Earlier today, while working on my novella, I was flicking through my music collection, trying to decide what to listen to. I was getting more and more frustrated because I couldn't seem to find anything that would get the words flowing. And this made me wonder about some writerly advice I'd been given years ago. I can't remember who it was - I suspect it was one of my TAFE teachers from the Writing and Editing course, or perhaps another student - but whoever it was had said something along the lines of "Having any form of background noise while writing, whether it be television, music or life in general, distracts you from writing and has a negative impact on anything you do write."
To me, this is a bit like saying "Everyone must write with their left hand." or "Everyone should eat every meal with chopsticks." Something that helps one person might hinder another person. Likewise, if something is useful in one situation, that doesn't mean it will be suitable for other situations. I know some writers who able to write anywhere, whether they're in a busy cafe or on a crowded train. Others have to lock themselves in a cone of silence or they're unable to concentrate on anything.
And then there are some (like me) who need music to write.
Oddly enough, when I am writing non-fiction, such as articles or uni assignments, I prefer to work in silence. But when I'm writing fiction, I almost always have to have music. And the music has to create the same sort of atmosphere as the scene I'm trying to write.
When writing, I tend to listen to mostly gothic rock/symphonic metal bands, with a few exceptions. Mainly because I like the sound of it, but also because I feel that, in a way, it suits the genre I tend to write in (those of you who are familiar with my work will know that I write primarily dark fantasy). And quite often, when I'm stuck on a particular scene, listening to music can make the scene suddenly come to life in my mind, as if it's playing out before me as a movie. I actually have a set of songs for each 'type' of scene I write (anger/battle, sad/depressing or amusing etc).
I guess the notion of background music/noise as inpsiration or distraction can be applied to all creative endeavours, whether it be drawing, painting, sculpting and so on. Anyway, I thought I'd pose the question; what do all you other creative people out there do when you're trying to get those ideas flowing?
And, as an aside... Has anyone else ever been given really good - or really bad - advice on how they should work?
