Music inspiration

[rallygirl]

My novel I am working on now is set in the early 1980s.

When i am stuck for ideas I put on an 80s CD to inspire me:)
Does anyone else do this? Or can you suggest any other ideas?:tongue

[Vanessa]

The 80's music was the greatest music!
Good Luck with your project.

[Sage]

I get lots of inspiration from music, rallygirl. In fact, I actually make up soundtracks for my novels. When I listen to them while writing, it's mostly background noise to get me in the mood, but the times they help the most is when I'm listening to them while doing other things (driving, working, cooking, etc.) They'll get me thinking about particular scenes, & either help me plan them out, or get excited about those scenes. Another thing that helps is when I'm searching for the songs to go on the soundtrack. Listening to every song on the radio or CDs & thinking "Does this song work for my characters/this scene?" Sometimes they even give me ideas for scenes that I hadn't thought of, but that were perfect for the novel. Once I found a song, & realized that that passion was exactly what I wanted to display for one character (& had meant to), but that I hadn't ever written it into the novel. The song helped me focus on what exactly that character needed to get her where she needed to be. The soundtracks are constantly evolving as I write the novel, but I love working on them, especially when I find a "perfect" song for a given scene.

[Nateskate]

I get inspired by the Lord of the Rings soundtrack, especially Fellowship of the Ring.

[rallygirl]

Wow! Sound track! Now that is an awesome idea...I might do that today!! I have finished the first draft of my YA novel and just in the process of reading it out loud to an American visitor I have. :snoopy:

I loved the 80s. The music was cool. The fashion was daggy but who cares! lol

[Lady_Kristin]

I don't always listen to music when I write, but if I do it's usually classical. Lately it's been a non-classical piece though. "Gravity of Love" by Enigma.

Kristin

[Shadow_Ferret]

Ew. The 80s?

j/k ;)

When I was heavy into sword and sorcery (Robert E. Howard, Fritz Leiber, Michael Moorcock, et al) I used to listen to a lot of Black Sabbath. The tone seemed to fit the mood set by the stories.

Now when I'm writing, I pop in some Sabbath and it helps me when I'm writing fantasy create a similar mood.

[underthecity]

I am unemployed this week (don't mean to bring down the thread, but it's true) and finally have a full day almost every day to write and continuously tinker with my WIP, which is a children's story set in 1895 on a train.

I normally don't have such a big chunk of time in which to write, so usually I don't listen to anything. However, this week I've had bluegrass playing (from Dish Network Sirius) in the background. I really can't write to modern or 80s rock, or anything with a lot of lyrics--just too distracting. However, much of bluegrass is instrumental, and the vocals are never too loud.

Bluegrass seems to be a nice soundtrack to a story set on a train. And how serendipitous is it when a "train" song comes on? Lots of bluegrass tunes are about trains.

Otherwise, it just gets too darn quiet in the house. I'm used to working 9 to 5.

allen

[maestrowork]

'70s porn music works just fine.




---

Seriously, I can't really listen to music WHEN I write. OK, maybe some soft Jazz and nondescript classical music is okay. I usually listen to music BEFORE I write to get into the mood. Movie soundtracks are the best. Different movies for different things, and such variety, too.

[Cheryll]

'70s porn music works just fine.

**shakes head**

Ray, Ray, Ray... ;)

Cheryll

[britlitfantw]

Music is one of the major inspirations while I write, and often it's just the thing to pull me out of a ditch in the road during a WIP. I tend to switch around based on two things; a) what I'm in the mood for, and b) what I think the mood for the current scene should be. Sometimes, I can be listening to, let's say, Enya while I type a 'new discovery' scene ... and then I realize I want it to be less mystical, more nerve-wracking and edgy, so click-click-play! Nickelback coming right up. ;)

Nickelback, Enya, movie soundtracks (Moulin Rouge and LotR), Hedley, Rex Goudie, Josh Groban, and I'm set. :D Oh, wait, can't forget U2 ...

[DamaNegra]

Since I my WIP is set during medieval times, I listen to my favorite group, Mago de Oz. My friends have said of this group "it's the kind of music that makes you want to draw your sword and go fight along Charlemagne, and then drink root beer and mead." Well, they were making fun of the music when they said that, but it's actually true. So that really sets me in the mood :)

[Pike]

I might be the lone soul here but I can't listen to music while I work, it's too distracting. Call it adult ADHD but if I hear anything I like then it sweeps me away and I break into an air guitar solo or any other instrument that fits the moment. I play several so it makes it hard to decide what to play. I have to work in near absolute silence to keep focused, usually pumping out a major chunk of work before 7 am when my kids are still asleep.

Pike

[aruna]

I get lots of inspiration from music, rallygirl. In fact, I actually make up soundtracks for my novels. When I listen to them while writing, it's mostly background noise to get me in the mood, but the times they help the most is when I'm listening to them while doing other things (driving, working, cooking, etc.) They'll get me thinking about particular scenes, & either help me plan them out, or get excited about those scenes. Another thing that helps is when I'm searching for the songs to go on the soundtrack. Listening to every song on the radio or CDs & thinking "Does this song work for my characters/this scene?" Sometimes they even give me ideas for scenes that I hadn't thought of, but that were perfect for the novel. Once I found a song, & realized that that passion was exactly what I wanted to display for one character (& had meant to), but that I hadn't ever written it into the novel. The song helped me focus on what exactly that character needed to get her where she needed to be. The soundtracks are constantly evolving as I write the novel, but I love working on them, especially when I find a "perfect" song for a given scene.

That's EXACTLY what I do! Three of my books have soundtracks. The first one (that was never published) had 60's music: Beatles, Corsby Stills Nash and Young, Bob Dylan.

SOA has a classical music soundtrack, with Beethoven and Paganini and all kinds of stuff.

The latest one, still without a publisher, has a wonderful sound track - I made a CD of it. I've got music from the 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's. Starts with Louis Armstrong, through Pat Boone, Chubby Checker, the Platters, Petula Clark, Ben E King, the Drifters, the Fugees, Bob Marley. When I was writing it I played it all the time! It really helped set the mood.

[Jarsto]

For me that music that helps me write often has no clear relation to what I'm writing. My last fantasy novel was written largely to a single album "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars" by David Bowie. I can't really see any connection between that and a fantasy novel. No more than I can see a relation between my current science fiction writing, and film music by Ennio Morricone, originally written for westerns. But still that's what I'm writing to a lot on this novel.

For me it's not usually a soundtrack or anything like that, but there is music I play a whole lot while working on something, while other music is played less than usual.

[LightShadow]

Classical Music inspires me, and I can't listen to the stuff at any other time...but usually silence is my music of choice while I write.

[roach]

"...Mozart asked his wife to read stories to him while he composed. By distracting his left brain with spoken language, the stories may have freed his music-oriented right brain to compose." (The Alphabet Versus the Goddess, Leonard Shlain, p. 21)

I feel it's the same way with me, only the other way around. The music occupies a certain part of my mind so that I can concentrate on writing.

Right now I have a play list of music that my MC would like. (Portishead, Mazzy Star, Concrete Blonde, Tori Amos, Massive Attack, the silk demise, and some other artists). I keep meaning to pick up some soundtracks to play as well.

[SeanDSchaffer]

I usually am inspired by soundtracks, including Dragonheart, the original soundtrack to Star Wars on cassette (the cassette was made in 1977), and The Ten Commandments (An epic score; when I want to write something great, it's one of the most inspiring scores I have.)

I have to listen to music almost all day, but I can write when there's no music, also. Sometimes, I just get 'music'd out,' and have to be in silence when writing. The silence can be so soothing, at times.