writing

Music to write by

/ JR / 4 Comments

music-influences-writingMusic is a big part of my writing process; I have the earbuds in most all of the time when jamming through pages of text.

The categories of what I shove in my ears would be as follows:

  1. Christian Hard Rock – typified by my favorite band, Red (Just got their new album “of Beauty and Rage”, awesome).    Also Day of Fire and Building 429 are favs.
  2. More Hard Rock – Stuff like Linkin Park.  I’m a huge Evanescence fan as well.
  3. Classic Christian Rock – nobody plays this stuff anymore; like Dogs of Peace, early Kutless and Justifide (9 out of 10 is a true classic metal song).  Jaci Velasquez, anybody?
  4. Movie soundtracks – I have a collection of full soundtracks and bits/pieces of others.  It’s fun to play the Iron Man 3 soundtrack or Gravity and see how many times the mood of the piece matches my character or setting mood in the book.
  5. Classical – I’m a huge Rachmaninoff fan.  Can’t play Piano Concerto No. 2 enough.
  6. Old pop – still loving Depeche Mode, REM and Seal in a pinch.  “World in my Eyes” is a personal favorite.

 

Writing ’til all hours of the night…

/ JR / Leave a comment

night-woodsPeople have asked me about when I find writing most productive.  Since I’m a night owl, I tend to get rolling at my keyboard after the kids are in bed and things are quieting down.  Then, around midnight, that burst of energy kicks in and I can roll on until 2 or 3 A.M. on bad days.

Here in quiet Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, it’s far from a 24/7 lifestyle… very far.  I remember living in Southern California and running out at 2 A.M. to get some burritos and a coke.  Not so much anymore.  Oh, well.

I was very glad for the time afforded to me this past May as a result of a total hip replacement!  I was able to really focus on finishing my first full-length novel Swords of Fire and work up an outline for future installments in the saga of my main character, retired Sergeant Chris Carter.

I expect I’ll always be using the “me time” surrounding the midnight hour, with or without caffeine.