The Silence Of The Pandemic – The Climb #599

Tuesday 13^th October 2020

I’ve heard a lot of people talk about how the pandemic has impacted their creativity.

For some the stress and confinement has caused them to be unable to write. For others it’s the ability to read. I’ve been fortunate that I’ve suffered from neither of those (although finding the focus for reading was a bit of a struggle at the height of the pandemic), however I did notice one big change today.

I don’t seem to be able to enjoy music.

Whenever I’m planning, writing or editing, I always have music on. It has to be instrumental, as words just see me starting to transcribe lyrics. I normally favour movie or game soundtracks, and I have set go-to albums depending on the mood of what I’m working on.

Some scenes that I’m really excited about even have their own track. I could totally see myself creating fake soundtrack albums for my books collecting all the different pieces I’ve associated with key scenes.

Usually listening to a piece of music takes me back to that scene, let’s me imagine just how goddamn awesome it is, and gets me fired up to dive in and do whatever piece of work is needed. Yet, I feel musically depressed.

Those pieces of music no longer stir those emotions in me. I’m numb to them.

I have worn tracks out in the past, finding new albums to replace them. But I realised today, that music no longer fires me up the way it once did.

I hope this is a temporary thing, as it’s something core to my whole writing process. It certainly won’t stop me writing, but it just won’t be as much fun.

It’s been a stressful year for everyone and I just hope this is some temporary side effect of it all. I want my music back.