“Imagine one note struck on a piano. Immediately that one note is enough to change the atmosphere of a room.” -- Aaron Copeland, What to Listen for in Music.
On Absolute Write I found an energetic thread about writers who write to the strains of Beethoven or Talking Heads. It struck my fancy because I’ve been moving CDs to a new Media Center computer connected to our living room speakers. Along with music and audio books, this new toy plays and records television, runs my Netflix stuff – both DVDs and instant movies – runs games, and stores our entire collection of photographs. I’m waiting for the upgrade that will wash my windows.
My old albums sound so good through a quality audio system, and are so easy to access, that I’ve found they propel my writing. It seems not to matter which genre, as long as the tracks are old favorites. Music stirs me. Both physically and emotionally. If I’m upright (and alone!) I get down and boogie. With the laptop in my recliner I dance on the page. That screen of sound keeps work deadlines and laundry outside my orbit. It keeps my head in that place where the writing surprises me. (Turn up the volume, however, and I sing along with the vocals.)
The thread on Absolute Write is great. A couple of responders seem to have a fair bit of time on their hands – they create entire play lists to evoke a manuscript’s tone. Or an era they’re writing about. Or they make different play lists for each character.
Initially, although I was charmed, I was skeptical about what seemed a unique way to avoid actually writing. Until the other day when I queued up albums for a friend coming over, a colleague who’d recently lost a beloved relative. The CDs were favorites of mine that I was sure Lauren would like. But when I started listening, I realized every track was in a minor key…dirge-like…hardly the thing to lift the spirits of someone grieving. I dumped that lot and recorded some Concrete Blonde, The Band, and Rusted Root (am I dating myself or what?). Again, tracks I thought she’d like but a tad more upbeat. I called the first set Lauren Sad, the second Lauren Glad.
Those AbsoluteWriters are on the right track. I'm thinking of making sets for each stage of my heroine's journey: Paige in Denial. Paige Terrified. Paige Triumphant.
I’m curious who needs silence. Who among you listens. And where do you go for the music?
Image found at http://www.tuba.is.nl/pic1-10.html
- Lois
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9 comments:
I so wish I could write to music! I've heard more than a few writers rave about this method. I, too, have spoken to people who make play lists for their wip based on its era and location, and even some who have a separate play list for each character. It sounds like such a great idea. Alas, I need total quiet. I guess I'm a visual person. I need a beautiful view out my window that I can stare at. Birds singing is fine. Garbage trucks going by is fine. People talking or any kind of music? I need to stop and listen, pulling me out of my thoughts.
Lois-
Interesting topic and great image!
Sometimes I need silence because my creative mental state is a noisy crowd, and I'm taking dictation as fast as I can and can't handle any more voices. Sometimes, I need that one song that sets the mood of the scene, and I put it on repeat until I'm coasting on the sameness like a mantra. I've done hours and hours with the same one until a chapter/section/MS is finished.
As an active listener, I pay so much attention to music, it's very hard for me to split my head between it and writing. I'm aurally wired and not very capable of ignoring auditory input, especially the good stuff. I don't listen much while painting either. Music crawls beneath my skin and takes over my temperament, so I have to be as careful with my exposure to it as some people are with outside fiction while they're writing a specific project.
Another cousin, a sculptor, said she's the same. I love music too much to seriously play it when I can't listen with my whole head.
Never fear. I'm with you on the crusty old bands, and further back, too. Analog albums captured more information than is typically transmitted in a digital re-master. You think they sound better? They do. It's like having more pixels in your screen for better resolution, and vinyl degrades way more slowly. Old-school master recording tapes actually "warm up". They may lose some data (as digital always does), but they lose it in very harmonious ways. An old sound engineering teacher of mine said a great master tape- and he was playing us 20 year-old Ramsey Lewis sessions at the time- will sound better on the 10,000th play. Digital has its own wonders, but it never improves with age like wine or album sides.
Elaine - you might try ambient music at low volume. But if you've got a process that works, why worry about someone else's! I stop and listen too, if the music's dramatic...just tried Mahler's 5th yesterday and had to shut if off because I got swept right into listening.
Clare - I'm pretty sure I envy you the dictating voices.... My middle-of-the-night inspirations generally steer me in interesting directions, but sometimes I wonder whether the work would have been fine without them. It doesn't matter though, does it? We follow where we're led and are grateful for the guidance. (I miss my old LPs. I let them mildew and warp and they're long gone.)
Maybe I should say it's more like eavesdropping in a waiting room crammed with narcissists and busybodies. I think, Oh, I could use That. No wait, I should use THAT. Wait, what was that again?
Clare - I started thinking about how you sometimes play the same mood-setting song like a mantra while you're skating through a scene. Repeating would be a lot less distracting than the momentary jolt when Buddha Lounge stops and Laureena McKennett begins.
I also have a diverse collection, so to speak, and before other devices, we had a CD player that holds 400 disks and that would shuffle the tracks. It's still a mine field, and my husband has 10,000 ish songs on his iPod. All crap : ) How does that happen?
Music gets my creative juices flowing as well. Mostly Texas based singer songwriters and I either listen to them from CD's, Sirius satellite or internet radio stations.
Since I don't write at home, I use things to block out the sounds around me. Otherwise, I listen to other people's conversations, etc, rather than writing. I have used
- ambient "white noise" (I like the rainstorm one I got of iTunes best)
- classical music/soundtracks with no words
- folk music I know so well it might as well be ambient noise.
For his past couple of books, John Connolly has sold his first editions with CDs of the music he listened to while writing the books. It's kind of fascinating.
Clare - I'm loading my husband's crap as we speak.
Travis - I love streaming radio on the Internet. Can you believe this new world?
Laura - I had no idea John Connolly provided CDs. How very cool! I'll have to go look up what he listens to. And...I guess pretty much all ambient music is white-noise-ish. No wonder I play so much of it while I'm working.
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