If I knew where the good songs came from, I’d go there more often. — Leonard Cohen

Do you have a playlist for your writing time, or do you prefer silence while you create? I never know which scenario will help me most. Sometimes the world is noisy, chaotic, and filled with distractions. On those days, peaceful quiet is only a dream. Far too often, the distractions are in my mind. A voice in my head plagues me. It alternately urges me to pick something fun or engage in a “more responsible and productive” activity. The exact project is less important than escaping from the chore of confronting a blank page, developing a logical premise, and seeing the story through to a satisfying conclusion.

My best tactic for crushing the alluring temptation to follow the seductive voice is to drown it with music. But then I face the tricky prospect of finding the right tunes. An otherwise simple task can end with me flipping from one channel to the next in a continuous loop. Other days, it is all too much, and silence reigns supreme.

Whatever the correct answer for the day might be, when I get it right, time ceases to exist, and the words flow, and problems I feared before my writing session magically resolved themselves as I type each successive word, sentence, and paragraph. When I reread my words, I don’t recognize them. The person who wrote them couldn’t have been me.

Do you gravitate towards music or silence when you write? If you listen to music—what do you listen to?

Did you write yesterday? Are you writing today?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer