Music to write to, or a distraction?

Sometimes a tune, or several of them in a row to be more precise, playing in the background can be inspirational when writing. They can help me focus on the writing, make sure I don't hear the phone ringing or the dogs barking as long as the volume is turned up, and so on.

On other occasions though, the music - or more particularly, the lyrics - can be a massive distraction. I first discovered this curiosity about 12 years ago when I was studying for my Leaving Cert, with Nirvana, Pixies, Pearl Jam and so on blasting from the stereo. As I wrote notes, the lyrics would magically find their way into what I was writing. I could have sworn I was writing only about the life cycle of the liver fluke or the properties of ethanol, but somehow the occasional sentence bore more resemblance to the majestic poetry of Kurt Cobain than the contents of my biology or chemistry textbooks.

It was around then that I realised that I might not be the best person when it comes to multitasking. But shhh! Don't tell anyone.

Sometimes another distraction when using music while writing is just choosing the playlist. I could spend ages going through my CDs, or lining up a youtube playlist. When I've finally chosen my music, I'm in need of a break!

An alternative is to just flick the radio on - but there are several downsides to this. The main ones are:
1. Most chart music is so awful it will distract me to the point where I won't write the lyrics down instead of my own words, I will use the pen to stab myself in the eardrum.
2. There might be things like news on the radio, which tend to distract me by making me angry at politicians, corporations, and the various wide ranging types of bullshit that happens all across the world.

So often, when I write, I don't bother listening to music. Which is a pity, as I do love music. Still, it saves a lot of hassle when editing!

What I'm working on...

So I figured maybe I should make this a regular update, as much to kick myself up the arse as anything else really.

Last Friday I had a number of projects that I was working on/aiming to start.

I have managed to write three genre poems (the genre being horror), including a villanelle, which made me aware that there are fewer words in the English language that rhyme with "them" than I would initially have thought. The other two poems were free verse, incidentally. I do like challenging myself to write certain types of poems though, so it was well worth it. I also manage to finish rewriting/reediting the literary piece, I wrote the zombie erotica story to submit to Rigor Amortis - and I actually submitted it as well. I finished rewriting the speculative horror/post apocalyptic piece and submitted that too.

So therefore, I'm still working on the fantasy - swords and sorcery epic. I haven't actually done anything with it since last week, but it has popped into my head on occasion.

I'm also working on a sci-fi type story involving time travel and a time paradox. I've made a start on it, but I think it's the kind of story I'm really going to need to plan out in advance or it'll confuse even me.

I'd like to write some more genre poems, some free verse but I'd also like to try something else. Maybe a ballad for a fantasy poem, or a sonnet for something else. Still vague ideas at the moment.

I had an idea for a literary (well, depressing and serious) piece a few weeks ago. Made a few notes on a scrap of paper in my handbag about it but haven't done anything else with it yet. So that's another piece on the 'to-do' list.

Oh, and going through my drafts folder, I found an old zombie sort of story, half finished. It'll need some work as well as an ending but it's longer than most of the stuff in my drafts folder - many documents in there are only a couple of sentences long, just vague ideas really.

Of course there's also the constant work of writing cover letters and reformatting according to the guidelines of wherever a piece is sent. The sooner I get some more acceptance emails rather than the constant slew of rejections, the better! I also have to resubmit a story that was submitted in February - the place I sent it to hasn't updated their website since March, and I sent a query two weeks ago and got no reply, so time to give up on them I think...


Anyway, this is one of my favourite songs at the moment. Love Gorillaz, love Damon Albarn, have done since early days of Blur. Music is great for inspiration...or just dossing around to.

Edit - is there actually a youtube video below? I can't see it for some reason...