Writing, Rewriting, Writing etc.: The Musical

Coming to theatres near you…book now if you like disappointment.

Good morning, internet users from around the globe! I have, of course, been checking my blog statistics in a regular fashion that some may deem ever so slightly obsessive, and I was amazed that there are real people reading my blog in SWITZERLAND, ITALY, AND THE US OF A. This makes me very giddy, I may have to have a little repose before I continue…

– We apologise for this interruption. This life-changing blogpost will resume shortly. Thank you for your patience. –

Ah, that’s better. Dear all of you blogglers from exotic locations, and you blogglers from mundane locations; Thank you for taking the time to read my blog. I don’t even care if you liked it or not, like what my mum always said to me after Sports Day: ‘The point is is that you tried, and that’s the most important thing. Remember, competitive sports isn’t for everyone. You have lots of other skills, like running really slowly.’

Anyhow, back to the real point of this beautiful, bouncing, bountiful blogpost; sweet, sweet music.

That’s right, little chickadees, today I’m going to ramble on about music, and how it affects your writing.

‘Ooh!’, ‘Aaah!’ ‘Isn’t that clever?’, ‘This is going to be really insightful, I can feel it in my bones!’

These are just a few examples of the reactions this blogpost will invoke in you, my dear readers. So, as I may have mentioned about 43 times before, I have started writing a full-length play. And I am currently 10 pages in – I told you I was serious! That is some mild work that has happened there. And I for one have always struggled with the whole ‘Should I play music when I write? Or should I just let my painful, powerful words that speak of truth and emotion resonate around my writing chamber, bringing joy mixed with deep, deep sorrow to all that hear them?’ You know what I’m sayin’?

So, as per normal, whenever I have any kind of internal and mainly pretentious internal conflict, I put it on da blog. Aren’t you lucky things?

Of course, if you are one of those ‘I must work in silence, my body is a temple of silence, and I must write to fill that silence’ kind of people – great! You keep doing what you do, Batman. But if you, like me, want something to underscore your writing, but can’t find exactly the right thing, then you’ve come to the right place. HURRAH!

One thing I find is the best thing about listening to music when you write, is that the silence isn’t imposing this great pressure on you to fill it. Humans are obsessed with making noise and filling the void, so if you fill the void with something else, then it takes the pressure off of you. When there’s background noise, you are allowed to sit and wait until you’re ready to write, instead of feeling obliged because it’s so quiet. This makes writing a much more relaxing experience, and one where you’re not fighting with the empty air, and losing.

Here are some of my favourite pieces of music to write to:

1. The soundtrack to Amelie – This is an hour’s worth of beautiful music. The fantastic thing about using film soundtracks is that they were created to underscore. They enhance what’s happening, without dominating. This is exactly what you want when you’re choosing something to listen to when writing. You want something that you can be aware is occurring in the background, without it distracting your attention, or even worse, directly affecting how you write.

2. Anything by Hans Zimmer – Ooft. Love this guy. Something to be careful of with the Zimm-o-nator is that a lot of his work is epic. So epic that I’ve used the boldface tool AND the underlining tool. Thing’s just got serious. This makes his work perfect if you’re writing an in-your-face, cut-off-your face battle scene complete with flying limbs and general repressed masculinity. However, it might jar with a period drama about Lady Jane and her poodles. You never know, you might discover something amazing. Poodles can be epic too.

3. This song – Just on loop. Forever. It’s so dreamy.

4. Ludovico Einaudi – What a name, eh? Stunning. And let’s all agree to ignore the irritating ‘inspirational’ captions, shall we?

5. The ‘pretend I’m outside in the real world’ sound effect – If you don’t want the faff of choosing some music to write to, but want something to make the silence a little less unbearable – you too can pretend you have a life and that you go to cafes to socialise with people without even leaving your home, with this, ‘Relaxing sounds of Cafe Ambience’. Eh. Maybe it’ll work?

Those are just a few of the things that I have listened to in the past whilst I write. Notice that none of them have lyrics. Beware the lyrics. I have found that I can be listening to Bon Iver, for example, and suddenly all my characters want to talk about is blood in the sink and the venison they just hunted to bring home to their isolated cabin in the middle of the Himalayas. Weird. I know you think that you’re more intelligent than that, but it happens almost by osmosis.

Try experimenting with lots of different types of music and observe how they change how you write – it’s quite shocking how easily our brains can be swayed. I KILLED THE BLACK DEATH WITH MY TEETH. God! Sorry, Metallica just came on the radio..

That’s all, folks! If you guys have any other tracks you like to listen to when writing, or if you prefer to take the Batman approach, feel free to let me know in the comments section là-bas (that was one for my European readership – love you guys).

Stay fabulous x