Zombies! discussion

So when I write I generally pick a film score or two (or three) to use for specific projects. While working on Plague (Okay, fine, Ashley...) I listened to the score to Twilight, which worked very well. Didn't think of sparkly vamps once! I also had the extended score for Dawn of the Dead (original) and a couple Fulci movie scores.

What does anyone else like to listen to while writing or reading zombie related stuff?

Since I was writing from the perspective of an angry and vengeful zombie for "Het Madden", I would listen to Megadeth and other heavy stuff. Really set the mood.

see now, I can't listen to anything with lyrics when I write or I start focusing on the words in the music rather than what I'm writing. Which really cuts out a lot of great mood music, dammit!

For me, it really depends how I'm truckin' as to what music I listen to while writing, if I can listen to music at all.

If I'm feeling rather inspired, I usually can rock to just about anything - as long as its not too loud. Volume-wise, not style-wise.

The biggest musical inspiration present in my writing is without a doubt Boards of Canada. If you've never heard of them, you've never lived. I reccomend anything off The Campfire Headphase or Music Has The Right To Children.

Hell, when it's bad though, even my own breathing can distract me. Eh, such is life.

Grey Dogs: Zombie SurvivalIan D.G. Sandusky

>>Hell, when it's bad though, even my own breathing can distract me.

HAH! I know this feeling SO well... my boyfriend and I both write so we're usually on the couch with our laptops together and I've actually snapped at him for typing too loudly when I'm having trouble focusing.

I have not heard of Boards of Canada, which means I have some life experience still to discover. :-)

If I have music playing while I read it's generally classical or light jazz. Like Dana I have problems if there are vocals in the music, since that will often take me out of the book. Depending on what I'm reading, sometimes it is best to not have anything playing at all. I find that especially true if it is non-fiction and I really have to concentrate on the subject matter.

I prefer instrumental stuff like Explosions in The Sky, but a lot of soundtracks do the trick, too. 28 Days & 28 Weeks later are excellent.

Steve, I don't think I've tried listening to music with non-fiction!

Brian, I need to get 28 Weeks Later. I've got the score to 28 Days and love it.

I tend to listen to some old school AC/DC or early Guns and Roses when writing.

For some reason, I absolutely love to just throw on a random Grooveshark playlist full of music I've never heard before while outlining. If it's something I know, I just don't flow as well. Strange, I know, but it might work for you too.

Pandora is sick too for the same concept.

Ian D.G. Sandusky
Grey Dogs: Zombie Survival

New favourite for writing: the Across The Universe soundtrack. I'm a HUGE (read: borderline fanatical) Beatles fan, so it works for me. Incredible renditions of the classics.

Ian D.G. Sandusky
Grey Dogs: Zombie Survival

I used to put on my iTunes on the random play setting of the entire music library and just go with what I got. Sometimes it worked, but then there've been the times I've been writing, say, a love scene (I write erotic romance too) and gotten the theme to Conan blaring out. Or tinkly happy Harry Potter music for incoming zombies. The words 'It's on random!" do run through my head at those times... :-)

Jo, humming drives me crazy at the best of times!

I can read to rock... just not write to it. Which is a damn shame since I love it.

Okay, Ian, guess what book showed up today? If you guessed 'Grey Dogs', you'd be correct. So what should I listen to while reading? This is if I can wait till I get home instead of devour it on my Muni ride! And I'm also guessing you're British 'cause you use 'grey' instead of 'gray.' As in Susan Cooper's The Grey King... and funny thing, now that I'm looking at both spellings, they BOTH look weird...

Words all look weird if you stare at them long enough...

You are so right about that... Rachel, is that your cat in your avatar?

Yes it is :) Spanky

Awww... cute! I love cats... no cats will EVER be harmed in my zombie novels or stories. Just sayin'.

Hehe yay! Cats always seem to be the first to go...

Not in MY zombocalypse!

Rene wrote: "It's more like the fat people who are first to go, then the kids, then the hot chick."

Heh. Leaving behind one lone teenager with a gun and the satisfaction of having banged the hot chick before she died...

Dana wrote: "I can read to rock... just not write to it. Which is a damn shame since I love it.

Okay, Ian, guess what book showed up today? If you guessed 'Grey Dogs', you'd be correct. So what should I li..."

Canadian, actually - the publisher was Australian so it's just the way it crumbled! I have to say though, 'gray' just looks odd to me. Probably the same way people laugh when I write 'centre' or 'metre.' Stupid cross-cultural spellings. Ugh.

In any case - I have no idea! I listed to a lot of Boards of Canada, Deftones and A Perfect Circle while writing it, but I have no idea what will work while reading it! Do some experimentation and do keep us posted, yeah?

Thanks again for the support - here's to hoping you dig it - be sure to post a review!

IDGS

AND three bands I've not heard of... okay, I've heard of the Deftones, or at least they sound familiar... but totally unfamiliar with the music. I will do my best. Although to be honest, I've been reading it on the Muni and on my walks. :-)

Hater Dog Blood

Autumn

If you haven't read The Ultimate Zombie Handbook UK by Sean T Page - it's a must! So ridiculously comprehensive and entertaining - definitely the best guide I've seen since Max Brooks wrote the definitive manual!

Strangely, I listen to country music whenever I do my writing. :)

Rene u should read the sequel, dog blood, theres also a 3rd book , Them Or Us, its due out in late 2011

Rene wrote: "Thanks"

yw

I mainly listen to film scores when I'm reading. Nothing too loud and dramatic, especially when I'm studying. I really like the soundtracks for Atonement, 28 Days Later, Pan's Labyrinth, Let the Right One in, and Harry Potter.

Sarah, what a great selection! A woman after my own heart there!

When I'm reading a book I need dead silence to very very low where I can't hear it nearly or I can't focus I start to sing along with it, but when I am reading stuff like this I have no problem reading it.

I am listing to music now. (Story of The Year)

Ok, I'm never contributed to this group before, but since books and music are two things I love....Call me bizarre, but I have to have something energetic when I'm writing. Currently, I'm listening to a lot of DJs. I don't like pop music in the least. But a DJ/producer by the name of Skrillex is who I get the most done by. It can be really distracting to most people, but it helps focus me. I actually fell asleep to him with my headphones last night (no, I wasn't writing then).

Scott wrote: "Ok, I'm never contributed to this group before, but since books and music are two things I love....Call me bizarre, but I have to have something energetic when I'm writing. Currently, I'm listening..."

Scott, you have a lot in common with one of my writing partners who can listen to talk radio while writing... I can't deal with lyrics, let alone voices when I'm writing! :-)

Scott wrote: "Ok, I'm never contributed to this group before, but since books and music are two things I love....Call me bizarre, but I have to have something energetic when I'm writing. Currently, I'm listening..."

Ha! Skrillex - yeah that's some great dubstep. Little too overpowering for me to write to, but I can see how it could inspire.

I need music in the background for any reading or writing I do. If it's too quiet I can't concentrate, my mind wanders. I listen to AOL radio a lot...their Movie Score Station is good or my favorite though is their Mediation station. Nothing with lyrics though that's too distracting for me.

I wore out the score to the movie Inception while writing my novel.

Dana wrote: "I need music in the background for any reading or writing I do. If it's too quiet I can't concentrate, my mind wanders. I listen to AOL radio a lot...their Movie Score Station is good or my favor..."

I've used the Yahoo Music station and sometimes the AOL one too.... but I haven't used AOL's mediation station. I'll have to give it a try when reading.

Take a listen to The Uninvited score. I listen to that a LOT when doing re-writes of my zombie books. It was composed by Christopher Young.

Another really good score is from The Haunting in Connecticut by Robert J. Kral.

Both scores are haunting and will set the perfect mood for the survivalist/zombie fiction either reading or writing.

I listen to a lot of music when I write, but it has to be stuff I know forwards and backwards, and no stories. (So, sorry Roger Waters and Pink Floyd.)

It doesn't have to be instrumentals, necessarily, but it can't be anything I haven't heard 800 times before, because the new and shiny bits distract me.

The most-played stuff has been Bruce Dickinson, AC/DC, Corrosion of Conformity, Flybanger, Anthrax, Danzig, and Alice in Chains. It's not all necessarily the best stuff I have, or the music I like the most, but the stuff I've listened to for the longest, and there aren't any bits that will pull me out of what I'm working on.

I find that New Age music, without any words, works well for me. It works at least during the first draft, but after that I prefer silence. The music kind of inspires my creativity to think up new stuff as opposed to just silence. Sometimes guitar music works, sometimes classical music such as the Brandenburg concertos, but most of the time New Age music.

I like to listen to Cannibal Corpse - 15 year killing spree has a great array of moods ranging from insane to suicidal to unrepentant brain bashing guitar licks, and twin peddled madness from the drums. Other times I listen to dubstep...filthy drops are the best although somewhat distracting and the fingers tap along to the BASS!!!

If I feel the mood needs to mellow out a little, I'll listen to some Arcade Fire or Beatles.

Love me some Cannibal Corpse, but you have to listen to them with your sense of humor on or bad things happen. I like it quiet when I'm writing. I'm trying to write and listen to this game right now and it's not working out.

While I was writing "Parasite; The True Story of the Zombie Apocalypse" I listened to the Lord of the Rings score at times but mostly I like the quiet. I get so involved that I lose track of most things around me. I'm almost finished with the sequel. It was completely written while sitting in silence.

I must admit that certain tracks aren't exactly appropriate and I sometimes struggle to find the right atmos for a scene/chapter. At times a song can influence me as I work my way through an album. Other times I'll put on a specific track or artist the fit the genre. It works both ways.