Of course, there’s no definite answer to this question. What you listen to is very subjective. But, it’s true that different genres of music can help different areas of writing flourish.

When I’m working and writing for commercial clients at my job, I’m often listening to soft focus music, perhaps quiet piano. But that genre doesn’t apply to my creative work. So, without further ado, here are some musical areas to explore as you write.

Focus music

Headphones on, volume up. There’s music out there that is scientifically proven to help you concentrate on what you’re doing. I’m not sure how… Personally, when I need to give something all my attention, I switch it all off and sit in silence.

But each to their own.

The best out there by far is Brain.fm. This app provides hours of ambient sounds to help you concentrate, relax and even sleep. I recommend it.

Otherwise, it’s classical piano or real-life ambiance, like the sound of a coffee shop or the sound of waves crashing on the shoreline. I often use an app called Calm, which lets you set timers for how long you want ambiance to play for, giving you chunks of distraction free time to get the work done.

Music that evokes emotion

When I write creatively, I listen to sad, sad music. But it’s real music that sparks a sense of passion in me, that has my imagination flare up so that I can vividly picture what I want to write.

Needless to say, much of my creative writing is aimed at the polarities of passion and pain, and so emotional music surely helps. Bon Iver is my go-to, or City and Colour, Bjork, Sigur Ros, Kim Janssen, Novo Amor… the list goes on.

Motivational music

Pre-writing periods, like pre-workout periods, requires a massive amount of energy to get me motivated to sit down and get it done. Daft Punk, Dua Lipa and any YouTube clip with motivational speaker Eric Thomas usually does the trick. I want to go places, and I want to follow through and finish everything I set out to do.

I want to write a book. And this requires a massive amount of energy and focus.

Pre-writing music, then, is essential for me. I have to be careful though… If I listen to enough motivational music, I’ll end up throwing my phone off the balcony and taking a hammer to my laptop, just to make sure I can work without distraction.

Oldies

Those Sunday morning writing sessions are my favourite times. I’ll put a record on, take the time to make a decent cup of coffee and get out a notepad and pen. Nothing is happening in the world at this time, and I want to slow it down and dive into the process.

As a Londoner, these moments are extremely rare, so I do what I can to cherish them. Neil Young, Tom Petty and Frank Sinatra top this list.

What do you listen to? What’s your preferred music for writing?

Via