I am a HUGE fan of writing to music.
I wrote my PhD to 8 hours of Tori Amos on loop, and ‘Sleeps with Butterflies’ can still take me straight into that place, in the small room of my own upstairs in the back of a vicarage in Cambridge.
When I wrote the article about Judith Wright, the one where it all just came together in 3 months and was so easy, the one I raved about in my blog about the Cornell Method, I was listening to Carly Rae Jepson, with her happy, boppy poppy music.
And then when I was working on the doomed article on Kenneth Slessor that didn’t work out… I wonder if, quite apart from the fact that it was DOOMED and my life was waaaay too busy, the fact that I was listening to Lorde and Passenger, and, yes the music is good, but it also made me feel sad.
I need music to pick me up and throw me into my up, energised, motivated, happy writing place.
But I also can’t keep listening to music after it’s become associated with a particular project. I love this song by Nadeah, but it belongs to the article about Kathleen Raine, and the house in Brunswick West, and sunlight in the lemon tree, and three years ago, and I don’t live there any more.
Right now, I’m doing everything to Janelle Monae, and am planning to think about androids, cyborgs and electric identities for my final assessment for ‘An introduction to digital environments for learning’.
And to end that, I recommend this:
Music for Writing (Volume 2): 120 words-per-minute by Elektronicheslernenmuzik, a project associated with the Masters I’m working on.
Introducing Volume 2 of Music for Writing, the product of this exercise that we undertook last yearto explore the music that students, researchers, teachers and tutors use to accompany and influence the task of academic writing.
What music do you use to write to?
