those are some of my favorite epic artists. They can be really good background music for writing intense battles and the like.

There are also some interesting artists with a sort of Eastern flare: Loreena McKennitt, Mythos (they incorporate eastern sounding instruments), and The Shanghai Restoration Project to name a few. Indian music can be fun to write to. Just type in a song from Slumdog Millionaire into Pandora and you will get some good stuff.

I listen to music almost constantly. Anything I want to listen to, I listen to, whether I'm writing or not. XD

I've heard some of Two Steps from Hell, but I haven't heard the others yet. Thanks for letting me know. I'll check them out.

Yep, I listen to music all the time while I'm writing. I love Two Steps from Hell, as well as the LOTR soundtracks and any game soundtracks by Ari Pulkkinen.

Everything else I listen to is usually Christian metal, hard rock, or Falling Up (they're a genre unto themselves).

Listening to stuff with words doesn't seem to affect my writing a whole lot. I seem to be able to tune it out...then sing along if I get stuck along the way.

* is absorbing all the awesome suggestions *

If I'm writing something that's not so epic, I like listening to Barbershop quartets by Julien Neel. Odd writing music...but hey. * shrugs * It sort of loosens my brain up and gives it good circulation. Something like that.

I also like listening to Carman, when I'm writing something more epic. And of course, just plain epic music. I listen to a lot of that stuff. Y'all have already mentioned most of my favorites.

...That is a really awesome idea. I've never tried making playlists for mood writing!


Oh, and another song I've been obsessed with is Lion by Rebecca St James. SO amazing.

Andorin Kaepora - THANK. YOU. I have been looking everywhere for good Eastern type music. I love it.

It's extremely rare for me to write without music. I listen to movie soundtracks, worship music, etc. Just about anything. If I have a song that I know suits that scene I might specifically listen to it, but I generally just listen to the whole conglomeration.

Two Steps From Hell are amazing. I love listening to their music for action scenes.

I don't really listen music without words. XD I usually always have some kind of music playing throughout pretty much the entire day, and it doesn't distract me that much. Sometimes it even helps me focus more.

I find listening to movie soundtracks is a wonderful help, and I've started dividing them into playlists for particular feels--trouble is, the 'feel' of the music changes when my own mood changes sometimes, so most often I just start playing the soundtrack itself. I like Hugo, for quieter scenes, Doctor Who for general excitement, light-hearted bits, and a lot of epic scenes, and a lot of other soundtracks: National Treasure, Eragon, LOTR and TCON of course, The Princess Bride, and especially, my personal favorite for writing and general listening: the various Pirates of the Caribbean soundtracks, especially the first and third.

I like using words with lyrics for particular themes. Like, this is the main story theme, this is so-and-so-character's theme, this is the villain's theme, and etc. Rock songs, I find personally to be the best for most themes--Day of Fire and Thousand Foot Krutch are two of the most common ones I use.

And, lately, I've been creating playlists/folders for story-theme music. Example: my steampunk stories The Last Storming and The Turq Wars, have a lot--and I mean a lot--of Themes by the band Needtobreathe. The Rinehart brothers could not have written better music for these two stories if they had tried. 'The Outsiders' is spot-on perfect from the perspective of, well...of the Outsiders, talking to the villain; 'Through Smoke', 'Hurricane', and 'Won't Turn Back' are also exact Themes. (I seriously don't know what I would do for these two tales without Needtobreathe to listen to.) Barlow Girl's 'This is War', and TFK's 'Outta Control' are also Themes, among others.

Ahhh, love hearing what y'all listen to.

Oh, and yesterday? I discovered Hillsong United.
Need I even say more? HAHA! It's addictive. Zion is AMAZING.

My soundtracks have some good fantasy moods, but so far they're all too active... I've yet to find something for writing the in between stuff and the dialogue... That's where my writing tends to take the longest, since I can't find the mood.

I love listening to Mythos for my writing...Mythos has such an epic fantasy feel to it. I also enjoy metal for writing darker things, and epic/orchestra rock. TSFH is awesome, too.

Sometimes. Helps with inspiration and stuff.

I do constantly. I can't write if something isn't going.

I tend to stick to classic (Boston, Styx, Foreigner, The Cars) and modern rock (Breaking Benjamin, Linkin Park, Seether, Imagine Dragons, etc), and jazz as well.

I recently found 'On Top of the World' by Imagine Dragons, and now I totally love that song.

In all honesty, I didn't start listening to any music while writing until a few months ago. I like to listen to The Dark Knight Rises soundtrack or even the one from Tron Legacy as both have some gritty tones to them that are perfect for the style I write in. The one I listened to the most for the book I'm working on now was The Dark Knight Rises.

I love those soundtracks! They're awesome to listen to whilst writing, I think.

Agreed. (I haven't listened to all of either, but they come up on my writing pandora stations )

Oh man, if I listed all of the stuff that I listen to whilst writing, I'd take up the whole page. I like to collect odd assortments of music on grooveshark to help set a mood for a scene, which surprisingly works well.

If I were to make a favorites list though, it'd have to be:

-Nancy Drew game soundtracks (especially the cello from Warnings at Waverly)
-Doctor Who soundtracks (Name of the Doctor theme/This is Gallifrey/Vale Decem makes writing feel epic. Murray Gold FTW)
-Sanctus Real
-Lindsey Stirling
-tango and/or dubstep

There are others I frequently listen to but the lyrics might not be what other people are into.
I've recently started listening to TSFH, it's pretty good for writing but sometimes it can be a little neutral, emotion-wise. For me neutral music can sort of be distracting. I'm weird like that. xD


Great thread, ShuttleKate.

I love Boston, Styx, Foreigner, and The Cars.

To be honest I don't know much about soundtracks.

Definitely. The Batman Begins soundtrack is another good one as well as Man of Steel. Can't say I really cared as much for The Dark Knight one.

Music has always been a huge part of my writing. This is the playlist I listen to/ shuffle around in when I'm writing nowadays: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5CEE1057C91D3F5E along with a Christian playlist, and sometimes I listen to Pandora.

The reason I listen to this playlist is that each song evokes some sort of emotion from me one way or the other, good or bad, and I pick and choose songs based on the scene I'm writing and how the character needs to be feeling. If the character is feeling like an outsider, I listen to a song with lyrics that make me think of that, if the character is feeling lost, I choose a song that makes me think of that. I don't know, maybe that's strange. Songs lyrics have also been known to bring about some good writing for me. Sometimes bits and pieces of lyrics make their way into my writing, but not word for word, more as thought.

The only songs I listen to with lyrics would be by Haley Westenra. Other than that, I stick strictly to movie soundtracks. I've never heard about Pandora before, aside from the jewelry collection that is.

I listen to Pandora sometimes, but I prefer soundtracks from Frozen, Tangled, and Howard Shore music oh, and Tenth Avenue North.
I find that listening to music does help me think better

Usually I listen to indie (the Head and the Heart, Mumford and Sons, Civil Wars, Nickel Creek, etc.) Sometimes I listen to heavier stuff, like Evanescence, TFK or Skillet when I'm writing a battle scene or a really angry scene. But normally a lot of indie haha.

Good music to listen to while writing a battle scene is Arcade from the Man of Steel soundtrack, and Imagine the Fire from The Dark Knight Rises.
One soundtrack I'm aiming to get is from the second Hobbit film. I hear that one is pretty good.

Oh yes, the soundtracks from the Hobbit are amazing

In that case, I shall hurry up and get them. I'm always on the hunt for good music to listen to.

hmmm I do sometimes....I listen to music from Plumb...one of my favorites is Safe in my arms from plumb....its kinda fantasy like....I like flute music too

Plumb? That's a group I've never heard of.

They have good songs! They are you Youtube they are also on the radio station Air-1 (a Christian radio station). And I think they broadcast worldwide

Well, I guess I will have to check them out sometime. I will admit, this is the first time I ever heard about them. Even my sister didn't know, and she's a huge music fan.

I've this new thing with the music from Frozen. I can't stop listening to it.

I love the music from Frozen!

Yes! It's amazing!

*Breaks down* I can't handle this anymore....

*Runs to a corner, trying to fill his head with anything butFrozen songs.

Let it go...let it go...

I listen to The Hobbit: the Desolation of Smaug soundtrack when I write. Second disc is preferred.

Or Lindsey Stirling.

Occasionally Celtic Woman.

Mostly The Hobbit.

Heehee, Celtic Woman. Now you made me like that too.



You don't like the Frozen music? *ish horrified*

New update:

I love listening to the soundtracks of the following in no particular order, they have really great music: Hans Zimmer, Howard Shore, Brian Tyler, and Steve Jablonsky.

Stalk my grooveshark ya'll will know how much I listen to soundtracks. =)

I listen to stuff from those people as well. I only just recently got something by Steve Jablonsky, and it was pretty good.

Yep, whatever it is. It's good.

The only thing is, I couldn't listen to it whilst writing as I would find it too distracting.