One thing I find is that I tend to listen to the same genre during an entire novel of writing. My first novel was just the BotW and Pokemon Soundtracks. My second novel has been Japanese Electro Swing. Something about the same style of music gets my brain chugging to write. I've basically trained it to start wanting to write when I hear it.
I use music because I need to elicit a very particular feeling for various scenes to really write particular scenes to motivate me, and I need to get said scene done before the song's effect runs out (after listening to a bunch of times). I also use my mental breakdowns. Let me tell you, it is the best form of motivation, material, and inspiration for a psychological horror story, particularly to the tune of music.
Interesting. That's quite different to what I am used to. I would never stay in a specific genre... Huh. Cool.
I mostly listen to music (the genre that I want to listen at that particular day...even those that are not in my language), and sometimes, sing along loudly to the lyrics while typing. It drowns everything around me and increases my focus.
