songs

[Hëradïn]

Do songs inspire you? you know the kind with the interments and people singing sometimes... Well anyway, I listen to a LOT of symphonic metal and the things they sing sometimes will inspire me to put something in one of my stories like, for example in the song "sisters of the light" by xandria. I was at a point in one of my stories where a city was just sacked and the smallfolk were fleeing, one of them happened to be a POVC and could use low level magic and I was trying to decide how to get him to the forges on the other side of the forest help create something that would help defend against the invasion, (that little bit came from "sampo" by amberian dawn) anyway so the idea came to me to have these sisters (who the POVC had already met) lead him through the forest.

back to my original question now, do any of your stories have elements inspired by songs?

 

[Xanados]

I listen to bands such as Blind Guardian, Rhapsody of Fire, Battelore, Demons and Wizards and Dragonland. A lot of fantasy power metal. Yes, they do inspire me.

 

[Hëradïn]

do you have any examples?

 

[Leuco]

Great question! I'd probably never start writing if it wasn't for this one single song from one of my favorite bands. I heard the screeching, grinding guitars and immediately felt a climatic battle of swords buried beneath the distortion. Maybe you can hear it too. To be honest, I'm not even sure what the song's about, and it probably has nothing to with anything in the plot, but the whirling guitars inspired me to illustrate some pictures that eventually became a novel many years later. Maybe not the greatest of songs, but certainly an inspiration for me to start building my own fantasy world.

For better representation of the band I'd recommend Time Baby 2 or One More. If you like Sonic Youth or My Bloody Valentine, they're worth checking out.

 

[Kate]

I've been thinking a lot about music and writing recently. While I can't write with music on, I like to look for inspiration in songs or albums and I've enjoyed writing a few different things "based" on a particular album or playlist.

Except my current WIP is absolutely music-less. I can't think of any music at all that would suit it. I suppose it would be urban-fantasy, and usually metal of some kind springs to mind when I think of that genre. But not this time....

So, I guess in answer to the original question... No. And I'm not happy about that.

 

[CicadaGrrl]

I almost always listen to music when I write. Playlists. But a little different. The Decemberists. Nikki Menaj. Talking Heads. Dar Williams.

I'm all for music in books. The series I'm working on right now (first published! Weaver's Web!) involves a sidhe so of course there is music, and modern rather than all Elf Under The Hill. My other fusion/urbans are riddled with music references, just because me and my characters both like music. My high fantasies I have to make up the words to the songs, but there is usually something in there.

 

[Lord Darkstorm]

There are quite a few songs that have stories (very short ones) in them. Kansas had quite a few: Lonely Wind, Hopelessly Human, Lamplight Symphony, and a couple dozen others. Yes is another band that did quite a few as well. Rush, after they picked up Neil Peart their music changed to include everything from fantasy to scifi based songs. Red Barchetta that always brought out thoughts of a restrictive future where dreams were all that remained.

A good number of bands in the 70's and 80's put stories into their music, well, ones that weren't rooted in common everyday things.

 

[Hëradïn]

that wasn't the point of this thread. I'm asking if there are any songs that have inspired bits and pieces of your stories.

 

[sashamerideth]

Johnathan Coulton, The Future Soon has inspired parts of my science fiction precursor to my fantasy story.

 

[Lord Darkstorm]

My stories are a creation of things that I've seen, heard, read, felt, imagined, or more simply put, my experiences. Have I written a story about someone who sings to the wind? No, but I have an image of it in my mind, and the possibility in the range of things I might one day find fits into a story.

Obviously you only want a single specific thing...sorry I missed it.