One of our goals here at Today’s Author is to help all of the writers among us to do what we love to do: write. One of the best ways to accomplish this is by talking to each other and learning from each other. Our Writers Circle series is designed to do just that – provide a chance for us to discuss writing, editing and publishing questions.
This week’s topic is:
Some writers prefer to write in complete, uninterrupted silence. Others listen to their favorite music in order to set the best atmosphere for writing. Still others prefer or need to go to a noisy cafe to write. What about you? Today we want to hear about the environment which works best for you when you want to write.
Let’s discuss this in the comments and see what our community thinks.
Today's Author 
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I love to listen to music when I write. It makes my creative juices flow even more! Classical/instrumental music and a little bit of Josh Groban is usually what I listen to.
When I listen to music, it’s generally instrumental only. Otherwise I get distracted by the lyrics. However, I can’t have complete silence, or I get distracted by the silence. In the summer, I have to have several fans going to keep this oven of a mobile home at all temperate, so that is my background noise right now.
I have to have silence. My mind wanders easily and music send it down memory lane and I don’t write anything.
I can’t write while listening to music — unless it’s one of those group things where they say, “What does this music make you think of?” and you have to write a half-page flash fiction piece.
Cafe noise is my go-to background noise, but you can’t afford to go to a cafe every day and spend money on copious cups of coffee. I’ve discovered a great website that gives me all the cafe sounds I need (in fact, any sound I need) without spending $$$ every day. https://mynoise.net/noiseMachines.php
You can “join” or not, depending on whether you want to make a donation — and by donation, I mean as little as $5 every few months, but there is no forced subscriptions like some “noise engines.”
I love music in the background, usually classic rock or classical music – so it’s electric guitars and drums or it’s violins and piano. As my husband is often not home and our sons are grown, it can be pretty lonely around here. The music keeps me company. Especially if my hubby is gone at night, music helps calm my nerves as it drowns out the strange sounds that accompany an old house settling, and allows me to concentrate on writing without freaking out over weird noises. (You didn’t ask how many lights I leave on when hubby is OoT – yeah, lots. 😀 )
But I do love music.
For me, the type of writing I am doing determines what I need to be hearing. I learned long ago that formal documents (like essays or performance reviews) go best for me if I’m listening to a single, specific album (The Cars Greatest Hits…. no idea why, I’m not even a big fan of The Cars!).
For comedic pieces, I can listen to just about anything. But for more serious or emotional things, I get distracted by my favorite bands. It needs to be quieter or classical music then.