Favorite Enemies
- A Little Sisterly Advice
- Cheeky Reads
- DRD aka Donna's Blog
- Gunner Marnee's Blog
- J.K. Coi: Living with Immortals
- Just Janga
- Killer Fiction
- Kimberly Killion
- Maggie Robinson
- Maureen O. Betita
- Megan Kelly
- Pam Clare
- Renee Lynn Scott
- Romance Bandits
- Romance Dish
- Scapegoat's Blogspot
- Smartass Romance
- Terri Osburn Writes Romance
- Tessa Dare
- Vauxhall Vixens
Blog Archive
Powered by Blogger.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Silence! Work in Progress.
I don't like silence. Even as a kid, I would beg and plead for the radio to be turned on while I had a textbook open. Of course, when I was really little, no one paid me any mind, they just sent me outside where I whooped and hollered like a banshee. Once I got to teenager status, I turned the radio on and damned the consequences while I studied. Test times would really just make me squirm. Nothing like a silent classroom to really mess with your mind. I NEED background noise. I can't survive without it. I might not be able to tell you exactly what is playing at the moment, but you'll catch me bobbing my head around and unconsciously dancing around if I'm standing. To me, music is nearly the air I breathe. So it always fascinates me when people say they can't stand to have noise when they are trying to focus.
I mean, does this mean they work-out with no headphones?
Wake up to the buzzer on their alarm?
Heaven forbid, could it be that they don't sing in the shower or in the car?
For work to be in progress, there actually has to be noise in the background. Somewhere inside of your head, there actually has to be something going on- a conversation, imagery that you can hear being described. While writing, if there is silence, it's like the TV being on after midnight.
Hellion- "You know that they play stuff on TV after midnight, right? It's just not a black screen with no sound."
Sin- *puzzled look* "What?"
*pirates shake their head at the non-observant Sin*
Marnee- "There hasn't be white noise on TV since 1989."
Sin *still puzzled* "Hm. Oh. Hm. Very curious indeed." *readjusting her leg warmers*
Terri *shaking her head*- "Soon we're going to have to lock her up in a home if she doesn't quit wearing the Flashdance outfit and thinking she's still cool."
See, if you only hear silence then you become very unobservant and this applies to your writing as well. Silence is understated because we crave it so much in our daily lives that we really don't realize what silence actually means to our creative side. Work in progress demands we listen to everything around us for any little thing we can use, laboring deep into the night and along the early fringes of light. This might work us into a "temporary" silence, but that's because at this point you're so mentally exhausted the thought of having one more moment disgust you.
But there's something about waking up the next morning with eyes swollen from the lack of sleep that brings that low buzz of your thoughts right to the forefront. What would it be like to have constant silence? To never hear your thoughts. To never hear your voice? How would this effect your overall writing? I'm not talking about the superficial hearing but the type of hearing that feeds your characters. If your work-in-progress is just an extension of your thoughts, if there was only silence, would your writing be flat and two-dimensional? I think it would. I know at times when I'm frustrated and nothing seems to work out write and the static is at an all time high, my writing and my voice suffer to the point it doesn't even sound like me.
So, with all that being said- How do you hear things? Do you hone in on one thing or do you hear it all from the thoughts in your head to the shouting kid in the candy aisle? Do you require silence to focus? (And this applies to readers too!) And if you have too much silence does that stifle your creativity?
I mean, does this mean they work-out with no headphones?
Wake up to the buzzer on their alarm?
Heaven forbid, could it be that they don't sing in the shower or in the car?
For work to be in progress, there actually has to be noise in the background. Somewhere inside of your head, there actually has to be something going on- a conversation, imagery that you can hear being described. While writing, if there is silence, it's like the TV being on after midnight.
Hellion- "You know that they play stuff on TV after midnight, right? It's just not a black screen with no sound."
Sin- *puzzled look* "What?"
*pirates shake their head at the non-observant Sin*
Marnee- "There hasn't be white noise on TV since 1989."
Sin *still puzzled* "Hm. Oh. Hm. Very curious indeed." *readjusting her leg warmers*
Terri *shaking her head*- "Soon we're going to have to lock her up in a home if she doesn't quit wearing the Flashdance outfit and thinking she's still cool."
See, if you only hear silence then you become very unobservant and this applies to your writing as well. Silence is understated because we crave it so much in our daily lives that we really don't realize what silence actually means to our creative side. Work in progress demands we listen to everything around us for any little thing we can use, laboring deep into the night and along the early fringes of light. This might work us into a "temporary" silence, but that's because at this point you're so mentally exhausted the thought of having one more moment disgust you.
But there's something about waking up the next morning with eyes swollen from the lack of sleep that brings that low buzz of your thoughts right to the forefront. What would it be like to have constant silence? To never hear your thoughts. To never hear your voice? How would this effect your overall writing? I'm not talking about the superficial hearing but the type of hearing that feeds your characters. If your work-in-progress is just an extension of your thoughts, if there was only silence, would your writing be flat and two-dimensional? I think it would. I know at times when I'm frustrated and nothing seems to work out write and the static is at an all time high, my writing and my voice suffer to the point it doesn't even sound like me.
So, with all that being said- How do you hear things? Do you hone in on one thing or do you hear it all from the thoughts in your head to the shouting kid in the candy aisle? Do you require silence to focus? (And this applies to readers too!) And if you have too much silence does that stifle your creativity?
Labels:
background noise,
Music,
Quartermaster's Queries (Sin),
silence,
Sin,
WIP,
Writing for Rum
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Books by the Crew
32 comments:
I have a baby screaming in my ear now, which I find rather distracting/detrimental to cohesive thought. Want to borrow her?
I like to play music for the mood or setting I'm writing in, but I think that most music with words makes me work slower.
I read somewhere that Women are good at multi tasking (parallel processing) whereas men work in a more serial manner...one thing at a time.
In general I can't stand extraneous noise when working. Even a ticking clock will disturb me. When doing school homework as a youngster I used a bedroom that had a table and would put the clock in my sisters bed to silence it.....caused no end of a ruckus when I forgot to remove it!
I think that outer space is the only place to find near perfect silence, and even there various radiations will impact the brain causing low level electrical disturbance. It would be interesting to place a writer in orbit though to see what results. The thought of Sin in space sets my spine tingling with anticipation *g*
The brain is awash with electrical fluctuations from random neuron firing. Indeed consciousness arises when some of this synchronises into patterns. So with perfect silence I'm afraid that you would be dead....remember that when you next crave silence.....a thought for the day!
I do like music or radio when cooking or doing boring tasks like washing up. Its the one time that I multi task succesfuly....You have to taste my cooking to believe this but I'm told that my sauces are getting quite creative *g*
PS reading one of Hawking's papers I found myself grinning thinking of cosmetics....cosmology will never be the same....ever!
I like consistent noise. I thought I used to like noise more in my pre-kid days... boy was I wrong.
I hate the noise of the TV, drives me apeshit. I love music in the background, it's soothing, and lets my mind go places if it's got that thread of something else to help focus it.
Though he could hear in his early days, DO NOT forget the genius of Beethoven, who became deaf at a fairly young age. It's one of the worst things that can happen to a musical prodigy.
I write in relative quiet. If my husband is home, there is the mumble of the TV is the background, but my door is closed. I can't seem to have music on unless I'm cleaning the house (which does not happen that often). I can't talk on the phone if there is noise. Maybe I'm growing deaf too!!! But I always have the radio on when I drive, and I've been known to sing along *g*.
I can tune out most anything to focus, TV or radio. I write with the DH watching TV or whatever. Sometimes I even write when he's trying to talk to me. Doesn't make for stellar marital relations but we're managing. LOL!
But I prefer silence if I get my choice. I have enough going on in my schitzo brain; I need no help.
Jordan - pass that baby over! I could stand a snuggle fix. :)
I have to have music going all the time, but oddly enough, not when writing. I need silence when writing. If I found some good instrumental stuff that fit the tone of the writing, that might work. But anything with lyrics and I'm singing along or just listening. I love lyrics.
As for reading, I can do that with noise anywhere. Except when I read Portrait of a Lady by Henry James. I could only read right before going to bed and only with classical music playing. Otherwise, I could read an entire page, which if you've ever read James you know means one sentence, and not have any idea what I just read. I think it took me more than a month to get through that one and that was when my life was normal and I read a couple of books a week. LOL!
And I never have total silence in my head. Thoughts are always going. ALWAYS. I can't shut them off, I've tried. Move over Marn, I want a snuggle with that wee one too!
It depends.
Sometimes music focuses me completely and I can do my tasks (and write in my head) for hours.
Sometimes I'm so tired...or cranky...or whatever, that I can't have noise if I'm going to accomplish ANYTHING.
Most of the time if I have silence in the background, my brain seizes it as an opportunity to fall asleep and thus my characters go to bed too. So I have to stick on something. Usually a POTC DVD, since my brain can practically quote the whole thing anyway.
Gimme, gimme, gimme. Gimme that wee one. I bet she smells like baby goodness and sugar. Whether she's squirming and wailing or not, I'd still take her over the TV blaring any old day.
I like to sing when music is on. I can't listen to music and try to sleep. It just keeps me up all night. But for some reason, I just don't hear it when I'm writing. Music and Word must put me in the Zen Zone.
Q- *wg* I will refrain from my original comments about you, me and space.
I'm very sorry for the Hawking thoughts yesterday, but I swear. I took one look at that comment and thought you said he was into cosmetology. Then I was going to ask you what you'd been smoking while you were supposed to be working!
Tiff- I like constant noise as well and the TV drives me up the wall. But it's always on when Mattycakes is home.
When I was writing this yesterday I actually thought of Beethoven who went deaf at an early age. When I think of him, I think of him never being deaf to himself but just the outside world. As long as you can still hear yourself, you can still conquer the world.
Maggie, I miss being able to close the door on my office. My office has been turned into a weight room that's never used. *Grr* I keep telling myself when we get a newer house, I will have my office again and I will have walls lined with bookshelves so it will never be turned into anything else.
Marn- I write while Mattycakes is trying to talk to me too and then I get to hear, "Why do I bother? You're not even listening to me."
Then I rattle off everything he's just said (which none of it's important and all random weird crap he just feels like needs to be said out loud - surprise, surprise, I'm not the only weirdo in my house-) and then he huffs and puffs and I go back to semi-ignoring him. This is why I need an office and my desktop back. I can't accomplish anything with a laptop other than procratination.
Hellion- I knew you were going to throw in the POTC.
Ter- There are actually books out there that I can't listen to music and read. Kim Harrison's novels are like that. I bought KH's newest in the airport in Phoenix before I flew home in February and I normally listen to my iPod on the flight but this time, I had to give it up so I could read. There is something about her novels that require more than music can give me while reading.
It's weird. I don't pretend to know how my brain works. Seems to change on a daily basis.
Awesome blog, Sin!
Sin said: When I was writing this yesterday I actually thought of Beethoven who went deaf at an early age. When I think of him, I think of him never being deaf to himself but just the outside world. As long as you can still hear yourself, you can still conquer the world.
That's how I think of Beethoven and Helen Keller too. I think that's how we all are. As long as our brains are at work, we will hear.
I write to music. I usually have the TV on in the background when I'm not working. I sing in the car. Love to listen to music while I'm swimming (get that reggae going). At times, I have to turn everything off and take the time to listen. Listening to birds, the wind, the quiet to get back on track but as Quantum says, space might be the only vacuum for that. Then again, unless you had a hole in your helmet, your brain would be at work. :-D
Interesting topic of Marilyn Monroe yesterday. She apparently kept all her paperwork, receipts and such during her lifetime. She was a proficient reader of significant works, feeding Norma Jean's quest for knowledge while shopping for the accessories that made Marilyn Monroe the vixen everyone wanted. Try blocking out all the noise going on in her head.
I watched a movie called Norma Jean once. I thought it was a really great depiction of what her life must have been like- to be torn between two very different egos.
My quiet is nature. If I really want quiet I go down to the trail and walk for an hour. The trail near my house goes by a lake and has an open walking trail where the sun and wind can carress your skin. There is something about the soothing sound of birds and leaves rustling that is the perfect amount of quiet.
I've seen that Norma Jean movie as well. And I doubt any of us would delve too deep in how our brains work. LOL! You're not alone there!
I can't fall asleep or wake up to music. It keeps me awake if I'm trying to sleep but it won't wake me if I'm sleeping. See, weird.
I wish I had somewhere I could walk that had only nature sounds like that. I suppose I could go down and walk on the beach but some nice quiet park closer to home would be better. I wonder if I could find that.
I listen to music when I'm cleaning, cooking, driving--even when I'm researching, but I need quiet when I'm writing. External noise inteferes with those internal voices.
Funny how you can do all those things with music and then can't write with music. I know a lot of people are like that as well- that music interferes with their internal voices and conversations. I think music feeds mine like food.
I'm in the "need silence" camp for writing. I don't mind having noise while going about my daily routine, but when I'm writing I need quiet. Even the daily noise gets to be a bit much after a while. I've noticed how really quiet the house is now that everyone is gone during the day and I'm kinda liking it.
When I was a teenager I used to go to this friend's house every once in a while. They ALWAYS had the TV on... even when there was nobody in the room watching it... and it always seemed too loud for me. It drove me crazy! Combined with the noise all the kids were making, the level of noise in that house was unbelievable. I felt like I was walking into an insane asylum.
Irish - Are you sure you didn't hang out at my house? LOL! My mother is completely addicted to TV. Once I was home visiting and found the TV on but the living room empty. My mother was somewhere in the far back of the house and as soon as I turned it off, a voice came from far away saying, "Hey! Turn that back on!" It was creepy.
Now my dad is very deaf so watching TV with him makes my ears bleed. I can't do it.
Irish, we had five of the grands at once for a few days this summer, and I found the noise level insane. At one point,the eight-year-old was singing along with Taylor Swift in one room, the six and seven-year olds were playing Pro Bowling on the Wii in another, the four-year-old was yelling at a Ben-10 game on the computer in yet another, and the three-year-old kept running from room to room practicing Kung Fu Panda moves. Silence became my defintion of paradise. LOL!
They are five of the reasons I missed my self-imposed revision deadline. I salute all of you who manage to write with little ones around all the time.
Ter - It amazes me how many households are like that. The TV never goes off - during dinner, homework, etc. Sometimes I wonder if they turned if off when they left the house. LOL In my house it was the opposite - if the TV was on and no one was in the room it went off for the rest of the day! My father's favorite saying was "Do you think we own stock in Edison!!!"
Janga - I took my brother's children a couple of weeks ago for an overnighter. They are ages 6, 4 and 10 months! I had them Friday from 3:30 pm to Saturday at 5:00 pm. I slept ALL day Sunday! I can't do that anymore.
Irish - my ex-inlaws never turned it off. Even when they left the house for the day. Drove me NUTS! My child is addicted to it so there are times I make her turn it off and find something else to do. The blissful silence - other than the bird chirping and the hamster running on her wheel - is wonderful. LOL!
Just reading about all those little kids running around makes me tired!
I love music, but if I'm reading, it has to be instrumental only or I'll start singing along. Unless it's a really good book in which case I wouldn't notice if World War III erupted in my living room, LOL. I don't mind background noise like the TV and stuff, I can tune that out easily, but if I know a song, I'll start singing along every time.
As for when I'm working and doing the dishes and stuff like that, I'm either singing or listening to music. But I have to say, sometimes I crave complete silence. I can't fall asleep listening to music, for example. Sometimes even the clock ticking will keep me up at night, LOL. Not to mention my own chaotic thoughts, LOL.
Great blog, Sin.
Irish- I can't stand the TV up really loud! I mean, seriously, does anyone without hearing aides need the TV up to 30? The thought of it makes my eardrums throb.
I much enjoyed reading all the comments in this stimulating blog!
One thing that strikes me is the difference between a scientists interpretation of silence and the view commonly expressed here.
To a scientist, (unless acoustic is specified), noise includes all randomness entering the brain through our senses and also the inherent internal randomness in the brain itself.
If one could magically eliminate all of this randomness would that remove the mental fog that sometimes clouds our thoughts and perception. Would everything become crystal clear so that we all become great writers or thinkers or is some of that noise necessary for creative thought?
Wish I knew the answer. *g*
Great blog Sin!
My mind never shuts down. Never. When I read, I can shut everything out. If it's a good book the kids could be yelling "fire" and I wouldn't hear them.
When I'm writing-got to have Foo Fighters, Disturbed, Corn, Chopin, and a wide range of everything in between.
I've got to have noise, except when I do a miserable job at speaking sign to the kids, then for some reason I shut everything out, or at least try to. My hope is the more I practice the better I'll get.
Loved the blog Sin, it made me think a bit.
Renee
Q- I never excelled in science. Maybe chemestry but never the classroom type.
If scientist could find a way to alter your brain so the fog that floats around and blocks creativity no longer was an issue, wouldn't that take creativity away? Muddled thoughts are a part of the process and sometimes even help to pull you out of a block.
Hm. Good thoughts Q. You always make me think. I can't say my brain thanks you though.
Renee- My mind never shuts down either. Last night as I was trying to sleep I kept hearing sentences in my head. But it wasn't writing. No. It was next week's blog. Ridiculous! I just have to demand myself to shut up in order to go to sleep. I don't sleep all the way through the night. I wake up randomly and my brain is still going. No wonder I'm tired all the time!
Love your music choices. I'm a fan of Disturbed myself. I just got a live version of Fade to Black (an old Metallica song) that they've redone. VERY good.
OH how cool! I love Disturb's Land of Confusion, of course I was a Collin's fan too way back when. ;)
Renee
I simply cannot resist!
So
How do I hear things? Uhh…With my ears? Golly, I’ve heard you say Sin, that you aren’t like other people … Butt I didn’t realize that that was that like… An Understatement? So Dude, do you have some unique orifice for noise absorption and reconnaissance? Like Ohm Portals in your nostrils? Or Sound Wave Citadels in your ahhhssstiletto?! A Stiletto! Gosh, thanks for the shoe you Lil ’Sin-errr. Ain’t she a sweet heart?
Post a Comment