I remember friends in high school who had to study to music and it drove me nuts. Music distracted me. I didn't want to listen to it, I wanted to sing along. When I started writing my first book forever ago, I found myself writing on my laptop in the car. The hubs' conversations on his phone and with our passengers were beyond distracting and I started bringing along my headphones so I could tune them out (pun intended!). Now I can't seem to write without it.
Now here's the weird part--you know there had to be a weird part. I can't listen to a mash-up of all those genres. This past week proved it to me. I made a playlist of all my music in iTunes from The Band Perry to Journey to Def Leopard to Seether to Taylor Swift to Jessie James to Usher. I couldn't get myself to focus on a single freaking thing. Tuesday I wrote about ten pages that I deleted on Wednesday and rewrote another 6. About half of those pages were deleted on Thursday and I proceeded to write another 22 pages.
What was the difference? I put on Pandora to today's country music. I know, I know. It must be living here in Lower Alabama that has me hooked on the Country. But it's really not my fault--if the pop stations wouldn't play mainstream versions of Taylor Swift or Lady Antebellum or The Band Perry, I wouldn't pull up a playlist on Pandora for The Band Perry. And I wouldn't hear other artists I like as much. And I wouldn't give in and stream pure country music. In my defense, there's a bunch of twangy artists I block, but still. I'm listening to country music.
And here I'll put the breaks on to keep myself from being even more defensive! *Takes deep breath* I. Like. Country. Music. Deal with it.
The purpose of my rambling? My writemotivation goals from last week. Technically I revised 38 pages last week, even though only 22 stuck at the end. That's 12 pages short of my goal. Instead of focusing on the fact that I didn't meet my goal, here's my motivational thought for the day--This is a new week. A new week where I can accomplish the goals I set for myself. I don't have to worry about last week, just look forward to this week. And I'm going to kick ass at it!
Worked out yesterday and today (Yay!). Yesterday was a dud on the epiphanies, but today landed me a pretty darn good one. The reason I stopped writing Thursday was because I got stuck. I knew I should go back and write more about an important event in one of my character's lives, but I cut it short. Way short. And while I was on the treadmill today thinking about it, I remembered this--publishers are always going to cut words. Why aren't I writing all of it? If it's too wordy or not necessary, they'll be quick to massacre it with a red pen. So this evening, when I get up from my nap, that's the second thing I'm going to do. The first is correct all the embarrassing typos and grammar errors I found as I read through my pages this weekend. *Smacks palm to forehead*
So there we are. Mood music and epiphanies. Sounds like a great way to start the week!
I love country music too! Lately, I've been jamming to British Pop on Pandora since my new WIP takes place in London.
ReplyDeleteAnd don't worry about putting too much into your WIP because you are absolutely right...editors and publishers will tell you what is unnecessary to the story.
Grats on doing so well with your goals!
good work making progress no matter what you listen to - as long as i didn't have to listen to it, what do i care, right? i find that when i get stuck, it's good to take a break and let my mind think on it while i'm doing other things - the treadmill was a great idea. i wouldn't worry so much about what an editor will do with it at this point, you're still figuring out the story. write it all out until you get through the first draft in as many words as you need to. revision and editing is for the second through tenth drafts. keep on writing! you're doing great.
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