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The Sound of Silence

I know many, many authors like to listen to music while they write to help get into the mood of a book. Lots of my favorite writers post playlists on their websites for all their books of all the songs they listened to during the writing process. It always makes me feel kind of like there must be something wrong with me, because I am so, so totally not like that at all. I really like absolute silence to write. Or as close to absolute silence I can get with a toddler in the house. Which, okay, is usually not all that close–bless my sweet girl–but at least my office has a door.

The only time I did write to music was while I was pregnant with my daughter and working on the first draft of Twilight of Avalon. I felt kind of sorry for her, all cooped up in there with nothing to listen to but the click click of keys all day, so I would play music for her while I typed away at my computer. And it really was fun to see which songs would make her kick hardest and which seemed to just leave her cold. And even now, at two, she still loves listening to the music–jazz trumpet albums and Handel, mostly–that I would have called her favorites before she was born.

So I felt like I ought to do the same this time around. Except . . . except I really, really like silence while I write. And those precious couple of nap-time hours when the house really is silent go by so very fast. But then I thought–headphones! Headphones could work on your stomach just as well as, you know, on your head. Which is why, as I’m typing this, I have a pair of headphones stretched out across my rounder-by-the-day belly. The baby is dancing away to the Irish folk music I put on and I have . . . silence. So everyone is happy. Even if anyone dropping by my office would probably think I looked a little strange.

This entry was posted Saturday, May 23rd, 2009 at 3:43 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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