Sunday Review: Rainy Mood

This week’s review of a helpful writing tool is about a deceptively simple device, but one that I find tremendously helpful for concentration and relaxation. It’s Rainymood.com, a website that does one thing very well. Visit Rainymood.com, and you’ll be given a long, high-quality audio loop of a rainstorm — that’s it. It’s a very good loop, so long that I’ve listened to it many times and still can’t detect a pattern.

The makers of rainymood understand what I’ve always felt, which is that the sound of rain — particularly when you’re inside somewhere, cozy and dry — is a wonderfully satisfying sound. It always puts me in a contemplative mood, neither happy nor sad, but simply clearer in my mind, ready for work, ready to pay attention, ready to think about characters and story. Maybe it has to do with my own childhood, and how I used to love going to bed at night and hearing rain on the windows. Clearly, I’m not the only one; rainymood has had a surge in popularity since I started using it. If you enjoy ambient sounds or concentration aids, but don’t want to shell out for expensive machines or ipad apps, Rainymood fits the bill.