If writing is a life buoy, music is the air that fills it.

I have often compared the importance of writing to that of a life buoy. It is incredible to think how many times I have found refuge in my notebook, how many Word pages I have filled with words that needed to come out. My first year at university (and away from home) gave birth to a 50 page long journal that I still read from time to time, to remind me of certain things. It is written in French and is called “Points de Suspension” – “dot-dot-dot”.  I found it comical at the time. Writing is a life belt, certainly. But today I have come to realise that music is the air that fills it., for without it, there would be nothing to keep us floating on the surface.

Photo by Tom Page (Creative Commons). Adapted by WritersCaravan.

Music is an inherent part of who I am. Ever since the age of 7, I have been a pianist. I have an entire bookcase filled with music sheets at home, some are even hiding in my piano stool. I listen to Chopin, Liszt, Albéniz on the tube and drum along on my knees. I walk the streets of London to the sound of Yann Tiersen’s soundtrack of Amelie From Montmartre and I am transported to Paris. It doesn’t take much, really –  a single note sometimes. It is the same with writing. Often, one sentence suffices to steal us away from our couch and carry us somewhere far, somewhere we might have never seen and yet, somewhere we feel at home.

I always write to the sound of music. Always. I have tried to work in silence, but my effort has never lasted longer than a paragraph. You will have noticed I always include some music at the top of my posts, too – this is who I am.

Do you also write to the sound of music? What is your favourite genre? 

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