I can't listen to music while I write. If there are words, I sing them (and sometimes type them -- seriously!). If there are no words, I still get caught up in the story the music is telling, and it becomes impossible to tell my own.
Sometimes I can edit with music, but even then, if I listen to an epic song during a soft moment, it severely skews how I revise the scene.
I can't eat snacks while I write. I end up eating them all in the first twenty minutes and not writing anything. Then I get gunk on my keyboard.
I can't drink while I write. It makes me have to get up and pee every fifteen minutes. (I don't understand it either. I drink just as much the rest of the day and only go every few hours. It's only when I have to write.)
I can't be near a window. Because then I stare outside at the neighbors and the gardeners and even the stinking DOGS that walk by.
But the worst thing is, I can't write in the same place with nothing to look at, nothing to drink, nothing to snack on, and nothing to listen to but the ceiling fan. I get bored and start to dread my writing time.
Seriously, I don't know how I ever get anything done.
How do you write? What do you need to be productive?
I must have missed your previous post, but I'm very similar. I can't write with music, or food, but I do drink.
ReplyDeleteHowever, more often than not, I write at work, in my cubicle, with lots of distractions, because I far prefer a desktop with a big clicky keyboard, than trying to type on a tiny laptop.
Haha, I'm so with you on this. Only difference is I need a window or I feel claustrophobic. Nature distracts me just enough to keep me from getting antsy, but it's boring enough to help me get back to the writing. When I write. Which I haven't been doing. Well I did yesterday, but that's an anomoly.
ReplyDeleteI have a hard time writing to music usually, but some of my best scenes have come to songs on repetition (the one that immediately pops to mind is an incarceration/psychological torture scene in Kissing Dragons written while listening to Shinedown's Sound of Madness). Food, beverages... only during breaks. What I really need to figure out is how to disconnect from the internet :)
ReplyDeleteHa! My worse distraction is the internet - the open window's got nothing on that.
ReplyDeleteAnd I only listen to music to drown out the random noises of kids/TV (when someone else is in charge of watching all that and I'm trying to write). A sudden burst of laughter from the other room is FAR more distracting to me that just about anything else.
But I always have tea. :)
I'm a little less ascetic. I can have music on, thank goodness, and a window that looks onto nature is an asset. But please! no TV of any kind!
ReplyDeleteA latte is also nice, but I often forget to drink it...
(BTW, I know how to spell anomaly. Thank you all for overlooking the typo. :)
ReplyDeleteI think I need just need a high level of inspiration to write. I know I've written on the noisy crowded bus, while the TV is on, during jury duty, *ehem* during class, and while forgetting to eat my dinner before when I am burried deeply enough in the throws of a story. But when that divine inspiration isn't quite there . . . anything can be a distraction. Noise. The lack of noise. Hunger. Food. A chai late`. It has more to do with my state of being than my actual surroundings. Sometimes that's something I can do something about and sometimes I just have to decide to force out words one grueling sentence at a time.
ReplyDeleteI can't really answer how I write. Sometimes it happens, other times it doesn't, like great love-making.
ReplyDeleteI can not write and listen to music with words. I will get the song going and singing and then I'm up dancing before I realize it. But I have a tiny desk so I'm limited on the snacks and drinks so I tend to have those for those long moments of letting my thoughts float out from my fingers and into the story.
ReplyDeleteI can't write with music on, even though I've had music inspire scenes or characters. But I can tune out the TV entirely. Unless it's a music show of some kind. :)
ReplyDeleteAnd my characters don't talk to me, either. But I find the idea fascinating.
Can't write with music on ... but oddly enough can paint and draw to music.
ReplyDeleteOh, interesting!
ReplyDeleteI look forward to my afternoon writing time when my girls are napping because that's when I drink my one Dr. Pepper of the day. Sort of a treat to get me going and a caffeine jump start to get my brain going. :)
Amy
Coffee, tea, quiet, and laptop - in my writing spot, surrounded by books, photos, and writing tools.
ReplyDeleteI like to write in the morning, but I try to be flexible.
God, but you are funny! I can listen to music, but I usually don't, and I can only listen to classical.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you on the snacking--I scarf it all down and then have greasy or sticky keys. Blah.
I'm like you - music distracts me and so does the internet, and snacks. I do need something to drink and a quiet place. But, I get bored with the quiet so I've been listening to music on really low volume. It actually works out OK because I can tune it out and focus on the story, but then the music is there when I'm in between thoughts. I also tend to lose track of time and forget to eat sometimes.
ReplyDelete