Few things take more concentration than creating a work of fiction.

You need to keep the plot consistent, keep the characters in-character, make the descriptions compelling yet concise, write convincing and entertaining dialogue, and so much more...

All while life insists on happening in the background, dragging your mind away from the words on your screen.

So how do you block out all that noise, and keep your mind on your story?

Personally, I've found instrumental compilations to be absolutely invaluable. They help me stay focused for an hour or more, while making the process of writing more enjoyable and keeping the world's ambient noise at bay.

If you need help to concentrate on your work and to block out surrounding noise, here are some of my favorite one to two-hour instrumental compilations to help you keep your mind on your writing:

1 Hour of Dark Winter Music & Gothic Music
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This hour-long compilation is one of my personal favorites; it's beautiful and atmospheric, the kind of thing you can just sink into for an hour and feel the tension draining out of you.

1 Hour of Elf Music
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1 Hour of Fairy Music and Fantasy Game Music

These two collections of beautiful melodies are varied enough to be interesting, yet unobtrusive enough not to demand your attention.

Best Relaxing Piano Studio Ghibli Complete Collection 2016

As the name implies, this is a sweet and relaxing collection that will create a peaceful atmosphere for your work.

World's Most Breathtaking Piano Pieces | Contemporary Music Mix | Vol. 2

Beautiful and varied, this collection definitely earns its name.

​2 Hours Epic Positive Music (Epic Fantasy Uplifting Orchestral Vocal)

This is a good one if you want some songs with a bit more energy to them. It contains a couple songs that have lyrics in English, but it's easy enough to skip over them if songs with words hurt your concentration.

World's Most Emotional Music | THE BEST OF MIX

Some of these are dramatic, some peaceful, all beautiful. As with the one above it, there are a few that have lyrics, but those are easily skipped.

I hope you found this collection helpful. If you have any instrumental compilations you'd like to share in order to help your fellow authors concentrate on their work, please feel free to share the links in the comments!

I FINALLY FRIKKIN' FIGURED IT OUT. *Takes a deep breath, and disengages capslock.*

There was something about me that bothered me for years. Something I had tried to surmount, with only inadequate fragments of success - until this week.

That something was my infuriating inability to record a good-sounding song.

This was especially frustrating when it came to songs like the topic of today's blog post. Decretum is a beautiful instrumental by Yuki Kajiura, for the amazing and heart-wrenching anime Puella Magi Madoka Magica.

I wanted to give words to Sayaka's poignant journey, so I sat down one day to write down lyrics that captured her desires, hopes and mistakes.

But the first several times I went to record my beautiful lyrics, darned if I could get my voice to cooperate. Notes that had sounded good as they vibrated through my jaw came out flat, dull and grainy when I played them on the computer.

It happened every single time I tried to record a song. And it bothered me for ages.

Why?! Why did my voice sound right when I sang, but not when I recorded it?

Then, one day, the penny finally dropped. I'll pause for a moment to let you enjoy the results (that's why you're here, right?) before elaborating.
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So, what was this fallen penny of which I speak? There were a few of them, mostly in the form of questions I hadn't thought to ask myself before. Questions like...

​What if I just couldn't sing while listening to music?

What if my reflex not to talk over things and people was causing me to instinctively mute myself?

What if my untrained control over my voice required more concentration than I could give it while half of my focus was on the music?

What if my computer's sound system just plain couldn't handle playing audio and recording it at the same time?

And what if I tried recording the vocals while the music WASN'T playing?

Obviously, the timing of the lyrics could become an issue, but at that point, it was worth a shot.

So I plugged in my headset, activated my sound recorder, and went for it. I sang my heart out. I focused on hitting the right notes, and expressing the emotion of the song, instead of on matching the timing of the instrumentals.

Then, with high hopes, I saved the recording and hit "play"... 

And discovered that, while my voice will probably never be as good as KiyumiArashi's, and my microphone definitely leaves something to be desired, the sound quality was better than anything I'd ever recorded before.

For the first time ever, I could record a lyrical adaptation, and sincerely enjoy the results.

Unfortunately, as predicted, the timing was a bit off... so I decided to try another tactic.

This time, instead of playing the instrumentals on the computer, I played Decretum on my iPod while I recorded the song, and cranked the volume up high enough that I wouldn't reflexively sing softly in order to be able to hear the notes.

Sure enough, it worked - I got the timing right this time, AND the computer recorded the audio properly. Needless to say, I was pretty freaking happy, and I hope you enjoy the fruits of my little revelation.

With Undertale and its numerous creative offshoots sweeping the internet, it was only a matter of time before it infiltrated my computer and captured my heart.

All of the characters are entertaining on the surface, and complex and multi-layered underneath, and Sans in particular fascinates me in a way that only two other characters ever have.

One day, a set of lyrics started popping into my head, and I thought they were a great fit for the hopes, fears and secret motives that drive the goofy but enigmatic skeleton's interactions with the protagonist.

So I pulled up Audacity, imported Sans' matter-of-factly-named theme song, added words, and inflicted the result on the internet.

The song contains spoilers for both the pacifist run and the murder run, so make sure you're safely spoiler-proofed before you proceed!
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​Here are the lyrics, minus Sans' capitalization-averse speaking style:

Come, take my hand
Take a break at my hot dog stand
Although you’re human
It’s my hope that we can be friends

I’ll use my pranks
To read your response and I’ll thank
You not to reset
If you’re the anomaly I think

You’ve seen it before
What lies beyond the Ruins’ door
But guess you never
Found whatever you are looking for

So what do you seek?
Is it home or a family?
You can have those here
And I hope I can help you see

You don’t need to
Use time travel or execute
Your foes to find peace
‘Cause the life that has been given to you

Isn’t so bad
You’ve got friends, good food and bad laughs
I think your new life
Can be better than the one we use to have

There are three things you need to know about me. OK, maybe you don't NEED to in order to keep breathing, but for today's topic, they're pretty important.

The first is that I'm a good writer. And I don't just mean in the area of writing novels. I also do email marketing, web pages, poetry, songs, and philosophical debates about the morality of fictional characters on Facebook.

Today, we're talking about songs. Which brings us to number two...

I'm not that great a singer.

OK, sometimes I am, but that's usually when a piece of recording equipment isn't lurking nearby to scare 70% of my vocal power back into my chest. Which, of course, means all my best singing moments go uncaptured, leaving me to silently fume at my own attempts to record my voice and wonder why the frell I can't sound as good on my computer as I do while sweeping dust and drywall out of a tenant's basement.

Of course, the fact that the aforementioned recording equipment is a tad subpar doesn't do me any favors. I FINALLY manage to get my voice to cooperate, only to discover that the recorded version covered in static. Like an unskilled baker finally making a perfect cake, only to have a cat pee on it.

At that point, I take a deep breath, and distract myself from the need to throw the headset into the wall.

Fortunately, that's when the third thing comes into play:

When I really want to do something, I'm not in the habit of allowing a lack of needed skills and equipment to stop me. Just because I can't get volume from my vocal cords doesn't mean I can't get it elsewhere.

So, is this me writing a blog post just to admit to you that I'm one of those singers who uses technology to make up for a lack of talent?

Yes. And no.

This is me writing a blog post to say that even though I'm only partly trained in one instrument, my singing voice isn't the strongest, and my headset sometimes tries to help by adding its own sounds to the mix, I didn't let that stop me.

I wanted to write a song for my favorite character from my favorite series, frell it, and what's more, I wanted it to have instrumentals and everything.

So I took some of the soundtrack from said series, remixed the crap out of it, sang the song six or seven times, and combined the best parts from all of those vocal samples. When I decided that I didn't like how I sang some parts, I redid them and added them in.

So what's the takeaway?

For one thing, I'm inspirational. :) I am proof that just because you aren't equipped to do something the traditional way, that doesn't mean you have to give up on doing it at all.

For another, watch this video. Seriously. I don't care if I just did the worst job of selling something that any marketing expert ever did. It's not like you're paying me anyway. :P So if you like Farscape, and especially if you like seeing an unusual take on a character, enjoy the fruits of my efforts.

A while ago, I wrote a post about songs that sound like they were written for fictional characters. Today, I thought I'd continue that theme, and invite some audience participation.

In the other post, the song I referenced was "The Tower" by Vienna Teng, which is absolutely perfect for the protagonist of "My Fugitive". You can listen to it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCTd8AgWnG4

This time, I found some songs that work bizarrely well for a trio of "Farscape" characters. Some may consider these song/character matches to contain spoilers for Season 3, so I'll put them after the 'read more' break.