Many authors need quiet to get work done. I’m not one of those. I need some type of noise, but one that I can control. I can mute my laptop whenever I need to focus more. I can’t do that to other people no matter how hard I hit the remote button or how many things I throw. This has been an issue since my childhood. There’s always been a problem with people talking to me while I’m writing. It goes like this:
- I’m writing on laptop or in notebook. Focused on my thoughts.
- Someone walks up talking as if I’m just sitting there waiting for attention.
- I give a look or say ‘working’.
- They apologize and either go away or keep talking.
- Both situations result in me getting a little derailed.
This is if I’m even the target of the conversation. When my wife and dad were around the house and I was working in the dining room, they had conversations in the same room. It was like people were gravitating toward me even if I wasn’t involved. So the music acts as a deterrent since it makes it hard for people to talk around me or to me. They need to get through Weird Al, Tantric, Theory of a Deadman, Linkin Park, Queen, Seether, Shinedown, Disturbed, Black Sabbath, and whatever else has crept onto my Pandora station. The downside here is that things seem to just pop up after a week because they’re connecting to something else. So it isn’t a perfect system. Also I don’t always realize when Pandora has stopped to ask if I’m still there, which gives people an opening.
So, is there anything you do that goes against the ‘majority’ of authors?
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