Would it surprise you if I told you music impacts our mood and cognitive functions, therefore impacting our writing? Read this post and see what I discovered upon researching this topic. Of course, not everyone experiences things the same way, so you may find yourself disagreeing with some of the things. Let's have a look at how music impacts our writing!
1. Music helps with concentration
I've read many people's opinions on how they're easily distracted if they write in silence, so they play music to enhance their focus.
2. Can randomly inspire you
You never know which lyrics will spark the creativity in you. What I know for sure is: if I listen to something I enjoy, I immediately feel like writing.
3. Helps with writing authentic characters with unique personalities
Have you ever created a playlist for a specific character of yours? I sure did, and by reading through Reddit I discovered it's not that uncommon. If you need to tune in into your character, really feel like you understand them, put on their playlist and get to work.
4. Music impacts our mood
"Study investigated the impact of different types of music on tension, mood, and mental clarity. A total of 144 subjects completed a psychological profile before and after listening for 15 minutes to four types of music (grunge rock, classical, New Age, and designer). With grunge rock music, significant increases were found in hostility, sadness, tension, and fatigue, and significant reductions were observed in caring, relaxation, mental clarity, and vigor. In contrast, after listening to the designer music (music designed to have specific effects on the listener), significant increases in caring, relaxation, mental clarity, and vigor were measured; significant decreases were found in hostility, fatigue, sadness, and tension. The results for New Age and classical music were mixed. Feeling shifts among subjects were observed with all types of music. Designer music was most effective in increasing positive feelings and decreasing negative feelings" - pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
5. Listening to instrumental meditative melodies can help achieve calm and clarity, and get you in the right mood for writing
6. You can listen to music, to be able to write descriptions... Of listening to music! It can be quite hard to come up with descriptions when you don't hear the exact song. By playing music you can simply write down what you experience, and it will be realistic.
7. If listening to music during writing isn't really your thing, you can still try out listening to subliminals or binaural beats while writing. Those can be much less overstimulating.
So, what kinds of music are good for writing specific scenes?
Classical Music: good for calm, peaceful and focused scenes, like a studying session
Heavy Metal: good for scenes where characters experience irritability, anger, arguments, also for feeling like losing one's mind (some people find heavy metal to be cathartic or calming though)
Rock Music: good for joyful, lively scenes, like festivals
Pop Music: good for happy, careless scenes, like playing board games with friends
Country Music: good for scenes where characters experience sadness and melancholy, like moving to a different city
Dance/Electronic Music: good for fast, energetic scenes, like trying to catch someone
I'd like to share a project I came across. Its author, Rebecca Stonehill, calls it The Contemplation Music Writing Project, and it's just what it sounds like. It has proven to help in developing communication skills, creative self-expression and thinking in kids.
Here I paste one of the excersizes Rebecca Stonehill came up with:
MUSIC TECHNIQUE
Children listened to music (top ten, rock'n'roll, rap, soul, blues, jazz, classical, and flute) for ten minutes and wrote about whatever they experienced inside. A discussion followed either the same day or next day. Student contemplations were read orally and anonymously, and probed for the triggered images, feelings, thoughts, meanings, and experiences.
Discussion:
• describe this writer's contemplation experience
• describe the mind-pictures you visualized as the contemplation was read orally
• name the feelings you got from the mind-pictures in the contemplation
• what thoughts and ideas came to mind after you heard the contemplation?
• what is the writer trying to communicate (main idea or message)?
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