When writing my first book I would almost always write listening to music. Now that I've started my second book, it feels like any sort of music holds me back an astonishing amount.
Do you guys listen to music when you write? I've come to a conclusion that music can help greatly when writing action scenes or emotional dialogue, but it seems to be a hindrance in scenarios other than those two. What is your experience?
Other urls found in this thread:
youtu.be
youtube.com
youtube.com
youtube.com
youtube.com
youtube.com
youtube.com
youtube.com
twitter.com
I bet you listen to movie/game/trailer music complications on youtube lmao
>Movie and trailer music
What, do you think I'm a fucking normie? Do you think I want to listen to a bunch of 4 chord songs and a bunch of dubstep DOO DO DO DO DOOOOOO while I write? I hope no one does this.
I listen to game music, yeah. Anything like Shadow of the Colossus/ Metal gear solid/Castlevania is amazing.
>implying this doesn't make you want to write
I LISTEN TO MUSIC WHILST WRITING; I PAUSE THE MUSIC BEFORE READING WHAT I WROTE.
SOFIA SPEAKS IN MUSIC; SOFIA LISTENS IN SILENCE.
OP here, while I demeaned movie and trailer musisc, I will admit there are some good ones.
The caps lock is right above the shift key, Raevs. I like your attitude, though. Seems like a good strategy, but I still stick by the conclusion in my original post. What kind of music do you listen to, lad?
>game music being better than anything
>soundtracks ever being good
Here's a bit of advice OP. You'll never write anything decent if you don't have decent taste yourself. Grow up and stop listening to gamer shit.
writing about my 2 years I spent from 17-19 after my mother died and I had to live with my uncle who bet the shit out of me one to many times so I headed to the streets which I soon learn was also not place for me and began living in the country, working a job in the summer and fall on a farm, bought a tent and headed south for winter. Met a girl down there but had to leave later in the spring and we couldn't stay in contact anyways this song is the one I was writing too a lot
It takes the most base minded of chimps to write off video game music, so I'd prefer to stay at the top of the mountains instead of sliding into the delusional, fetid swamps down below. You enjoy the swamps yourself.
youtube.com
Are you telling me this is not a fantastic piece? If you legitimately think it's bad, I cannot help you. There are hundreds of tracks as awe inspiring as this. You just have to find them.
Timestamp should have been at 3:03
You're off to a bad start by including a timestamp for when a six minute song starts being worth listening to.
It's an extended version. The first and 2nd part repeats twice because that's usually how long it takes for the 2nd phase of the fight.
But yeah, the entire thing is amazing. Show me the """patrician""" music you listen to
youtube.com
But I sure as hell wouldn't listen to while writing or reading.
Classical music is great, but it can't be the only thing you listen to all the time, even when writing. But hey, funny enough, you can find this exact type of music in video games as well. A lot of composers, especially Japanese ones, take inspirations from the classics. Sometimes remastered versions of them, like Antonin Dvorak's New World (Asura's Wrath) or even Mozart's Moonlight Sonata (Clock Tower) make it in.
Obviously you wouldn't listen to ludwig the accursed when your characters aren't fighting anything or witnessing some mind-shattering event happening, but as I said, a lot of video game music is similar to these kinds of concertos in terms of pacing and calmness.
I already listen to your kind of music, so if you want to delve into what my realm is, I would reccomend the entire track of Shadow of The Colossus. There is a good mix of action oriented music and slower ones. You must realize, user, that video games are the amalgamation of all art forms, just like movies are, but games are not bound by the limits of reality nearly as much as movies are. That and you don't have a 2/3 hour limit to tell your story.
Can you explain why classical music is great? I can't see the beauty. I don't want to study music theory either.
In my mind, it's just a meme to signal feigned intellectual superiority.
A good amount of people do listen to it for exactly that, feigned intellectual superiority. I can't tell you how many, but there's a bunch of those kinds of people.
It's kind of hard to elaborate on what makes it great, but the instruments are a good start. Pianos/violins and cellos/harps/woodwind/brass instruments have a certain sound to them and usually classical composers are able to bring out their potential the best because of how much they study musical theory. More than just making the instruments sound good, classical music is usually set up in a way that mimics stories, which is why you'll get 1 hour+ pieces that all blend into each other. Modern day music has "albums" which includes music of similar sound, but not as well connected as classical composition. They're, by all merits, separate tracks.
Said instruments also go along very well with opera singing. A great example is "Battle on The Ice" by Sergey Prokofiev. The first half is something I can't even describe. Just sounds like men are fighting alongside angels who are singing for their strength. The instruments are also sounds recognized by humans since the beginning of civilization. There was never any dubstep or techno sounds you could incorporate back then, so I assume the human mind enjoys them in that extent as well.
That's as good as I can explain it. I'm not well versed in musical theory.
Thank you. The keyword here seems to be nuance, but somehow, at least in most pieces, I don't see it. Maybe that blindspot will go away as I explore it more and learn to understand the breadth and depth of this art. Though what keeps me from engaging with it is that with music, I prefer less cerebral forms of enjoyment.
As with every genre you will find a lot of just decent or even bad composers. Just because something is "classical" doesn't mean it's going to be good, which is a problem in the case of charlatans who blindly laud every single piece they hear in order to seem smart.
I personally can't imagine not liking it, so I don't know. I listen to metal and rap sometimes, too, but 80% of my time is spent listening to classical or kindred genres. What about it doesn't please you?
I like many of the more well-known pieces, but can't imagine listening to it most of the time. It's somehow exhausting. Dissonant, somehow. Or too boring, too 'stretched'. I usually listen to Ambient, DnB and Neurofunk.
'meandering', and 'melodramatic' are also good words
That's why I tried convincing the other user of why it isn't the perfect choice every time. It's definitely exhausting for me as well, but in a good way. Kind of like not wanting to eat only your favorite food dish all week.
Not so sure about melodramatic. I feel like instrumental music can't really be melodramatic unless it just tries way too hard, like destroying your ear drums trying to be "epic" when it just ends up being too saturated. Ambient music is always cool, dunno about neurofunk, but DnB seems like it appeals to the "high pace" emotion of your mind by mimicking your heartbeat (Could be slower or faster, but it seems like it's usually at heartbeat pace, twice as fast or half as fast.). It's definitely music I would run/shadowbox to. Also it fits racing games haha.
I agree with the heartbeat effect, it has a strong drive and flow to it. Unfortunately, most neurofunk is highly repetitive, and certain samples just suck. I prefer music without vocals, because I listen to it in the background while doing other things. Is the same true for you with classical music?
I see. I think a lot of lofi music has the same problem where it's too repetitive. There are also some "relaxing" 2 hour videos on youtube where I see everyone commenting "oh my gosh this is the most beautiful music ever I love it and listen to it every day!" when it's just very slow, high reverb piano chords with constantly rising/resetting scales.
Yeah, if you're trying to focus on something else then lyrics can be a hindrance. If I'm writing dialogue any lyrics fuck me up. I can still write, but it takes 3x longer to do so.
I prefer instrumental music as well. Feels like having to use lyrics to convey a message can weaken the overall experience. My favorite vocals are usually ones I can't understand or chanting.
youtube.com
This track is absolutely one of my favorites because of how the singing goes with the rest of the music. Brings a tear to my eye every time, and I think you'll probably like it, too. Definitely gets you pumped up for anything!
youtube.com
And at the end of the spectrum:
youtube.com
embrace german electronica
I love the conductor's enthusiasm haha. Carbon Based Lifeforms sounds like something you would come across in media surrounding space. Only complaint is the girl's voice is a bit off-putting.
Not sure if this is the best for my writing, man
I've been writing horror recently exclusively listening too pink floyd, it just werks. I also just seriously writing spending 5 or so hours a day on it. Can someone give me advice? I found my style, i like writing in first person and i have an easier time writing about ideas and emotions rather than giving detail to settings and characters. Also writing non wooden dialog is hard as shit. I have a clear vision for what a character is, their emotional state ect. But it all comes out so boring. How do you get better at writing dialog and descriptions? I can post a paragraph from a scrapped book of mine if anyone cares enough but i don't want to blog or shit up the thread.
Post it in a critique thread of sorts and link the post from here. I personally don't think I can give you advice, but I can try. At least you are writing daily, and at 5 hours a day I would say that's great that you can sit down for that long to write. Most people can't do that consistently.
...
Good classical is very hard to listen to, because it requires extremely refined ears. Someone trained to listen to good classical experiences the emotions you feel while listening to baser modern forms of music, but more intensely and consciously. And it is this way because classical musicians understood the mechanics behind music much better than modern musicians do.
You seem to suffer the same flaws I have in my own writing. There seems to be a slight lack of flow and I can't put my finger on it because I'm guilty of the same thing.
>Like it was the instincts of a savage animal I snapped as many shots as I could from inside my car so the police wouldn’t notice
This sentence sounds weird to me. I would personally change it to "With the instincts of a savage animal" or "With instincts mirroring that of a savage animal,"
Work on your comma splices as well. Here, I'll change this for you.
>Behind the camera I wasn’t in the same reality as everyone else. I was a spectator. I was watching a movie, art, unfold as I watched the blood drip down the gurney while they wheeled those innocent beings away from the wreck.
Only thing I'm not sure about is the commas around the word "art'. I believe my changed version is correct, but I'm often incorrect.
I agree with this... to an extent. As I said to him, classical composers have the deepest understanding of music theory. However, one can enjoy it (and enjoy it very much, at that) without having a proper understanding of why it's so amazing. Knowing what turns it into what it is accentuates the experience two fold.
Good advice i agree completely. I also don't like
>So the police wouldn't notice
Rather than out right stating it i feel like there should be a way to express that action. It was pretty sloppy, that was my first time trying to write an actual coherent story and setting rather than trying to just write pretentious pieces about different emotional states.
>What, do you think I'm a fucking normie?
>I listen to game music, yeah.
>When writing my first book
Is your first book published? I'm working on my first book now. I don't listen to music while writing but it is inspired by music, and I will often have it stuck in my head or listen to it while trying to imagine the scenarios more vividly or come up with new material for the story. The entirety of my first novel is inspired by the soundtrack for the 1993 adaptation of The Trial.
youtube.com
Yeah, just try to polish your writing skills as much as you can, but don't beat yourself up too hard. I'm not saying settle for mediocrity, though, of course! If you had the money and could find a good tutor, that would be helpful. It's just that I don't really know how many good tutors are actually out there.
Reading is great, as well. I don't know about you, but I write more than I read, and perhaps that has a negative impact on our quality of writing. When reading a book by a renowned author it's good to pay attention to the little details of how they write.
Video games are popular, but most people consider it a past-time and nothing more. Movies are given far more credit as a medium than video games do. As long as you don't call yourself a "gamer" and obsess over it in an immature fashion, I don't see how doing it makes you a normie. You'd be surprised how many people you would consider normies read the same books you do.
>The entirety of my first novel is inspired by the soundtrack for the 1993 adaptation of The Trial
What's the issue, DFWposter?
just want to davepost
Carl Davis is a good composer. Give him a listen.
Honestly i write more than i read too, if i'm reading i usually accidentally emulate their style without noticing. I had a hard ass time trying to find a style that worked for me and i enjoy. You've been helpful bro, do you mind reading two more paragraphs that i'll post in the other thread? That will be the last i post for tonight i feel like an attention whore but i'd rather fix bad habits now and start fresh tomorrow with something to work on.
Na, I stopped at around page 300 because I'm woefully under-skilled for the task in my current state. I want to build experience by writing books I can live with having my current flaws.
But hey, that's pretty cool. Don't listen to the other Daveposter. Inspiration comes from everything and anything. Sometimes we don't even realize we've been inspired until it hits us in the face.
If the thread is still up tomorrow, I will. For now my fucking elbow hurts from all the typing I'm doing (multiple thread involvement this past hour in addition to messaging people). In terms of style emulation I don't think I have an answer. I would say pay no mind to it and try to read more while also remembering your own style. You'll always have your existing works to re-read if needed!
...
Ive had moments whre the only way for me too write was with music. A very large and important section of my book was by listening to the same album. It was nice as it was fitting. The part was of a lovers roadtrip along the the forest roads of California. A boy a girl and a dog. The album I listened to was Fleet Foxes self titled album and it really fuled the adventurous and free spirited as well as mysterious small town america vibe i was going for. I reccomend using music that fits your story.