How does your writing sound?

[Lifelongdagger]

I've often thought music and writing to be two sides of the same coin, as it were. One informing the other. What music/musician influences your writing style?

[kaitie]

Haha, fun one. This may not answer the question, but I do tend to listen to music when I write, and I do it in two ways. The first is music that the main character would listen to (helps get into the character), and the second is what seems to fit stylistically. The story I recently finished was written mostly to Coldplay and Radiohead's latest albums, Disturbed, and occasionally random 80s music. The Disturbed was for the action scenes or scenes where the MC was upset or angry.

The story before that was written mostly to an odd arrangement of rock music, mostly 70s rock. The one before that was written entirely to the soundtrack from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (beautiful, btw).

[backslashbaby]

Zydeco played on a scratchy record player at a Rue St Germain cafe in the 20's.

In the rain :D

[Linda Adams]

Music does NOT influence my writing at all. I don't have a sense of rhythm and timing, so I don't relate well to music. I don't own anything to play it on, nor do I go out of my way to listen to it.

[Lifelongdagger]

Interesting you should bring up rhtyhm and timing, Linda, as that is sort of what I was getting at.

I think I'd go with The Clash, Sham '69 and a touch of Tom Waits.

[Cuppa]

P.O.D's Youth of the Nation and TV on the Radio's Wolf Like Me to be specific, Linkin Park to be generic. Some other sounds I am going for would be Editors, Bloc Party, though I can't say I've reached them.

Just hard beats, powerful lyrics.

Maybe some My Culture by Robbie Williams, thought it doesn't really relate.

[KTC]

What music/musician influences your writing style?

Leonard Cohen.

[aadams73]

It varies from story to story, but right now I've got Bach's Toccata and Fugue (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipzR9bhei_o) on my mind.

[Chauchat Butterfly]

Everything I listen to from classical to hip-hop to oldies to new wave to metal.

I generally have classical music on when I'm writing but it's usually only for background noise.

[Wayne K]

Leonard Cohen.
Like you were reading my mind.

[C.M.C.]

Like a soundtrack to an old film noir movie.

[ishtar'sgate]

I've often thought music and writing to be two sides of the same coin, as it were. One informing the other. What music/musician influences your writing style?
Music doesn't influence my writing style although I've been told my writing is poetic. As I plan out a scene sometimes a piece of music comes to mind and I play it to set my mental mood and then write the scene.

[scarletpeaches]

It changes from book to book but this one's all Texas, John Mayer, Jamie Cullum, Late Night Alumni and even one song by (sorry) Craig David.

[RG570]

I've been a musician longer than a writer. I can't say the two have much to do with one another.

My sense of timing and rhythm in writing comes more from reading other work than anything musical. But I guess there could be crossover, like in the case of Leonard Cohen. That's a big influence for me.

[Libbie]

Percy Aldridge Grainger. I've never thought of this before, but your question made me consider it.

Definitely Grainger, though. My writing has that nice, expected steadiness interrupted by stylistic weirdness that makes you go, "Whoah. What was that?"

In a good way. For those who think such things are good. Not everybody does, I know.

[Straka]

I listen to trance and techno most often. That's merely to engage and active a certain state of mind and doesn't translate into my work.

[pink lily]

I've often thought music and writing to be two sides of the same coin, as it were. One informing the other. What music/musician influences your writing style?
I am a lyricist, sometimes. I believe that Paul Simon and Joni Mitchell have influenced my style more than anyone else, because I tend to write in a personal narrative format. When I was younger I loved Duran Duran but could never write in their style of random exotic imagery. I also like Beck but again, could never copy his unique style.

My actual writing has almost nothing to do with what I listen to. I've written some lyrics that could only ever be country songs, but I don't listen to country music. Heh.

[Shady Lane]

The Decemberists.

[thewakingself]

Right now, I've got Morrissey, Jeff Buckley, Florence + the Machine, and Radiohead on loop plus a whole host of other randomness from rap (Ludacris--what?!) to classical (Miserere).

My musical background's had a definite influence on my writing's structure--especially when it comes to commas, ellipses, and em-dashes. This is, however, often a detrimental influence as any of my crit partners can attest. :D Listening to certain types of music also affects the mood of the piece I'm working on... can't really write something bright and happy when I'm listening to Bauhaus.

[Phaeal]

The CDs I listen to over and over and over while actually writing are by Steely Dan and Bob Marley. And Mozart and Handel. And a local Celtic group called Pendragon. And the occasional Phantom of the Opera, though I tend to sing along to that one too much. The Phantom's parts. Muhahahaha....

Who does my writing sound like? Tough one. My own first impression is Bruce Springsteen, or, in darker moods, Pink Floyd.

[Ruth2]

Kurt Maloo and Vlado Kreslin.

[lute]

Anywhere from Muse to Beck to Beats Antique. The occasional Depeche Mode and/or Pink Floyd if I'm lucky ;)

[Cliff Face]

Ah wakingself, "can't really write something bright and happy when I'm listening to Bauhaus." - I understand entirely, though it does make me dance (of all things).

I don't really listen to music while I write. And the bulk of what I've written is comedic, so I don't really think that came from music, per se.

I've got a couple things in the works that are 4k so far, and they are darker fiction compared to my comedies. I'd like to say Cradle Of Filth inspire me when I'm writing those books, but like I said, I don't listen to music while I write.

But I'd choose Cradle because a lot of their songs evoke in me a very surreal, powerful mental picture, with an emotion to go along with it - it's hard to write out such things, I've found, but one trick I've been working on is taking scenes from my life and building an interesting book around them, and those scenes from my life have a very Cradle picture to them, so maybe that would help.

I tried listening to classical while I was writing, and it was the only time I could concentrate on my work while listening to music, probably because it was classical without lyrics... If I listen to music that has lyrics, I find I can't think of what to say that isn't directly related to the lyrics, which to me sounds awfully close to plagiarism, which I'd prefer to avoid.

That reminds me... I need to buy some Muse. :)

Edit: Oh, and as for how I think my writing sounds... Like a choir choking on laughter...

[Ruv Draba]

Tom Waits. But I suspect that Waits was influenced by Chandler.

[Charissa]

Mumford and Sons ... Definately should check out 'White Blank Page' and 'Little Lion Man'. I prefer the latter, but only just.

I'm writing a story that was inspired by the song 'Hummingbird' By Alessi's Ark. Brilliant song.

[Nakhlasmoke]

Tom Waits, Nick Cave, Laughing Len...singers who tell stories basically.

On the flip-side, beats make a huge difference to how I write, and are often echoed in whatever it is I'm writing.


For my more contemporary stuff, i often have whole soundtracks to match the storyline.

O dear god, that's intensely sad.

I'm going to go kill myself now...

[DrZoidberg]

Music is important for my writing, and I use it to its full extent. Hard techno for action scenes. Lame eighties New Romantic music for sex scenes or sad scenes. House for transport or just plain description. Silence for clever bits or editing.

[Libbie]

For my more contemporary stuff, i often have whole soundtracks to match the storyline.

O dear god, that's intensely sad.

I'm going to go kill myself now...

It sounds like this is actually pretty common. I might be the only person who doesn't do this. So don't off yourself just yet.

[sleepsheep]

My writing sounds like various Tom Lehrer songs - sarcastic, elitist, and a bit twisted. During edits, I have to take out all the rhymes that sneak into my prose through the subconscious tunnels between my brain and my finger-tips.

All the world seems in tune
On a spring afternoon,
When we're poisoning pigeons in the park.
Ev'ry Sunday you'll see
My sweetheart and me,
As we poison the pigeons in the park.

When they see us coming, the birdies all try an' hide,
But they still go for peanuts when coated with cyanide.
The sun's shining bright,
Ev'rything seems all right,
When we're poisoning pigeons in the park.

[Lady Ice]

Music doesn't influence my writing style although I've been told my writing is poetic. As I plan out a scene sometimes a piece of music comes to mind and I play it to set my mental mood and then write the scene.

Same.

[Freelancer]

Always different. For my fantasy WIP: Immediate Music, X-Ray Dog, Two Steps from Hell, but mostly the music tracks that are for this world and basically the official tracks of it. Music is used to influence my writing, but mostly they used to help me to get the appropriate atmosphere in my mind and help to visualize everything like if I also would be in the present world as an observer. And sometimes I also try to add the rhythm into the novel's temp. With this, it feels just as I would watch a well directed movie in my mind with the scene what I created, with the music that I listening.

[ThePaperGypsy]

Blackmore's Night, Meiko, Holly Conlan, Erin McCarley, Mae, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, and Toy Horses :D

[VChandler]

It sounds like this is actually pretty common. I might be the only person who doesn't do this. So don't off yourself just yet.

Oh yeah, I have a whole soundtrack put together for when they turn my novel into a Movie of the Week. LOL!

As far as what I listen to while I write... I prefer instrumentals. I'd rather get lost in my own thoughts and prose than mingle it up with the songwriter's. For the book I just finished I listened to a lot of flamenco guitar. For my WIP it is bluegrass.

[BigWords]

I have to hold my hand up and admit that I had an entire story - characters, plot, individual scenes, even dialogue - pop into my head after listening to Dangerous by Splodgenessabounds.

[cptwentworth]

I can't listen to anything with words since the words interfere with the voices in my head trying to get on paper. I do listen to a variety of different instrumental depending on the story I'm working on. I have the same playlist I use for my current novel, and it helps me and my characters get into the setting and mood. I'm working on another playlist for the story I have in mind for NaNoWriMo.

[Cranky]

I have rather eclectic tastes in music, and the way I write doesn't reflect that, I don't think. Well, it certainly doesn't sound like what I'm listening to at any given moment, that is.

[Shadow_Ferret]

I don't think writing and music are related at all, certainly not on the same coin.

Music effects MY mood, but it doesn't influence the mood within my writing.

However, I do associate certain music with different genres. When I was in HS I read a lot and I listened to music all the time. So now when I hear Black Sabbath I think of Conan and sword and sorcery stories because that's what I had playing at the time. Doc Savage, The Shadow, and other pulp adventure heroes I associate with Deep Purple's Made in Japan. Uriah Heep I associate with Sword and Planet stories like Edgar Rice Burroughs and Lin Carter.

But I don't think listening to that influences the story at all that I'm writing. Its just a nice background that occupies the ADHD part of my brain so I can focus on my writing.

[lucidzfl]

My writing, when read aloud, sounds like tammy faye's fingernails going across a fresh chalk board, while 10 construction workers, each in a portable john, simultaneously splatter shit their corned beef and and hash. (In the background, a retarded boy attempts to sing a Mariah Carey song)

[jodiodi]

I listen to different things, from techno to old school rap to gangsta to classical. Bach, Beatles, Beck.

I prefer music without words when I'm writing; Often, I'll put the TV on one of the XM stations: electronica or the new-agey stuff.

[Telstar]

Most of the ending of my previous WIP was under the beautiful notes of the little-known french musician, Artesia.

[Xelebes]

My writing sounds nothing like the monotonous, cacaphonic, repetitive techno that I write to.

[S.J.]

Classical music and film scores inspire me/help me to think of ideas, but when it comes to the actual writing I like The Beatles.

[bettielee]

cool... this means if it doesn't sound good, I can blame Pearl Jam?

[Sage]

Anything I listen to can influence my writing--a character, a scene, an emotion I want to express, the entire novel.

The novel I just finished was inspired by a song: Lenka's Trouble is a Friend of Mine.

The novel I'm going to write for NaNo was inspired by a song: Christina Aguilera's Keeps Getting Better.

The novel I was going to write for NaNo had 17 characters, some of which I didn't have characters for, so I was going to let my favorite songs that never seem to end up on novel soundtracks create the characters for me, but that novel's probably been scrapped. I had five or six characters created from songs before that.

[MGraybosch]

I've often thought music and writing to be two sides of the same coin, as it were. One informing the other. What music/musician influences your writing style?

My wife tells me that my writing sounds like rock opera.

[MGraybosch]

Anything I listen to can influence my writing--a character, a scene, an emotion I want to express, the entire novel.

That's how it is with me as well. The antagonist of my WIP, Starbreaker, was inspired by a Blue Oyster Cult song called "I Am the One You Warned Me Of".

[The Lonely One]

I've often thought music and writing to be two sides of the same coin, as it were. One informing the other. What music/musician influences your writing style?

John Cage's 4'33".

[ccarver30]

Depends what I am writing. If it is sci-fi action, then it's the Equilibrium soundtrack, 30 Seconds to Mars, Envy on the Coast, the Mortal Kombat soundtracks...

Regency Romance I like to listen to Conditions, In Atmosphere, Incubus...

I don't really think it matters too much because I just like to have any type of music on when I am writing. :)

[newgreekwriter]

I always have iTUNES on in the background, because my MC is a musician. I would say that Evanescence and Rihanna inspired me the most. But the song that started it all was Sting's "Desert Rose".
Oh, and of course, techno for action scenes. =)

[motormind]

My writing sounds like squishy strawberries thrown against a concrete wall.

Alternatively, it sounds like slabs of concrete thrown into a strawberry field.

And the musician influencing my writing most is... me.

[Misa Buckley]

What music/musician influences your writing style?

Depending on what I'm writing I listen to Coldplay, Counting Crows, Dido, Evanscence, The Goo Goo Dolls, Green Day, Keane, The Killers, Linkin Park, Muse, R.E.M., Snow Patrol, and soundtracks from Doctor Who, Serenity, Phantom of the Opera, Pirates of the Caribbean, LotR and Braveheart.

I have a rather broad taste in music, heh.

[year90ninezero]

I don't listen to music when I'm writing, but I am a musician. My biggest influences are MOUNT EERIE and LOW.

[WKolodzieski]

I decided to make a playlist to listen to while writing (it was becoming too frustrating to keep pulling up ITunes and switching) and Coldplay, Brand New, Taking Back Sunday, Rihanna, Mariah Carey, Lady Gaga, Breaking Benjamin, and Eminem seem to dominate it. I handpicked all the songs to reflect the mood I am trying to convey and it helps me with my writing. Without music in the background I have a very difficult time writing.

[VileZero]

What music/musician influences your writing style?

I wouldn't say that any music influences my writing style, but I've found that writing battle sequences work best when listening to a combination of heavy metal and classical music.