At one point, she mentioned listening to music while she worked. Interestingly, she could only do this while working on some piece of art, not while she was writing.
Now I know that some people write with music constantly in their ears. Some say they select soundtracks to serve their work-in-progress, which makes me wonder.
Do gritty teen/YA novelists work with hard metal and anarchism pounding through their head-phones? Or people writing for pre-teens opt for sugar-pop and Justin Beiber? Or do the big brave souls – Mr.Pullman, I may be looking at you - tackle such large grand themes with Beethoven blasting out from their stacks? I don’t know, but it makes interesting thinking
Somewhat sadly, I can’t listen to music while I’m writing. The stuff worms into my head and ears, messing up the flow, the rhythm, the music of the words. How on earth can I hear how this or that phrase sounds if there’s an alternative sound obliterating it? How can I fix the emotion in this part of my story securely into words when there’s a different emotion hammering loudly at the door? I’m glad some people can work happily that way but – rather annoyingly – it’s not a thing that works for me.
Even writers of fiction need to be able to hear the music in their work. One thing that does restore my ears – again, though not while writing – is poetry, which I’ve recently re-discovered as an activity.
I re-shelved my random collection of old poetry books in beside an odd armchair, far more conscious of making space for a large seasonal green tree than insightful workspace planning.
Yet, ever since, I’ve found myself snatching odd moments among the anthologies, greedily grabbing several writing voices at a time. It’s an amusingly mixed experience. Some poems are boring, some dreadful, some so embarrassingly of their time the should be wearing duffle-coats and some are still as breath-taking as ever. I’d recommend it as a way of waking up your writing head or even, as I did, finding a new idea.
So, are you a muso or a muser? What’s your sound of choice while you’re working? Or are you another one who needs word-whispering silence to get the work done?
And if anyone knows the name/location of the brilliant Arts-Council-funded poetry site that I glimpsed recently on Facebook but now cannot find, please, please add it to the comment box. Thanks.
The section I saw showed a soulful John Hegley speaking "Without You."
Unfortunately, I am "Without You-Tube".
www.pennydolan.com
A BOY CALLED M.O.U.S.E, published by Bloomsbury.
11 comments:
Was it the Poetry Station? I sometimes listen to music. It needs to be quite sort of spare, though: favourites are the theme music to The Lost Prince by Stephen Poliakoff, and the theme music to Memoirs of a Geisha. They're both sort of quite wistful; but not nothingy. But my son keeps pinching whatever I listen to music on, so usually I don't listen to anything, which is probably best, anyway.
Interesting post, Penny! I can't listen to music, either, while I'm actually writing, but I do have a soundtrack for each book, made up of all sorts of songs, bits of music, that I find evocative in some way - either as a way into the character, or evoking period, mood, setting. It could be the Beggar's Opera, or Anarchy in the UK, depending on what I'm writing.
Thanks, Sue - The Poetry Station it was! Liked the visual look of the site too:
http://www.poetrystation.org.uk/
Spare & wistful is the kind I sometimes try so will watch out for those titles.
Celia, that kind of constructed soundtrack makes perfect sense - they sound like an aural version of those wonderful scrapbooks/collages you make as part of working out the plan of your story. Another thing to try?
As a writer of edgy teen/YA fiction, Penny, and speaking for myself, I don't listen to hard metal or anarchism, or most other types of music while I'm working. I often have classical music on, but it's very much quietly in the background. Like Celia, I do have a soundtrack for different books, but sometimes that can amount to just a couple of songs, or even snippets of songs. A great post, Penny.
Don't like music when I'm writing, but I can put up with it - in cafes, say. In which case, I prefer it if the music has no lyrics. Unless they are playing Blonde on Blonde (Bob Dylan), as they often do in my local Starbucks, in which case I don't care (because I love the album).
Interesting!
I find it varies - there are days when I need a bit of company in the form of background noise, and others when a bit of hush is called for.
But the type of background noise goes through phases: sometimes it's the radio, sometimes music, sometimes the TV.
The idea of PP writing to a background of Beethoven amused me: my image is of scribbling to a Wagner background!
I don't usually write to music, but sometimes I do. Oddly, it can help to settle me if i'm finding it hard to get going. The music I come back to time and again when I need this sort of encouragement is Bach's solo cello music. I have the wonderful Yo Yo Ma playing, and listen on headphones with the sound low. I can't cope with singing, however much I love it. Even sung in Latin or German I find the words too distracting.
And I meant to say...fascinating post Penny!
I'm astonished how many of you DO write to music. As someone who normally loves music, I have to say I can't bear to hear a sound whilst I'm writing. Like you say, Penny, it messes up the rhythm. But not just the rhythm of words, sentences and paragraph breaks - at the slightest sound of music, the rhythm of my imagination becomes shot to pieces too.
Secret songs was sparked by a particular recording of "The great silkie of Sule Skerry" and I wore the cassette album it was on practically to pieces while writing that book. I'm very happy to write to folk song, in fact - but only if I know it so well I don't have to stop and listen. Most classical music I find too "big" to share a room with when I'm writing...
Great post, Penny.
I can't write with music on but sometimes when I am reading something over, or making notes I will have it on in the background.
I like Jack Johnston sometimes and Getz/Gilberto (a jazz bossa nova CD) and antonio Carlos Jobim.
But they all go off again when I am actually writing.
Post a Comment