The Next Manuscript ...

I usually listen to music while I write.  For Nothing Men (look to your right for how to purchase), I listened to a lot of old country music.  For the manuscript I'm working on now it is primarily classic rock.  For the one after that, the one that's been bouncing around in my head for the past month or so, it will be music like Non's "Between Venus & Mars."  Grinding, destructive, pure.  Italian music from its fascist history may also come into play.  If you've heard it, you'll understand why.

There is something amazingly beautiful about music that most people would dub "noise."  It lets you escape into your mind to unleash whatever hungry beast lurks there.  It is confrontational.  It is the opposite of the prefabricated madness that pushes itself as "art."  It is a god amongst swine.  When the future manuscript is finished, it will be easy to see why this music was my soundtrack.

Every manuscript calls for different music.  Some writers can only write in silence.  Some need a crashing chorus to help set the scene.  I could do either, but I prefer the latter.  I like losing myself into the flow.  When I was writing a scene for my current manuscript, "Sympathy for the Devil" was playing.  It was a nasty scene and it got nastier as the song went on.  Would I have written it differently if I were writing in silence?  Maybe.  I know the music added an element to it that fit what I wanted to create.  It only helped what was going to already be there.

Grinding noise.  Confrontation.  Purity.  I cannot wait.