The June issue of The Writer magazine had a small sidebar article on writers listening to music while writing. It made me think about the presence and effect of music when I’m writing.

I like to listen to music while writing. If I’m writing something non-fiction I can listen to just about any of the songs on my laptop or, when I’m home from the road, the CD’s I own. What I mean to say is anything with lyrics in songs I enjoy. Admittedly though, there are times when I get SO into what I’m writing that I don’t consciously hear the music or songs. I have had occasion to suddenly realize that I slid right through several songs and never realized they had played until I looked at my playlist.

But when I’m trying to create something fictional or especially if I’m writing dialog, I switch to either music only or to no music, no sounds at all. Complete silence. I need to be in my own head to “hear” my characters and what they are thinking or saying. But sometimes I listen to music that I think my character would listen to, in an attempt to get inside their (actually mine, of course, lol) head. Sometimes I listen to music that I feel helps set the “mood” for my scene setting or to get ME in the mood for the scene I want to write.

Do you listen to music while writing?