Tuned On, Tuned Out

I listen to A LOT of music when I'm in the rough drafting and brainstorming stages. It sends my brain in so many creative directions. Rhythm is everything for my body when it comes to creativity.  It truly does something amazing to free up that brainstorming and allow my mind to move back and forth between day to day boring old problems and the solutions likewise to writing walls.  If I'm listening to music and working out at the same time...watch out, there's a firestorm of ideas out there. Beware to anyone who disrupts those moments for me. They probably won't recognize me as anything approaching a kind human being. Therefore, I never use music during the drafting and brainstorming process if I have to be able to switch quickly into human interaction mode. 

Confession time....the list of music that I listen to while brainstorming and drafting is eclectic and bizarre.

Synthesized Bach...yeah, he's good. Vivaldi--great. So are collections of Renaissance music (Sting has a pretty interesting one; great for fantasy writing).

And then there's all that other stuff I listen to that I don't think (as an adult who's supposed to be a role model for kids) I should admit to listening to while writing. But here it is:  Coldplay, Radio Head (pretty great stuff for creating a dead narrator), Travis, The Dave Matthews Band, Michael Jackson, Runrig, Enya, Yes, Led Zepplin, The Beatles, The Indigo Girls, U2, The Proclaimers,  Pink Floyd, Abba, Billy Joel, Cat Stevens, David Bowie, The Cure, The Who, The Rolling Stones, Indian Pop-Rock (some of that stuff is awesome; plus I can't understand the words so they don’t distract me ), R.E.M, The Talking Heads, Aqualung, Oasis, Tom Petty, The Bare Naked Ladies....okay, you get the idea. 

But during revision, I DON'T listen to music. When I'm struggling with organization, or with getting connections across sections of the text, I need to spend some time away from music, just looking at what I've brainstormed on the page, and then some time away from the page and just with music envisioning all the possibilities. I never reread my writing to see how it sounds or feels when listening to music. I can't hear the rhythm of my own language then. I'm pretty good about knowing when music is helping and when it's hindering me.  

Tuning the Muse

By Lori

Sometimes I enjoy a little Loreena Mckennett, Enya, or other new agey, celtic sounding music while I'm writing.
Usually I need something with little or no words, otherwise I start listening to those words instead of writing my own.

I like Mozart piano sonatas because they remind me of my childhood (barre exercises during all those ballet lessons). Lately, after the Folk Festival a year or so ago and then again this year, I've been turned on to Acadian Fiddle. It's upbeat, and I think would be great for a hero's journey backdrop or a lot of other things, too. Folk music in general I find quite inspiring, because it's timeless and evocative. It just has to have a wordless, soundtrack-like quality.

Music To Write By

MMI'm looking for recommendations for music to write by. I usually need silence when I write, but not always. Sometimes I need music to keep me awake -- I have on occasion successfully written to CCR (Creedence Clearwater Revival for you youngsters). But stuff with words I can understand is often distracting. So foreign languages can be all right.
MMAnd sometimes I need music to screen ambient sounds, especially conversation. I have a rather small classical music collection, and haven't really settled on stuff I like to write by. Do you guys have favorites? I reckon that would change according to what you're writing: upbeat, soothing, etc.
MMBTW, I did do some googling without much help. I found this study. I assume the little dears were listening to stuff that I wouldn't call "music."

The effects of background music on word processed writing
S. E. Ransdell and L. Gilroy

Division of Psychology, Florida Atlantic University, 2912 College Ave, Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33314, USA


References and further reading may be available for this article. To view references and further reading you must purchase this article.

Abstract

College students often listen to music while they use a computer. This experiment investigated whether background music disrupts their ability to word process fluently and effectively. Forty-five psychology undergraduates wrote brief expository essays. Background music significantly disrupted writing fluency (words generated per minute controlling for typing speed and including those words deleted before the final draft) even though no response to the music was required. Those with some musical training and high working memory span wrote better essays with longer sentences and were also more likely to pause at clause boundaries. Even unattended music places heavy demands on working memory and disrupts word processed writing.

Planning Pads

by Kay

The supply I cannot live without is Planning Pads.

These pads are 80 pages of thicker than normal paper, with a light blue grid on the front and lines (College ruled!) on the back. The sheets tear away, as long as you hold the top corner to get them started. The funky advertising cover tears away too, leaving a calm undersurface of blue, green or brown. The cover flips back, and the pad has a super strong back, just right for the "writing on your lap at conferences" tasks we do.

The underside of the cover gets dated when I start, because one rule that keeps me going is the mantra "Use up the pad!" That way, I try not to agonize over the quality, but get my thoughts down in a free-flow jumble of energy. I'm a terrible typist, so I start my many lists and bubble diagrams on this raw resource. And the 5 colors (and three sizes) of sticky notes that nestle inside the back cover are pretty cool too.

I just bought a new stack for the pile at home. There's one in every writing bag, near my bed, at school, in the car.. Ah! I'm ready to write!

More Good News

We're on Cloud 9. The Pout Pout Fish is #9 on the New York Times Bestseller List this week.

Go, go, go, Mr. Fish!

Ode to The Spiral Notebook

Lori's

I have a thing for spiral notebooks. Not your flimsy, cheap, five for a dollar kind. I'm talking multi-subject, pleasantly colored, plastic covered, college ruled, thick, filled-with-quality-paper sort of thing. Couture notebook. I see one, fall in love with it, and purchase it, caressing the cover on the way out of the store. The paper fans past my nose as I inhale paper making chemicals like some kind of pulp junkie. I start to write in it: WIP notes, ideas, jottings, essays. I close it. I give it a little hug and swear I will love it forever, or at least until the paper is gone. I'm committed.

Then the inevitable happens. The notebook of the moment is half full, and I find myself getting the itch to visit my nearest office supply store. I see them, stacked neatly in the aisle--those brand new, fresh spirals. I briefly consider the loyal, still-room-to-write-in-it notebook waiting for me at home. But these new ones look so. . .hopeful. They need me. They need a home.

So I buy one. I walk out the door, smelling its newness and swearing I'll love it forever. . . .

The Supply I Demand

by Ann

I type everything, so I don’t use a lot of office supplies. There is one item, though I can’t seem to live without. And I don’t even buy it.

Photocopy shops return large jobs in convenient 8.5 x 11 inch boxes. I keep one by each printer to store clean paper. I also have one for each manuscript. In the manuscript boxes, I store critiques and the odds and ends of novel synthesis.

The box for my previous WIP has:
* pictures of llamas
* a timeline for the Iraq war
* notes from a documentary about The Weather Underground
* a nose and glasses sticker
* a rubber band-powered paper airplane
* a calendar of January - March, 2003
* a brutal paid critique from a conference
* notes from a first pages panel
* some critiques from my critique group that have already been analyzed and incorporated. (Perhaps I could recycle those pages now.)

I could cover the boxes in fancy paper. They’d look better, but they work just as well without decoration.

So Here's Nothing (a continuation of "Something")

"Ooowww, you're hurting me," Pam complained as Lindsay grabbed her by the arm and yanked her forward.  "Besides, manhandling me is not going to stop me from asking you about your--"

"I'm so humiliated I could die. So help me, if you say it, I'm going to scream."

"No, you won't. I mean, won't that just be even more humiliating? And then everyone will notice that you've got--"

Lindsay had reached the door. She pulled on it so hard that it's bottom edge got wedged with high-powered momentum between Pam's baby toe and the strap of her sandal. "Yow!" Pam howled, sounding a bit like a tormented cat. "That freaking hurts!"

Lindsay felt the signs of impending guilt. She pushed against the door, trying to move it, but it was solidly entangled with the sandal strap. She finally bent down to force the imitation leather strap away from the tip of the door. Blood was beading up on a scratch along Pam's toe. 

Yep. That was guilt bubbling up in her. 

None of this would have happened if it hadn't been for those stupid two seconds on the bus.

Just two seconds.

But it was enough to establish a reputation that was bound to plague her for the next four years of high school...

Question of the Week: Supplies & Demand

My coveting of Boni's cool new folder, along with the general joie de office supplies feeling that permeates the Back-To-School-Season, has me contemplating a small shopping spree to replenish my pen and paper supply.

So my question-of-the-week for the Write-Brainers crew is: Do you have particular supplies that you count on for your writing and creating? For instance, do you have a favorite kind of pen or notebook? Or a type of supply that you invariably use for organizing your drafts?

Readers of this blog, feel free to chime in with your own favorites in the comments section of any of the QOTW:Supplies/Demand posts.