Shorts to Novels; Musical Accompaniments.

No matter what kind of writing you do, fictional or otherwise the question of what 'noises' to have around has long been debated. Some people believe that pure silence is the best thing to give someone's mind complete space to reach its full ability, but then some people who aren't comfortable with silence prefer music, some more instrumental, others more lyrical. But what is the best? Well, quite simply there is no 'best' because writing is an incredibly personal thing to do, people are vastly different, and although there is always something similar in everyone when it comes to this sort of thing it can truly differ, and most probably always will. That's the way it should be aswell.

However, for me, as a person who doesn't really work too well in silence I have to have music but when it comes to the argument of lyrics or instrumental I kind of sit on the fence. Depending on what kind of mood I'm in, or what kind of genre I'm writing depends what I listen to. Generally I listen to slow soft acoustic songs from artists like Gabrielle Aplin, James Morrison, Joshua Radin, Norah Jones etc. These kind of songs relax me very easily and get rid of any stress I have, and obviously stress is a high creativity-blocker. I also find sometimes the slightest lyric in a song might spark an idea in my head for whatever reason. If I'm writing a particular intense scene full of action or horror though I listen to heavier rock like Thirty Seconds To Mars, Linkin Park, Emarosa, The Fray etc so that the faster speed, and inclusion of a heavier percussion puts me in the appropriate mood for the scene.

Lastly, for emotional scenes again I might just use the acoustic songs, but sometimes I find instrumentals help just as much, because when I write a particularly sad or poignant scene I like to imagine the kind of cinematic trope of complete silence except the characters and faded music. These kind of film scenes really engage the audience and effect their emotions, so if I can listen to music that coincides with this kind of scene I feel like I will produce a much more worthy piece of writing.

But as I said at the beginning everyone differs, this is merely what I do.

Approaching the Second Year: 12 days to go

Over a year ago I started this blog to document my entrance into Uni, and to write about any tips or experiences I encounter. Now 47 posts later the summers coming to an end, I once again realise the incredible changes that can occur over a year and in 12 days my bags will be packed ready to move into my new house to start the second year of University. So naturally I feel the need to re-cap, and talk about how I feel about the second year etc.

My first year was an experience full of MANY emotions, lots of stressing and best of all, new friends, old friends, wonder and personal development. Yes emotions did run extremely strong throughout the first year, emotions that I truly never knew existed, people react and deal with different things in completely different ways but for me settling in was quite difficult. I was a partial recluse at the beginning of my journey, because I was already feeling quite emotional before I had joined Uni for varying reasons, so being placed in an unfamiliar place with unfamiliar people was quite a strange occurrence. But soon enough I began to warm to the lovely people I was living with, and I decided the feeling of discomfort I had was a good thing, because it forced me to be more open-minded and willing to do things. Once I had this view in my mind adapting to student life, the night's and all became easier, and I truly and thoroughly enjoyed so many aspects of it. There were friendships that were being made stronger and stronger by the day at Uni. It is such a wonderful feeling to think that just a year ago I never knew any of the University friends I have now, and yet I've become so close to some of them. When I came back for the summer holidays 4 months ago, I honestly felt like a large part of me had changed, I'd lost weight, I had a better view on trust, I felt like I could talk to people easier and I felt better about myself in general.

Considering that is the tiniest snippet of my first year, it makes me feel so positive about going back now. Originally the idea of returning felt a little scary because I'd been home so long, and I'd made new friends, and had some of the most fantastic times, however simplistic they were. But remembering everything that happened and knowing that any problems in my mind that exist will be so much easier to deal with in, what is effectively my 'second life' is such an exciting thought. I finished my first year with a 2:1 and I was so utterly ecstatic when I found out, so that made me even more motivated to finish this next year with a First. I think that's quite an important part of uni...the future, you have to keep thinking about it, and what opportunities might arrive, who you might meet, what could change because that unpredictability begins to make 'the unknown' a little less daunting.