I know some people can write no matter what is going on around them, but I like a little music when I’m writing. It blocks out outside sounds and helps me focus on what I am doing.

Some people can listen to normal pop radio while they write but my number one rule for writing music is that I need to not be able to sing along with it. Otherwise, I sing instead of writing which is sort of useless. Here are some suggestions to give you mood music to write to:

Yahoo Music Film Scores Station

(I can’t link to this directly but you can find it under All Stations > Music > More Stations > Film Scores)

This is my #1 biggest recommendation. This is hands down my favorite thing to write to. Last year’s NaNo, I pretty much had this station on 24/7. They play a random assortment of music from movies. No words, just instrumentals. It’s all pretty dramatic so it makes writing much easier because it adds importance to whatever you are writing. Sometimes it also affects how you are writing and makes you kick your game up a notch to match the music.

It is free and you don’t even need a Yahoo Account to listen to it. There are commercials but they are few and far between. If you write a lot year round, they have a paid version without commercials if you really want, but you don’t really need it. Commercials force you to take breaks which is good for your eyes!

Pandora – Build a Station with the keyword Enya

It doesn’t matter if you like Enya but that type of music is awesome to write to. You cannot understand half of what they are saying, it’s all so airy, so you won’t sing along but its dramatic in the same way film score music is.

Why can’t I use Pandora to listen to film scores instead of Yahoo, you ask? Well, the biggest downside to Pandora for me is that here is no way to make it just give you film scores like Yahoo can. You can try adding a famous movie composer (like Hans Zimmer) for them to play music like but even then they’ll still throw in some non-film music. Pandora also has a monthly limit over which you have to pay but it may be worth paying to have it the whole month long commercial free.

Music in another language and world music

I love Celine Dion. Her music is very dramatic. I also love to sing along to it at the top of my lungs which is counterproductive to writing. My solution? I got some of her import CDs from Canada where she sings in French. Same dramatic Celine style but I can’t sing along because I have no idea what she is saying.

If your favorite artist doesn’t record in another language, try out the top pop chart hits of another country. They will likely be the same type of music on the radio here but un-sing-a-long-able.

World Music is also great but, if it conflicts with your setting (Asian music for a western cowboy novel), it can mess you up so be aware of that. But if your setting is a distant land, having the right music can make a big difference so you may want to consider it.

So, what do you like to write to?

#10 Objects in motion tend to stay in motion.

I used to take months off from writing and, when I started again, it took me forever to get started with my book again. When you write a little bit each day, even if only a few words, you are more familiar with your story and its easier to keep going. The more momentum you build by working on the book all the time, the more you will have the momentum to keep going.

Even if its only to write a sentence or two, never take more than a day or two off from the book otherwise you may never pick it back up again.

This is, incidentally, why NaNo is possible. By giving you a compressed time period, they force you to work on the book everyday which gives you the momentum to finish the whole thing in so short a time.

#9 Don’t wait for the muse.

The best advice I ever read was in a writing book so old that the author recommend that, if you were serious about writing, you really ought get a typewriter (no lie). The advice was that the stuff you write when you are totally inspired, when put side by side with the stuff you wrote when it was very slow going and you forced yourself are the same quality. Sure, writing is easier when you are inspired, but, in the end, if you only wait to write when you are inspired, you will never get anything done.

If you don’t want to write or don’t feel like writing, do it anyway. Take that chance to plod through those scenes you aren’t excited about. As you write them, they will feel terrible. Don’t worry about it. When you go back and read later, they will be better than you remember and you will have moved the plot of your book along which is all that matters.

The muse is a fickle bitch. You don’t need her.