 Short Stories: August 19, 2015 Issue [#7168] |
  Short Stories
This week: Tones of Inspiration Edited by: Jay's debut novel is out now!  
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Tones of Inspiration
Music, from a writer's perspective. What music, lyrics or instrumental arrangements included, inspires your short fiction?
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So, inspired a bit by kiyasama's "Musicology Anthology" , I got to thinking about different kinds of ideas for ways to incorporate music into projects writers find inspiring...
I know a number of people who have to work with soundtracks, orchestral compositions, piano arrangements, and other lyric-less options while writing-- because the lyrics are too distracting, or, in at least one case, because the words get surreptitiously woven into the manuscript. 
For others, lyrics can bring ideas to mind that we might not otherwise have had. In many ways, songwriting itself can be an exercise in storytelling. Recently a member of one of my writing groups set himself the challenge of creating a folk song to tell one of the stories within the story he was already working on, which was both harder than expected but incredibly rewarding-- definitely a musical exercise worth the effort if you're looking for something new to try!
When you're reading something new, do you ever listen to music while you're reading, or does that distract you? (For me, it's more or less essential to have some kind of sound in the background...) If you do listen to music while reading, do you find it adds anything more to the experience? I often use it for memory cues later on when I may want to revisit a story-idea or feeling which came from the original material.
Sometimes, for me, a single song gives me a strong mental image of a scene I want to explore or expand upon-- how about you?
I'm still gathering some idea for a submission to Kiya's awesome contest-- I hope you'll join in, too.
Until next time,
Take care and Write on!
~j |
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Feedback from last month's "Random Prompts and Generators" -- I seem to be on an inspiration kick...!
blunderbuss writes:
Many thanks for the newsletter, Jay. I am often stimulated by images and will now try the other random sites to provide ideas - I saved them to file!
Yay! Those will be something to reference back to later, for sure. 
nala5065 writes:
Thank you for posting these generators. I have been trying to rename my family members for my dog story the only name I'm leaving as it really is, is my own, but I was having problems with renaming my family members. I want their names to be similar to their real names, but like rhyming or something. Sound the same but not be the same and that is hard with the names I have to work with.
Glad to help! Good luck with your story!
Smee  writes:
I find https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/ to be a great source for random inspiration. Unlike the common parts of Reddit this area is well controlled and there are some seriously talented writers too.
Normally I'm very leery of steering anyone to Reddit because of their rather wild-west nature, but in this instance that's a very tightly-moderated community. 
brom21 writes:
I totally understand what you’re saying. I sometimes use mystical sounding titles to get my mind brainstorming a plot. Off the top of my head I could come up with a name like “The Spirit’s Abode” or “The Souls of the Void.” Stuff like that is my cup of tea. Visual prompts I rarely use. It would have to be something interesting like a raincloud or a golden chalice. Thanks so much for the relatable article!
I like that method-- makes me think of the way Ray Bradbury said he came up with things.
Elfin Dragon-finally published writes:
Thank you so much for picking my short story 'The Traveling Pocket Watch'. It definitely was a different prompt for me, coming out of the Writer's Cramp Contest. Usually when I do that contest I stay within the parameters. But I ended up needing some research and by the time I got to the end of the second generation I'd already reached almost the 1,000 word limit. But I was happy I got a bit out of my comfort zone with the POV for the prompt. It was a fun one to do.
Always great to get the story behind the story, as it were! Awesome.
inky14dinky writes:
I often get prompts from watching t.v. it sounds strange but it works. I hear a remark in the show and boom I start writing.
That sounds like a plan to me!
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