On 'On Writing'

From the things-you-don't-need-to-know-about-Doug-but-thanks-for-reading-anyway department:

In a blog I found over the weekend the writer composed a piece noting his writing process. When writing, he could not listen to music—at least not music with lyrics. (Instrumentals were possible.) It proved distracting to his thinking about what he was writing about.

For me, I can write with music on, even songs with words. I've been writing on the train for years now, and every minute of it was spent with headphones in my ears. That, however, was not so much to enhance my creativity but to drown out the noise of those around me. It's not that I couldn't write without music playing, but that music playing became part of what was happening during the process. (Arguably, the writing has become associated with riding on a train.) However, the music doesn't get my conscious attention when it's just songs; the only thing that tends to distract me is if someone is talking (i.e., listening to a radio morning show where the on-air personalities are yammering on about something for extended periods between playing songs). That draws my attention to it, and will at least intermittently distract me.

Yes, the music playing essentially turns into background noise. It's true that often I'll pause when I'm writing, and allow myself to hear what's playing, and then I'll try to remember the last track played and I cannot do it. Sometimes I press the button and start to play a few seconds of that track just to appease my mind.

One could argue that I'm not so much a fan of the songs but of the sound of music. And I suppose during the period where I'm focused on composing whatever crap my mind seems to think worthwhile in that moment, that would be more or less accurate.

When I really focus on music itself is when I'm putting together a mix (generally for someone else). I'll spend hours listening intently to the lyrics, to the melody, to the tone of each track. I'll listen to it afterward to judge how well each track transitions into the next. In short, through repetition those songs get embedded in my consciousness.

Unlike the background songs playing when I'm writing. If a song that I'd previously put on a mix comes up during the randomized selections playing during the composition period, likely it will draw a bit of attention to itself that songs I don't know as well would not; for a moment it distracts me (although not necessarily in a bad way) from whatever my mind was thinking about when writing.

This perhaps begs the question: Which turns out better--something I write but without remembering what was music played while composing it, or a mix where every track is recalled in detail?

The latter. Almost always the latter. (This was composed while listening to songs I don't actively remember. Need I offer any further evidence?)