Monday, November 17, 2008

Riding with Lady Luck

Those of you that follow this blog know that music plays a significant role in my writing.  And as I finish Under the Skin, my current work, I've found a certain playlist has organically grown up around it.  And at the heart of this playlist is one Tom Waits.

This tune was covered by The Eagles some years later, but I still like the original gravely version from the guy that penned it.  So without further ado, I give you Tom Waits and 'Ol 55.  



So tell us about your playlists.  You've got one, I know you do....

7 comments:

Keith Raffel said...

Not me. I wear noise-canceling earphones when I write in the cafe.

Cricket McRae said...

I love Tom Waits!

But I can't listen to him when I'm writing. In fact, I can't listen to anything with lyrics -- the words get tangled up with the words in my head. So I stick with either classical (often baroque, as some say the tempo affects brainwaves in a way that makes it easier to concentrate), spacey odd stuff like the Exploding Plastix or jam band goodness like Galactic.

In the coffee shop, though, I listen to a recording of the ocean.

G.M. Malliet said...

Sorry, Mark, no playlist here, either.

I have the same problem as Cricket - lyrics get in the way.

Joe Moore said...

Like Gin, I find lyrics distracting. But I do have a huge playlist. Over the years, I've collected CDs of movie scores (not soundtracks) which I've converted to MP3s. As I write, I use the scores to create drama in my scene just as they did in a particular movie. This helps me add an additional element to my writing routine that I hope contributes to the heightened drama of my story.

Mark Combes said...

That's interesting to hear - that folks find lyrics distracting. I find visual things distracting so I have to be by myself when I write. I could never write at a coffee shop as I'd be looking around all the time. But music just kinda rides there in the background, lyrics or no lyrics.

For me, I find silence distracting. I guess there is no one way to do this thing called writing huh?

Felicia Donovan said...

Having grown up with a mother who was a classically-trained pianist who performed in concert, music was an integral part of my upbringing. We often performed as a family at local venues. That being said, because music hold such a strong emotional draw for me, I cannot write and listen to music. It compels me to stop everything and just listen. When I listen, I don't write. I envy anyone who can listen to music and work at the same time.

G.M. Malliet said...

Someone should do a study on this subject. I don't mind the t.v. being on, as long as the sound isn't too loud. So it's not the words, exactly, that are distracting. More my tendency to start toe-tapping and humming along.