Do you write to music?
Generally I don't - I find that either the music is intrusive and I can't settle to write, or I just don't hear it. I attempted a playlist for my new book, Tapper Watson and the Quest for the Nemo Machine. It was a collection of sci-fi film scores and jazz and I'm not sure it inspired any ideas.
But last Saturday I hosted a writing get together for some of my critique group and friends and, led by one of our new members, we kicked off the day with a session on using music as inspiration. The chosen song was Show Yourself from Frozen 2.
I'm not a Disney fan and I'd never heard the song before but it was interesting to see how different people responded to it. I picked up on some of the imagery in the lyrics (fortress, secrets, river of memories) and started a fairytale. Other people wrote poems or connected the song to their current works in progress. One person hated the song and sat with gritted teeth unable to imagine anything.
Fortunately, lunch followed.
I'm very used to doing this the other way round. When learning a new piece of music, I'll always think about what story I'm telling.
We are in a grim castle. Young Igor is sweeping dust bunnies from the floor, dreaming of a better life. In bursts the sorceress and berates him for not working harder. He manages to calm her but she keeps coming back, all bluster and threats. Finally she pretends to relent and sings sarcastically that she'd never hurt him. She takes up her wand to obliterate him, but he grabs it, she explodes and Igor and the dust bunnies dance in triumph.
I have two competing storylines for this. The first one is a family sitting exhausted on a hot afternoon when two children burst in. One of the uncles jumps up and plays with them before they run off again. He sinks back down, but now he sings a counter-melody to the children's songs.
In the second storyline, two boatsmen are rowing slowing along a wide river, calling to each other in song, while the river takes them through a carnival parade with fireworks and back on into the peace of the night.
Maybe one of these will create a different story for you, or maybe you have different playlists to inspire your writing. Or maybe you hate the whole idea and have to write in silence. I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Tapper Watson and the Quest for the Nemo Machine by Claire Fayers will be out in September.
4 comments:
I have often written with a background of music but I don't want the music to inspire ideas. The music sets a background, a mood, an atmosphere that fits what I'm working on. So, for 'The Sterkarm Handshake,' a tale of everyday Border reiving folk, I played Border Ballads, Scots fiddle music, and 'general folk-music'. If my mind wandered, the music brought me back.
Interesting post, Claire. I have to write in silence - and the thought of writing to a song would just floor me! How can you think of words if other words keep intruding? Your classical pieces, however, would be great for inspiration, but I still think I'd rather listen to them first, weave the story in my head and then turn the music off when I wanted to write. But definitely not songs!
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