Using Music as a Writing Prompt
A confession: I don’t really have a creative bone in my body. While most writers are capable of hammering out 800 pages based on a “What If?”, I’m sitting here plagiarizing music in novel form. At least, that’s how it feels.
Music is my muse. Every song is a window into a moment of someone’s life, with no context or explanation. There’s just this moment, an emotion all on its own to make of what you will. And boy, do I make a lot out of it!
A song will capture me, and I have to fill in the blanks. What is happening in this moment, and how did this person reach it? Who else is there? Where will they go on from here?
For me, it began with a pretty melodramatic song, by a band known for being pretty melodramatic:
Let me emphasize the word began — look, I was a moody teenager. (And I still really love Evanescence, so I’m not half as sorry about it as I’m pretending to be.)
Anyway.
I heard this song, and I was immediately concerned. Holding my last breath? What in the world happened?
I listened to it again, looking for answers. But this is all that there is: this moment of a girl about to die, holding her last breath to stay in her lover’s arms just a moment longer. The picture was painted vividly in my mind, but I knew nothing about them.
So I began to write. Who is this girl? Who is she talking to? How did they meet, and what put them in the position they’re in now? What happens next?
Slowly, a character formed in my mind, asking a lot of the same questions (with a bit of indignation). One question led to the next and, before I knew it, I had a novel on my hands. The girl in my novel became a person of her own, that probably would have scoffed at Amy Lee’s melodrama, but this is the seed from which the novel grew and I can never look down on it for that.
Checking my Last.fm charts will reveal songs with hundreds of listens, all of them seeds for other stories. They catch me with the story they have to tell, and won’t let go until I tell it. Every time I sit down to write, I diligently put on the music. Together, we follow the notes of the story they have to tell.
Sometimes other songs chime in that they agree with what this other person is saying, and a playlist will be created. The playlist expands until I have a full soundtrack for my story, one that I’ll never share lest anyone finds out where I get my ideas. Sometimes the story outgrows the song it began with, and that song is set aside so that we may begin another journey.
When I’m finished, the story always becomes my own and I feel a little less like a thief. I suppose that drawing stories from music is just another game of, “What If?”
The drawback to using music as a muse is — if I’m having a music slump, I’m having a writing slump. If there’s not a song I love enough to loop for hours, annoying everyone within a mile of me, I can’t find it in me to put words on a page. I keep a playlist of songs to kickstart my creativity in emergencies, but sometimes, I just need something new.
Whether you use music for writing prompts, or simply to set the tone for the scene of the day, no writer should be without music to listen to.
This little pub is my place to share music that’s inspired me — a collection of songs to create to. Use them to set the mood. Use them as writing prompts. Or just play them on your way to work. I hope you find they inspire you as well!
Along the way, I’d love to hear what inspires you. What do you listen to when you create? Has any song in particular prompted you to create something in the past?
If you’ve never tried it, go back to one of your favorite songs. A song that you had on repeat until your friends and family begged you to stop. It doesn’t matter if it’s Beethoven or Rhianna — ask yourself, who is this song about? What moment of their life is this moment capturing? How did they get there? Where do they go from here?
Happy writing!
