In my previous two posts, I asked some of my author friends where and when they most like to write. This week I asked them about preferred background noise. Personally, I alternate between complete silence and the kind of soft music they play at fancy spas. I can’t have anything with lyrics or I’ll get distracted. Here’s how the others get the most work done:

Do you listen to music when you write?

• Karen McQuestion, whose newest book is a paranormal young adult novel called Edgewood:“Complete silence. I self-distract very easily, so tuning out the world is essential in order for me to immerse myself in my fictional world.”

• Jezra Kaye, author of The Tattooed Heart: “My preferred noise level is zero, or maybe a little soft jazz in the background.”

• Raymond Bean, author of the School Is a Nightmare and Sweet Farts series: “It depends on what I’m writing. I’m a bit of a mixed bag on this one. I’ll put on a game or music (no lyrics) from time to time, but silence works best for me.”

• Ellen Greenfield, author of Come From Nowhere: “Silence. Birdsong.”

I love how different we all are, don’t you? Our reasons for preferring different noise levels might have to do with the type of book we’re writing, or why we’re writing it, or our energy levels at any given time. It also may be none of the above, just as there’s no real explanation for why I like chocolate ice cream and you like vanilla. It just goes to show that there’s no “right” answer to any of this. Writing is an art, not a science. So if you want to be an author, my advice is this: when it comes to churning out an entire book, the only correct way to do it is to just sit down and write.

-Maria

This blog post originally appeared on CreateSpace.com. Reprinted with permission. © 2013 CreateSpace, a DBA of On-Demand Publishing, LLC. All rights reserved.