I’m sitting here after finishing up a stack of articles for my employer. Nine 250 word articles on various topics ranging from home improvement to teaching jobs. When I write these non-fiction pieces, I can’t concentrate if anything is going on outside. A gardener whacking weeds with a gas-powered tool would kill any focus I might have. How do I cope? Louder, more chaotic sound.
I pump up Trent Reznor’s dischordia as loud as my little Boston Speakers will allow. Then my neighbors start banging on the cinderblock walls and I must push the music through my Sony MDR-V500 Headphones.
That’s when the magic happens. I can crank out 2500 words in a little over an hour. That might not seem like a lot, especially when I pound out more than 5000 words in an hour when I’m writing fiction, but prose saps the energy from my normally manic fingers.
When I finished writing the articles, I didn’t stop writing altogether. Instead, I pulled up my huge archive MP3 archive and dove into the collected works of Jim Morrison and The Doors. Mojo Rising.
I just hammered the keys like raindrops on a tin roof and when I finally stopped, amid the Lizard King’s infamous live performance of Roadhouse Blues at the Whiskey. That man can wail.
Roadhouse Blues
by The Doors
Keep your eyes on the road
and your hands upon the wheel
Keep your eyes on the road
and your hands upon the wheel
Goin to the roadhouse gonna to have a real
a good time
yeah, in back of the roadhouse they got some bungalows
ahh, the back of the roadhouse they got some bungalows
Just for the people like to go down slow
Let it roll baby roll
let it roll baby roll
let it roll baby roll
let it roll
all night long
hey yeah c’mon
You gotta roll, roll, roll
You gotta thrill my soul, all right
Roll, roll, roll, roll
Thrill my soul
You gotta beep a gunk a chucha
Honk konk konk
You gotta each you puna
Each ya bop a luba
Each yall bump a kechonk
Ease sum konk
Ya, ride
Ashen lady, Ashen lady
Give up your vows, give up your vows
Save our city, save our city
Right now
Well, I woke up this morning, I got myself a beer
Well, I woke up this morning, and I got myself a beer
The future’s uncertain, and the end is always near
Let it roll, baby, roll
Let it roll, baby, roll
Let it roll, baby, roll
Let it roll, all night long
i cant write with any distractions. I can’t write with music or tv or anything. I have to have total concentration.