What do you listen to when you're writing?

Jim Carrey, too. He had them play in Ace Ventura -- at the club. From what I heard, that was something on which he would not budge.

 

Generally, I'll pick out an album and let it roll. It really doesn't matter which one, so long as it plays right through the track list.

 

I'll second this as far as writing. I find myself thinking too much about the music. The only thing I usually listen to is my digital recorder.

 

The Mrs. would have to hold a gun to my head to get me to go to a classical music concert. But sometimes I'll listen to a classical station with the volume turned down pretty low, just to have some background noise. If I'm listening to the kind of music I like while I'm writing, I tend to get distracted.

 

I can't read, let alone write while listening to music with lyrics. I listen to George Winston when reading on the train to work in order to block out the jerks yelling in to their cell phones. I write in silence.

 

The voices in my head.

 

right now, it's the sound of little girls turning the basketball over, whistle, change ends, repeat...

 

It depends what's available.

I like virtual country radio in the office, but only because there's no country station around here. If I'm picking specific CDs for writing, they're usually mellow -- Counting Crows, Sarah McLachlan, Blackhawk -- but always with lyrics. I've discovered if I play CDs without words (like classical) I start making lyrics up rather than making my stories up. :

Recently I got some of the local team's pump-up pregame CD in my head so I started listening to everything I could find on iTunes that fit, like Kanye West's "Stronger" over and over. It was kinda fun writing to stuff like that. I got all hyped up for no good reason.

 

Truly, truly outrageous.

 

I've never listened to music while writing any kind of story, but I've seen quite a few people hooked up to their iPods at the office at night.

I'm not sure that it would help. But then again, maybe it would. Perhaps I'll give it a try.

 

Mostly, I listen to my wife saying, "Aren't you done yet?" ... "Dinner's getting cold!" ... "Isn't this supposed to be the fucking OFFSEASON??" ... "When are you going to stop staring at that computer and take out the garbage?" ... and, lately, "Are you REALLY writing a story or are you just dicking around on sportsjournalists.com again?"