What are you listening to while you write?

[Alte]

Alternatively I listen to this playlist, Music to Help Study and Work. Background music instrumentals for studying, healing, relax.

It helps me build concentration. Sometimes silence can do just fine.

If anyone interested for another resource for royalty free music.

The person who made the playlist provides Royalty Free Music/ Royalty Free Classical Music (Frequentry Asked Questions, mentioned in the link)

[Lady-Cynic]

I listen to my Pandora radio, which mainly consists of Rise Against, Sum 41, Eminem, MCR, P!atD, and Hollywood Undead. Yeah, I listen to a lot "hardcore" music. It's either that or a 10 hour loop of Nyan Cat to get my creative juices flowing.

[Lumella]

Normally I don't listen to music when I'm writing, but when I can't crunch up for any ideas at all, I tend to resort to listening to some music related to the scene I'm doing.

Sometimes, instead of listening to music, I watch a drama series on the half of my screen, and I get good ideas on how to execute a scene better which I picked up from.

[LetsSpiralStars]

It depends on what I'm writing. I usually try to pick music to fit the theme for that portion or one with good instrumentals. Moondance by Nightwish is one I've written to recently.

[peapodprincess]

I don't listen to music when I write, most of the time. I really like ambient noise (like waves crashing on a beach or rain hitting a roof) so that's what I normally play when I need to get something creative done.

Also, I'm partial to putting the old 1960s Batman television series on the background whenever I code for some strange reason.

[Rinima]

Occasionally, I listen to stuff with words when I write. Like this:


Good for the emotive stuff.

[meiri]

I will mostly listen to the music tracks I've downloaded for the project (if its a VN), because it helps me decide what tracks I do and don't want to use (I often download a ton at one time).
If not that, I will listen to rainycafe.com which is a mixture of something like coffitivity and rainymood. (I also use that when writing essays.)
One thing I don't really like to listen to is pink noise, white noise, extremely natural and nature type things, and very very ambient things. I use that to relax and calm me during panic attacks, so it usually puts me to sleep (and I don't want to fall asleep while writing!)

[Nathan]

I like listening to rock or metal when I write. Makes me feel at ease. Also video games OST are welcome as well.

[LadyOfGatsby]

I listen to naruto sad songs and bgm from some random japanese youtube people. For visual novel writing, I listen to my own soundtrack meant for it.

[Chocopyro]

David Arkenstone when I write fantasy. Otherwise, whatever else seems to fit with the theme of the scene I am writing for.

[melelisun]

I really like epic songs made by music companies like Audio Machine... although it does make me want to write everything as super epic.

[Kate]

Inuyasha OST is really good background music for me; otherwise piano/rain music or cello/rain. Sometimes I listen to ballad-pop at a very low volume (like Christina Perri or Lana del Rey).

[truefaiterman]

I change the music whenever I get to write something: I just listen to what I feel like at the moment. But I can say, a lot of Kalafina, Type-Moon and videogame OSTs is the usual.

[SinSisters]

Any non-lyrical music, or music with words from a language I'm not familiar with (aka can't listen to French/English songs). My music folder contains classical music, a "This is Halloween" instrumental version in the Halloween spirit, or I'll just go on YouTube and search for gaming OSTs (Bastion has beautiful music, for example.) If I'm going for a specific mood, then I have about ten songs per mood/character.

-Nat

[anon2045]

I usually just put white noise on (things like the sound of rain or the sound of fire crackling). It's relaxing, helps me focus, and isn't too distracting. It also helps me concentrate on work when there is a lot of noise going around at home or lots of people talking in the background. This site especially (http://www.rainymood.com/) has a lovely sound of rain. It doesn't even sound as if it's looped, because sometimes there'll be the sound of thunder or chirping birds thrown in sometimes).

I tend to get distracted easily and I actually love classical music, so it doesn't help me focus when I put in on to do work as much as white noise does. Therefore, classical music (for me personally) is better for when I'm not doing things that require a high amount of focus and is pretty tedious. Therefore not good for writing, but good for studying for difficult/boring classes. Tedious = frustration and Joe Hisaishi's music always finds a way to make me smile and relieve monotony, so it's perfect when I have to grind through something for long periods of time. A video on youtube I listen to a lot: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxd4bY_o_4k. Put in background and done, you're set for 2 hours. (By which time I'll get up and get a snack. x_x)