I can't imagine writing a novel without some sound. When you're facing a few hundred blank pages, silence can be cold.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I have to have music on when writing, or else the silence swallows me whole.
A book isn't noise to drown out other noise.
I don't listen to music when I write. I need silence.
I am in total silence when I write - I don't even like the sound of the dryer going - I like the quiet.
I don't like to read contemporary fiction while writing - I need a sense of isolation, a kind of silence, and I don't want a jumble of other people's voices or visions getting in my way. Nineteenth-century voices don't create static in that silence.
Because music is a language unto itself, when I'm writing, I need silence. I need to hear the music and the rhythms of the words inside my thoughts.
One of the rules of the road is that if you want to create the sense of silence, it frequently has more pungency if you include the tiniest of sounds. By manipulating what you hear and how you hear it and what other things you don't hear, you can not only help tell the story, you can help the audience get into the mind of the character.
I don't listen to anything when I'm writing. I need total quiet, which is astounding, given that I spent years working for a newspaper and having to write features surrounded by ringing phones and people shouting.
I need complete silence when I write.
I don't listen to music when I write. I need silence so I can hear the sound of the words.