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A collection of snippets of the books I write and, occasionally, my life and the things that inspire my writing...

Monday, April 14, 2014

A to Z: L is for Loreena and writing music.

I like to write while quiet background music plays. Loreena McKennit is one of my go-to artists for just that purpose. I have no idea if most writers listen to music while they write, or whether they prefer silence. The editor I work with writes also. He tells me that he has to have silence while he writes, but that background noise is actually helpful to him while he's editing. I guess it must have something to do with the parts of the brain that are utilized by the two very different activities.

Here is a sample of Loreena's music. She plays multiple instruments and she sings. A poem, “Prologue, Intended for a Dramatic Piece of King Edward the Fourth” by William Blake is read by Douglas Campbell. What a voice!



Do you listen to anything while you write? Or do you prefer silence?

A couple of links to check out while you listen:

I found this one at M.J. Joachim's blog ( http://mjjoachim.blogspot.com/) . Just passing it along to spread the resources around.
The Write Life Presents: The 100 Best Websites for Writers in 2014

And, I've been using The Writer's Diet Feedback tool for over a year. Although the site states "Please note that the WritersDiet Test is an automated feedback tool, not an assessment tool.", it's useful for overcoming a little blindness to your own writing. Yu can copy/paste 100 to 1,000 words into it. It's rather enlightening.

Have a great day, and enjoy the A to Z!

 Visit other April Blogging from A to Z Challenge by clicking here. 

7 comments:

  1. If I'm actually writing - that is thinking of what comes next - I need silience - so spouse can't be home lol

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  2. Let me think for a minute... Spouse not home, and you get to write. Sounds like a plan. ;-)

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  3. I usually listen to music while writing. I even credit the two bands I mostly listened to as part of the dedication in the book I'm releasing in June. I'm also going to credit my majority soundtrack in one of the books I'm releasing next year. Since I'm mostly listening to this band while writing my WIP, my third Russian historical, I thought it would be nice to note in that book's future dedication that the surname I belatedly gave to one of the characters is my small way of saying thank you to them. How many times do you discover a Russian name whose first five letters are part of the name of your soundtrack band?

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  4. I write to music, and can't write without it, in fact! To that end, I make elaborate playlists for my stories and characters. The bonus is that when the story is finished, I can listen to the playlist and imagine myself in the story world again. :)
    Loreena McKennitt is awesome! Thanks for sharing this song. :)

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  5. I need silence to write. Many of my writer friends do listen to music, but it's distracting to me. Music makes me want to get up and move around, dance, sing along.

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  6. You shocked me over on my side - Zombies? really? Actually I have one in a new story - we should talk :D

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  7. I love Loreena! Sadly I can't write and listen at the same time, it messes up my rhythm. But I love to listen in preparation, making up scenes in my head.

    @TarkabarkaHolgy from
    Multicolored Diary - Tales of colors
    MopDog - The crazy thing about Hungarians...

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