Unless you are one of those people who find it impossible to write when there is any noise at all in the near vicinity, listening to music while you write can be very helpful. This blog takes a look at five reasons why writers might like to listen to music while they work…

Find inspiration

It’s a little bit of a cliché, but there is a huge amount of inspiration to be found in music. Whether it’s a gorgeous harmony in a symphony or a catchy lyric in a pop song, it can all provide fuel for the writing fire.

Immerse yourself in another time

Listening to music that is relevant to what you are writing can also be a good way to help you get into the spirit of things. For instance, if you’re writing something set in the mid to late 1700s, a bit of Mozart on the stereo could help take you back to that time. This can work particularly well with more modern music – the rapidly changing styles of pop music are still, usually, specific to their time and can be a great way of lending a sense of something to your writing.

Evoke a mood

As well as giving you a sense of place, music can help you with your writing more generally, such as through creating a particular mood or atmosphere. Giving yourself a few minutes to just listen to music before beginning to write while it continues to play in the background, for example, can set up your frame of mind and help you make your writing much more compelling and believable.

Block out other distractions

Even if you prefer to work in silence as a general rule, often music is much less distracting than all those other things that can so easily put us off our writing – people talking in another room, builders working nearby, cars on the road outside. It might not be perfect, but at least it offers a constant background of noise that you can get used to, enabling you to block out the rest.

Focus

The above point links to the idea of focus. There is something about music that can sometimes be very good at helping a person focus. It can effectively create a little invisible wall or bubble around you while you write. After a while, you might not even notice that it’s there, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t help.

What do you think? Do you like to listen to music while you write?