How Music Affects My Writing by Marilyn Meredith

This was a suggested topic and I decided to go with it, since my answer will probably be different than anyone else’s.

The quick and simple answer is, music doesn’t affect my writing at all–because I don’t play any while I’m writing.

Long ago because I read about so many writers who did, I searched for scary music when writing scary scenes, romantic songs when writing romantic scenes and so on. I played a lot of piano music because that’s what I like best. But I soon realized I was spending a lot of time trying to find just the right music instead of writing and it wasn’t helping.

In fact the music distracted me from what I was working on.

It can get pretty noisy around here at times because we have so many people living in our house including a couple of little girls. It’s always been like that, just different people. I have no trouble tuning them out when I’m writing.

When I’m busy with a scene, I’m in that place and time, visualizing and experiencing it through the eyes of my Point of View characters, whoever that might be. I don’t want distracting music, I need to hear what my heroine is hearing and translate that into words so my reader will be able to experience (imagine) hearing the same sound(s).

For me, this is the best way for me to write and I hope it translates into a good reading experience.

I’ll be anxious to hear what readers think about my next Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery making its appearance in August. I love the cover because it depicts so much that’s in the story.

No music for me, but I’m sure others will have different experiences to share.

Marilyn