WIP

What is playing on the ipod right now as I write?









Normally I do not write well with music playing in my ears, but this is one of those days where it's helping. *smiles* I'm not working on any love scenes yet, but I'm on a part where Wesley starts to understand why her beautiful mother was so troubled and distant. :)

And it's almost the weekend. I'm gearing up to get a goodly amount of writing done. :]

Just sharing an odd experience I had today when I stopped over at the post office to pick up the mail for my work. Our box is a large square drawer, close to the floor. I just knelt down in front of it like usual and was using the key, when I started to hear music. Haunting music. Or an undefined song that you would hear coming from a cheap music box.

I pressed my ear to one of the post office boxes to the right of ours (which probably looked freaky to the overhead cameras) and confirmed that the music was coming from the box.

When I opened our drawer, I gave the inner sorting area an eyeball - just curious if somebody was messing around with the mail and coincidentally turned a music box on just as I knelt in front of my box. But nah. There wasn't anyone back there.

Meanwhile the music mournfully continued to play.

I have no doubt it is still playing, unless of course it stopped when I left the post office.

This link Dress 'Em this Way goes to The Rejectionist website (which is also listed on my lovely left column placed there with schemey html codes that I forgot to write or print down somewhere where I could do it again without starting from scratch), and their hilarious post on guy fashion on the runways.

Um. I know the Rejectionist was being funny, but I'm very tempted to DO this to one of my main characters. Not one of the side characters. The main character.

*laughs mischievously*

What about you?

Would you DARE do this to one of your characters?

I had this thought when I clicked on Julie Dao's blog Silver Lining earlier today before I moved on to my own work. Julie has the most lovely and tasteful music playing on her site.

When discussions at the various writing forums turn to music, and people ask what kind of music I listen to while I write - I usually say none. But it's more complicated than that.

I know there are some pieces of music or instrumental pieces which drive me in the direction of my computer and make me want to write. I think they make me feel content and comfortable, and maybe even take me back to my elementary years when I was still taking music lessons (before I gave them up so I could have riding lessons). That was also the time I began writing, and sometimes the two worlds converged. I wrote music as well as stories. They were not Mozart level creations, but they worked for me. I remember spending hours sitting at the piano listening for the notes that sounded well together and marking them. When I was really feeling the music, I'd sit there with tears streaming down my face.

Music is plugged into my emotional core. So is writing. That's how listening to music can affect or impact my urges to write.

When I went to see LOTR with my friends, I was agonizing over my itching fingers. The music spoke to my soul (to be dramatic) and filled my head with words that needed letting out.

That doesn't mean it works the same just by plugging in a little LOTR music on any old day. It seems that the music which 'speaks to my soul' brings about more than one effect. If it doesn't drive me to write, it relaxes me and puts me in a far-off mood so I don't really see the computer or feel like working.

Various piano pieces and soundtrack themes (like the Last of the Mohicans) affect me the same way - they either draw that artistic nerve out of hiding. Or they take my brain to join that artistic nerve in that dream world where it lives.

But again, if I were to nail it down -

The types of music which I believe feed the soul are those that draw a positive and reflective response from you.

I LOVE things like Lady Gaga's 'Bad Romance', but I could NEVER write to it. It is music I prefer to jog or drive with.

For writing, I prefer instrumentals - preferably classical, contemporary, and folk. Some vocals are alright, but I can be fairly finicky. :)