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I recently downloaded an iPod app that rocks when it comes to my writing life. It has nothing to do with helping to organize my plots or character development. Nothing for keeping track of word count or character names. It’s not a fancy storyboard app or research app. It’s not a fancy app at all, really.
It plays white noise.
When I’m outlining or drafting a story I sometimes listen to music. Just so it’s not so quiet. But most of the time it ends up distracting and I have to turn it off. When I’m reading through a scene and revising I really can’t have distractions. Yet I have found the near silence of the rural area where I live almost too distracting. An entire day of that silence can be a bit much. Some background noise, the sound of a fan running or something constant like that is nice. It even helps me focus.
I had downloaded white noise and nature sounds on my laptop, which worked pretty good. Then someone mentioned the White Noise app from TMsoft. Now I can listen to various nature and white noise sounds on my iPod which also has a couple of other apps I use while writing (including a timer to keep track of my writing sessions). I’m even using White Noise to sleep at night.
There’s a running shower, a kitty cat purring, crickets and frogs (which I find annoying rather than soothing), waves, several types of rain, and more.
You can also create mixes. These are my two favorites for sleeping and writing.
I can even spend my day writing on a sailboat. Could be good to put me in the mood for a sailing romance. Do you think there’s enough room on that deck for some down and dirty action?
Here are a few more mixes.
I’ve got a ton of other apps that I love for the little things in my daily life, but I won’t bore you with the list. Just know, they all help to make life more efficient and give me more time for my writing. Speaking of…I’ve got two boys who were just about to hit the sheets.
Heading back into the writing cave.
Have a fab weekend!
Sloan
February 25th, 2011 at 5:30 PM
Makes sense. If I need to focus on something complicated (I’m a systems analyst), I need to have something instrumental playing – Cafe Montmarte by Stan Getz is a favorite. But no Coltrane. Nope. :)
February 25th, 2011 at 5:58 PM
No Coltrane, huh? I do have some instrumental I listen to. That works for the outline phase and I really like that. When writing/revising I don’t think it’s constant enough or something. But give me some waves and a fan and apparently I’m a happy writer of gay erot rom. :)
March 12th, 2011 at 1:13 PM
OMG, I am so downloading this ap onto my phone today. When I’m mulling/plotting, the right song can kick the muse into overdrive. But when I’m writing, I need zero distractions. Hubs recently discovered skype and the sound of his voice as he’s chatting with his friends yanks me right out of a scene. Love him and all, but…yeah. LOL. He’s nudged me to listen to music to drown him out, but that won’t do any good. The white noise ap just might do the trick, though.
March 12th, 2011 at 2:14 PM
You should definitely try it, Ava. There are basic white noise sounds that are just static that might work perfect to drown out the hubby’s chatter. LOL. When I’m really concentrating I can’t use any of the ones that have a lot of variation like the thunderstorm, but the fan and air conditioning and white noises work great. Love to hear how it works out for you.
Oh, I think I forgot to mention that there’s a free version, but I did pay for the full one. I think it was $1.99.
Good luck!