Wouldn’t it be great if I could listen to music AND write creatively at the same time? It comes down to being able to concentrate on two things at once. I admire people who can do this. I cannot! Unfortunately, I still need silence to create stories or essays or newsletters. Or a writing workshop. Anything that I must think about first and then create.
I still find inspiration through hiking in nature. Yes! Even when it snows or rains. Being outside in the fresh air helps me think. Helps me mull over details to a story, plot problems, internal angst, or the point of my essays. Just me, my thoughts, my troubles, and my quandaries. I need a clear mind to think about things.
If I’m listening to music—and I enjoy the songs that tell a story—I’m focused on the song’s words. The movement of the music. The sound of the instruments. The beat. The melody. Memory from Cats. I Dreamed a Dream from Les Misérables. And Bo Donaldson and The Heywood’s Billy Don’t Be A Hero.
I’m all about story and what is being said or sung.
And speaking of stories, I offered a local writing workshop for Women’s Month at my library. We discussed personal essays about the special women in our lives, and I shared how participants could create and sell these essays to markets.
How you need conflict even in personal essays. How the protagonist, the memoirist, enters the scene thinking one thing, and then comes out of the scene changed somehow. This was a truly engaging class. Participants challenged me with specific questions and eagerly offered insight to fellow writers about their essay topics. These writers want to know when I’m teaching again at the library. I let the library activities’ director know her patrons wanted another workshop.
The Pocono Liars Writing Club I belong to has their FREE Writers’ Conference on Saturday, April 18, 2026, from 9 am to 4 pm at the Hughes Library in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. You can find information about the presenters at www.poconoliars.com. I hope to see you there!
Now I’m off to see how YOU manage to both listen to music AND write creatively at the same time. More power to you all. Happy IWSG Day, everyone!
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This post was written for the Insecure Writer’s Support Group. I’d like to thank our co-hosts for April: Melissa Maygrove, Cathrina Constantine, Kate Larkinsdale, and Rebecca Douglass! Please visit them if you can.
Our group posts on the first Wednesday of every month. To join us, or learn more about the group, click HERE.
That’s cool you offered that workshop.
I have to have music playing when I am writing. The music and words power me through scenes.
See, you are lucky, Alex. I am still so easily distracted that I need quiet so that I can pay attention to what my mind is telling me to write.
Always a pleasure seeing you here at Adventures in Writing. Happy IWSG day!
I can see how those storytelling songs would divert attention from your own story. I definitely enjoy walks and the sounds of nature to puzzle out plotlines too. Just a thought, have you tried ambient sounds of wind, rain etc while writing? There’s lot of that on YouTube.
No I didn’t, Nick. I might try those recorded sounds. Then again, when the windows are open, I hear the tree frogs. I can hear the wind and rain without the windows being open.
Thanks for the suggestion, Nick. Stay strong, sir!
Hi Victoria,
Top of my jobs this week comes tadpole care for a pirate (aged 4, in full costume all weekend) and a paleontologist (7) , who published a book last year on his favourite creatures – ammonites… And rehearsals for Sunday’s Easter music, and reviewing my next door neighbour’s new book, and, of course, trying to race through IWSG posts. Add a work-work task, on ethics.
Agree, to write at all, I need silence. Much as I love the music I chose, I never walk with a playlist either. April though, and nature’s even less silent than usual, including the waterfall right by our house, and fields full of newborn lambs.
Teaching in our O.U. some of my students had small children too. Can’t remember any with five, but one of my aunts achieved her maths degree with five. , Amazing, like you.
Thank you, Esther. Bravo to your aunt obtaining her math degree! It is difficult. But it can be done.
You are amazing in all you have going on as well. Stay strong. Happy IWSG day!
Oh cool. There was a big bookfest in the Lehigh Valley last weekend.
The writing group I belong to meets monthly at Sleepy Cat urban winery in Allentown, as does the book club. (There’s a Palmerton location, but I haven’t been there.)
Hello and welcome to Adventures in Writing. I’m so glad you are here.
Wow! That’s great Jamie. My writing group just meets at the library. I hope the bookfest went well. More power to you!
Silence? Really? I have too many kids for that to be a reality, but goodness, that would be ideal. Since I’m always listening to music (in my head), I don’t usually find an external stimulus too off-putting. But I said usually.
I love free writing conferences! But I don’t love freezing in PA. 😉
Yes, but spring has finally come to PA, Crystal.
And trust me, I completely understand the “too many kids” to be able to have silence when writing. Perhaps that is why I need quiet to write. I never had it when all my five kids were home. Driving me nuts. Stay strong, dear friend!
Your workshop sounds cool. I need to write in silence too.
I was telling Crystal above that I only achieved quiet once my last child moved out. So maybe five years now.
Thank you for your kind words, Natalie. It’s always a pleasure seeing you here at Adventures in Writing. Happy IWSG day!
That is so cool that you offered a workshop–and it sounds like more is in the works. I have never written memoir, but it seems like thinking of your story like a novel (with a protagonist, etc.) is something that’s important, but people don’t think about.
I also love being outside–and the sound of the rain–for helping me recharge and think of ideas.
Thank you, Jenni. Yes, narrative memoir is told like a story, with fiction elements. It is just a true story.
Oh, I love taking walks to clear my head or consider problems in my story or essay. Nature always helps me. Happy IWSG day!
I can’t write with music on either. Having read several IWSG blogs today, I realise that we are in the majority.
Hello and welcome to Adventures in Writing, Rosemary. I’m so glad you are here.
It’s nice to know I’m not alone in my need for silence to write and create. Have a beautiful weekend!