Sound & Music For NaNoWriMo

Image from www.nanowrimo.org

    When I write I like for there to be sound.  I discovered some time ago that I study very well to music.  Often times it was heavy rock music.  It covered up all other auditory distractions and allowed me to focus.    I have happily found that I can do the same thing with my writing, though my choices of sound have become more intricate.  When I choose my sounds for writing it is not all about just focusing.  It is about pacing, mood, and environment.  I also listen to different things depending on if I am blogging, writing prose & poetry, or editing.

    With NaNoWriMo right around the corner I'd like to share a few of the places I have been going to for my writing sounds.  I hope you find something useful.

YouTube 

    YouTube has so many options for music and sound.  This was my go to a few years back for writing, but I found I was losing time changing to a new song at the end of every video.  The playlists weren't always so great either as I kept running into songs that were no longer there.  Now a days if I use YouTube it is for either a particular song I want to hear to put me in the mood of what I am writing or for the tracks that are several hours long and usually consist of particular sounds like thunder storms or the forest.

8tracks

    I love using 8tracks even when I am just cleaning around the home.  Since you can search with tags you can find plenty of tracks to write to and for every mood.  You can even search for tags like cute, creepy, and dark.  Not to mention there are numerous tracks listed under the tags NaNoWriMo and writing.  And if you are looking for tracks for specific moods, themes, or character types check out the user The Great Zucchini.

Rainy Mood

    This is one I like to use while I am meditating and writing my morning pages.  It is just the sound of rain.  If you want to relax it also has a visual aspect of rain on a window.  It is very nice to write to and if it is raining in the scene you are working on it can really put you in the right head space.

The Earth Sounds

    I found this one shortly after finding Rainy Mood.  It has a list of sounds to listen to.  Rain, fire, night, etc.  It is also another good one to relax and meditate to.  And both of this site and Rainy Mood just keep playing the sound.

Coffitivity 

    I think one of my friends told me about this one and it is pretty great for just some standard noise in the back ground.  It plays the sounds of people talking in such a way that it is just white noise.  Kind of like if you were sitting in a cafe to write.

    Personally I find it very useful to layer the different sounds.  I might play the cafe sounds from Coffitivity and a themed music at the same time to get the rite feel for what I am working on.  I hope you find something useful here.  Have fun and write a lot.