Savage beasts

Writers seem to fall into two camps - some can't work without music, others can't work with. I've always fallen into the former category - there are certain passages of music (Kind of Blue, Chopin Nocturnes), that I've listened to so much while working they have a Pavlovian effect now. Personally I don't do well with white sound.

It's good to experiment, find out what works for you. Some writer friends find anything with lyrics problematic and invasive, while they are fine with classical, jazz or dance. Learning to type was one of the best things I've ever done - and the fearsome Mrs Leach who taught us at Clifton secretarial college,(and passed round the nail scissors on the first morning to cut our nails to the quick), made us hammer away on the old manual type writers to a succession of classical LPs, to get a good rhythm going. She typed John Le Carre's manuscripts using this method and claimed to have whizzed them off without a single typo at fearsome speed.

Music is something of a necessity at the moment - my writing space in the corner of the basement is open to the noise of the kitchen above. So when I was editing the first book last summer it was tricky - three kids, dog, oak floor, you get the picture. I downloaded a soundtrack for the book and loaded up my MP3 player. It worked brilliantly, and if you like to write to music I really recommend it. As I listened to Billie Holiday, Miles Davis, Philip Glass and others, the kinks in the text seemed to smooth out. Score your manuscript - get cinematic, visualise and hear your scenes. If what was 'Love & Loss' (and now has a new title), makes it to the silver screen there is a ready made soundtrack. Dream on!