I'm really weird. I watch medical documentaries on Youtube while I write or draw. Preferably really sad ones about chronic deformities. I like to cry a little while I create.
Yeah, anything with lyrics distracts me when writing, but metal (especially power metal) is the best while drawing. Gotta have that higher BPM to draw faster.
My biggest writing quirk probably is that if I get stuck I'll get up and pace back and forth until I know what to write next. Something about walking in circles helps me think, I suppose.
I say all the dialog as I'm typing it in the characters tones/voices in the expressions and tones I'm trying to portray the line as.
I didn't really realize I did this... I mean... I know I did it but didn't??? I duno... until I had to share a work space with someone.
It really really really really hard to write now cause I try very hard not to do this when they are here.
I make faces and show the emotions, to the point of crying sometimes.
Hubby has had to ask many a time when I had a few tears show up if I was ok and did someone do something and I'm like "My character is having a bad day and I'm writing about it!"
I've mentioned it before, but I'll very bluntly mention it bc it'll sound more absurd and possibly funny. I role play as my characters and force myself to cry sometimes for realism in dialogue. It sounds crazy, but hey, it works for me xD
Uhh, what else do I do. I listen to a variety of music, including metal, lo-fi hiphop, dreampop, indie rock, chillstep, orchestral, and video game music, film and TV scores.. but mostly it's something sad so there's that. I tend to love working in colder temperatures, I'm a big boy living in California so I'm practically warm or burning up like 80% of the year. I tend to go all in on one project at a time until I either give up or just lose interest and find something new to work on. I.. don't get a lot done lol
Except... I also like writing music for the stuff I write, like depressing music for a zombie novel I gave up on2 or experimental anime OST styled music for a comic series I wanna work on1. I'm a musician first and writer second, so music's much easier for me to get done lol Sometimes I go back and listen to these while writing to get in a mood with it.
tl:dr there's lots of metalheads here and death metal turns into asmr if you listen to it long enough
Well, if you don't normally listen to it, I can see how you'd get that opinion.. I mean, there's also a lot of metalheads here.. namely in the What Are You Listening To Right Now? thread. I'm one of those guys! I used to go to sleep listening to music like that tbh but anyways! Yeah, at some point the music's exactly like what you expect it to be, there's no longer a huge shock value and you just have the composition, the emotion, the recording quality, and the lyrics if any.
There was a video I saw a while ago where a Youtuber talked about how much he hated black metal, but his fans stood up for the genre and he made a follow up video about the responses, he found that at some point, they get so numb to the music that it almost becomes something like ASMR or lo-fi music.. which plays into how some people can find it relaxing.
I listen to Death and Thrash primarily while drawing. The musical aggression helps me to shut off the analytical side of my brain and opens up the avenue to let my creative side run free. Less thinking = better drawing.
While writing, I'll listen to just about anything Metal. Metal just makes everything better for me.
Besides that, I've not been writing all that long, so I don't think I've developed any weird quirks yet, at least that I'm aware of.
For music with lyrics, I don't find them distracting if:
- I understand the language well enough and know the text;
Or
- I don't understand a thing.
My issue is only with new texts or languages I know just a little. It makes my brain work in parallel, using most attention to try to pick up new words.
The problem is that after some time listening to a new language, even without studying, it goes to the category 'language I know just a little' and become distracting. But it's rare that it would go all the way to the category "language I understand well enough", so gradually, more and more languages are distracting...
I find it easier to write when I'm doing it in a notebook or on paper
I have a very hard time writing a scene or dialog when I'm typing on the computer.
I don't know why, it's just the flow of ideas keeps going when writing with pen and paper, but is constantly pausing, stopping or coming out of order / place when I'm working on the computer.
Phasing out writing on paper was not an easy thing for me to do, I still have these same problems even though I can't write on paper anymore. (arthritis)
It varies for me, oddly enough. Sometimes music helps, other times it's just getting out and going to Starbucks. And then there are times I write while I'm tired... It's weird how I don't have one specific quirk. 
I tend to write on the third floor of my university's library! It's silent and super cold. It's all where the majority of the books are in the library, so I usually scout around to find a book with lots of pictures for inspiration.
I'm writing an entire novel (not the one I'm currently posting on Tapas) on my phone. The small screen forces me to write in an abbreviated style that works for this new story. When I tried writing it on my larger, laptop screen, the style morphed into something that wasn't working.
Let's help you acquire the taste. 
You could start off with some vintage metal - Sabbath, Priest, Saxon or dive into the 90s bestsellers - Metallica, Megadeth, Testament and then there's the current crop of headbangers - Slipknot, Korn, Lamb of God, Rammstein.
And there's some good blended metal, especially from Mongolia - The HU Band
and Nine Treasures -
If all that's a little too much, you can recover with some of this folksy groove from Omnia
CHEERS!
I love this! I had no idea that Mongolian metal was a thing, but it's so good! I'm listening to your recommendations now. I think you've converted me. Maybe I was just exposed to the kind of metal I didn't like until now?
I love Mongolian metal 
@Niharika yep if you're still somewhat interested in metal but are not enthusiastic about the most popular/readily available stuff, I advice looking into metal from non-Western countries.
I often say that there is metal for everyone, because it's such a diverse genre. Sometimes, you have to search a lot to find the subgenre for you.
Same for geographical location.
For people who like folk elements, there is so much available everywhere, only it requires a lot of digging.
There's an ungodly amount of subgenres in metal lol
It repeats halfway through but that's still a huge list of genres!
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But uhhh, I'd say we kinda derailed the topic after @Niharika 's comment. I say someone starts a new topic about getting into metal and I vote @dragonsparking makes it since he's always updating his thread with all these bands and scenes I've never heard of in my 12 years of listening to it
I'm flattered! XD
I'm interested. I'd have to make playlists. Lots of playlists. Metal 101 has a nice ring to it. It'll take me a bit to get them together.
A few months ago I did make this thread.
