**Over 30 Writers Club ***

I had that 45 even though I was just barely old enough to have any records...it was played beyond unto death (scratches galore) and wound up in the garbage about a decade later. My father has the LP that song came from in one of his album crates...one of these days it shall be mine.

I've used some of those press tour/publicity photos as inspiration for scenarios in some of my fics. There was one picture of Harrison and Carrie in particular that I never turned into a writeable concept, although I always called it "the Han and Leia engagement photo".

When it comes to music for inspiration, I'm generally all over the place in terms of genres and eras. It doesn't have to be instrumental, although that can make the writing process easier because you don't have to try and force an idea around lyrics (because you might get some imagery that doesn't match the lyrics, and that doesn't matter to most writers, but I tend to get hung up on literal versus subjective meanings).

I have still have the 45 for the Main Theme with the 'B' side as The Cantina Band. It's not pink though. Have the LP's, too for all the good they do.

@leiamoody: I bet I know the exact pic you are talking about. I think the same thing about it.

I don't listen to any particular decade of music at all really, just one song happened to come on within a mix I had booted up and it brought back a whole mindset plus it was late. I do like music playing most of the time while writing. I have several files and playlists of 'writing music' each with a specific mood associated with it. I like music so many different genres of music and there is no one decade.

I like inspiration from anywhere and everywhere.

I'm sure most of us do.

I never got 45s or 33s of the original score, although I've had many different arrangements of the main theme for playing on the piano over the years. For me it isn't the music, but seeing the Kenner figures that will bring back that total Star Wars mania feeling from that time.

I also write to music. My thesis and the soundtrack to Ep1. will forever be entwined in my memory because of that. Instrumentals with a bit of beat are my usual fare. Movie soundtracks are generally pretty good for that, although DeadMau5 has been known to blare during bouts of writers block. It has to be energetic enough to get my blood pumping but no words. If it has words, I sing instead of write.

I find listening to stuff from the 80's to the early 2000's to be very useful for similar reasons. That is because I wrote a lot of my early fan fiction listening to music from the late 90's and early 2000's and some of my favourtie bands are from the 80's (and in some cases from the late 70's). Classical music never helps, though. I noticed this recently because a favourtie band of mine from the 90's have recently bought out a new album and they've not been around for about 10 years!

I just can't listen to music while I'm writing. I need total silence. Even a clock can tick me off!

I would prefer total silence, but with teenagers in the house, that is not always possible. Instead I have been using a white noise machine and earphones. Right now I am in the library and listening to an app that sounds like ocean waves. It helps drown out the idiots who know they shouldn't talk in the library, but talking on the phone somehow doesn't count.

Name of app, please.

I create playlists for my longer stories, but I don't always listen to them when I'm writing. Music while I'm writing depends on my mood. If I'm writing something particularly intense, music can sometimes help me hold onto the emotion within myself that I want to convey on the page. Other times, I may have something on but it's not crucial to what I'm trying to accomplish.

If I'm writing a story with a certain type of atmosphere, I'll tend to listen to appropriate music; so-called "epic" music for grand-scale action sequences (space battles, ground battles, duels), a mix of classical music and more somber, emotional songs for character dramas, or a variety of upbeat tracks mixed in with the previous if it's a more general story with multiple facets.

I just listen to whatever when I write, if I listen to anything. It's when I'm drawing that I'll actually bother with appropriate music, such as Miles Davis for drawing crime noir.

I'm perhaps not the best person to ask about this, because almost everything in my iTunes library is from before 1750. I find Renaissance choral music by such composers as Tallis, Byrd, Victoria, Palestrina, etc. works well for most kinds of writing I do, whether it's scholarly stuff or fiction. If I need to concentrate really super hard, though, then non-English lyrics and an a cappella texture (i.e., no instrumental accompaniment) are slightly better.

Of course it does partly depend on the setting I'm writing about. For example, a solemn procession in a Gand findsman temple of course requires something suitably old-world and dignified, preferably with a steady rhythm (such as something like this, especially from around 1:45). In some cases, I've come to associate specific pieces with specific scenes or kinds of scenes; somewhere I have a battle against strange alien creatures taking place on a stormy plasma sea that I always imagine taking place to this Bach cantata aria. So I guess the logical next step might be to follow the lead of @taramidala (I keep wanting to say "taramosalata!") and make a playlist or two.

I used to create mixtapes for my really early fanfic. This should say a lot about how old I was and at what point in time I began writing fanfic.

So far I've only got one playlist for a planned rewrite of a story I did back in 2005. I spent a very long time listening to the lyrics of songs that fit the situations, characters, or just the emotional undercurrent of the story. One thing that has changed on how I approach music and its influence on my writing is that the lyrics have to fit the situations precisely, otherwise I can't put the song on the playlist. This means I have more instrumental songs than I would have included back in the day.

I also find that I generally can't actually listen to the playlist and write at the same time. Weird, perhaps, but I have difficulty concentrating on both the song and the story. I listen to the playlist first, jot down some ideas that might emerge from listening to the songs, then I put aside the music and write.

I am sometimes like you as well, Leia.

I used to make mix tapes for drawing, until I was able to make mix CDs. I still have my tapes and CDs! XD

There's still a lot to be said for CDs, including being able to listen to them in the car by simply sticking them into a slot (compared to the whole rigamarole of hooking up the iPhone and flipping through to the right album/track/etc.). Of course, when one's doing that, one's obviously not writing—but sometimes good ideas come while driving!

Inspiration can strike at anytime!

And sometimes good ideas come while you're in the shower—whether you're listening to music or not!

I probably have a mix tape or cd lingering around somewhere in storage, myself.

This. Is. The. Worst. If I'm in a period where I'm on a roll, this always happens, and I feel like I need to bring pen and paper in with me, which I never do.

I know that feeling. Sometimes it sucks too that I'm a 'must write/type' it right when I have it or I lose it, girl. However, usually I do okay. I just hope inspiration comes soon. I miss my words and my nerves could use the solace of writing.

You know what's even weirder? I've actually had conversations with my characters while in the shower...oh, their voices were certainly in my head (I may be crazy, but I'm not insane), but I would actually vocalize my responses.

I often find myself imagining long, well-polished stretches of prose during wakeful moments in the middle of the night... only to forget them when I get up in the morning in earnest.

Same here.

Or having a writing epiphany while on the toilet, only to forget it once you're done in the bathroom.

'Fraid that's happened to me on occasion, too.

The main point of all this is, sometimes being away from the actual work of writing is a good thing for writing!

Emphasis on "sometimes," of course, because that's the other issue...

@Jade_Pilot the name of the app is Sleep Bug.

I decided to join the 21st century and make Chrome my browser instead of Internet Explorer. I don't think IE is compatible with this site. I also changed over to Chrome from Safari on my MAC. I couldn't upload photos into a photo album when using IE, but I could with Chrome. All of these problems have started recently. I wonder if this is some conspiracy run by Google.

IE = Internet Exploder