I have a short attention span and I'm easily distracted. Therefore, I have to play a lot of tricks on myself to settle down and write. For instance, I'm one of those people who always needs to have the television on, even if I'm not watching it. It's a bad habit I developed as a child. Hearing the noise in the background keeps me from feeling like I'm alone in the room.

So most times, when I sit down to write, I initially have the television on. When I really start to focus and get into the zone, I can then mute the sound or turn the tv off altogether. This is what brings me to mood music. Some people listen to music when they write to help get them into the right mind-frame.

I've rarely listened to music when I write, primarily because it would have to be bland enough for me to ignore... and if I'm just going to ignore it, why bother? Well, there must be a reason because Amazon.com has an entire section devoted to music to write to.

When I was on deadline once, I burned a CD of inspirational songs to get me motivated to write. You know, You-Can-Do-It music. That actually helped get me started. My favorite you-can-do-it song is Make it Happen by Mariah Carey.

I suppose it might be helpful to find music that suits a particular scene I'm about to write to help set the atmosphere. I honestly can't see myself playing "chicka-bow-wow" music before I write a love scene. That seems just a bit too cheesy. But, who knows, maybe it actually works.