Words like music

[Svrtnsse]

Music is a big inspiration to me when I write - as I'm sure it is for most of us.
When I start on a scene I often associate it with a piece of music that I like and which has a feel that suits that of the scene I'm about to write. I try to find themes in the music that I can use to achieve a similar feeling in my text. If the music inspires certain imagery, I try to highlight that imagery in the scene (they usually match as I probably wouldn't use that specific song otherwise).

Sometimes it works out well, other times not so much.

Is anyone else doing this, and what are your methods for transferring the feeling of music into the feeling of your scene/story?

 

[A. E. Lowan]

I do this all the time. I write with playlists, be they pop or movie soundtracks or even musical theatre soundtracks. I'm looking for clusters of music that evoke the emotion in myself that I want to translate onto the page. If this means I play the same songs over and over, so be it. It can drive my housemates insane, but they know that get to suffer for my art along side me. lol So, yes, music is crucial to my writing. It is only on a very rare occasion that I can write in silence.

 

[Butterfly]

I see musical patterns and rhythm in writing. Slow scenes use longer, and slower words (notes), action scenes short, fast and sharp words plus the rhythm in sentences.

Also... a lot of musical pieces tend to come in three parts, a moderate, slow, and fast tempo of each, like a concerto... which is kind of like the three act structure, with a climax about 3/4 of the way through, and climb down, or denouement towards the end of the piece.

 

[Writeking]

When i listen to music, i try to visualize the scene in my head as i write.

 

[deilaitha]

I hear music in specific words sometimes. I have studied and written a lot of poetry and it really is musical speech. Certain words just have a music to them.

I write in silence a lot of the time. The words are their own music to me. Sometimes I turn on some tunes, but anything with lyrics is pretty distracting. Conversely, I absolutely NEED music to concentrate on mathematics and if I'm cleaning house, driving, exercising, and the like.

But certain pieces do inspire me to get writing. In general, though, I like it to be quiet (with a little white noise.)

 

[CupofJoe]

When I get an idea for a story I usually get an image and a soundtrack at the same time.
The image usually gives me the physical feel for what I'm trying to write while the music is the emotional feel. I try not to tie the music too directly to what I'm writing, otherwise I'd spend all my time searching for the "perfect" soundtrack.
Sometimes my choice of music can leave others perplexed as to why... but as long as it makes sense to me...
It has lead to me have an [ahem] eclectic music collection on my laptop... From Traci Lords and Tatu to Wagner and Beethoven via Woody Guthrie, Kodo Drummers and Native American Chants.

 

[Aprella]

Music is very important to me, though I am normally unable to write to music with lyrics. Unconsciously I start listening to the lyrics and there goes the writing flow. Like mentioned before, I use music to get into the right emotional feel to write. Sometimes I use songs that describe feelings that strike me as genius/beautiful/... as a starting point to describe certain feelings myself.

Music is inspirational and has given me story ideas. I listen whenever I am travelling. Sometimes I come across a song that fits perfectly by a certain scene and I will listen it a couple of times before writing that scene or I'll edit a scene with new ideas the song has given me.

 

[Svrtnsse]

I like how the lyrics evoke images and I often let that inspire me when trying to describe something. A singer will have the benefits of tone and tempo and melody to lend meaning to their words, but the words still have to carry some kind of meaning and it's interesting to try and carry that across to written sentences.

Phrases like:
"we kill the lights and put on a show"
"I'm the figurehead on a ship of fools, a beacon for the liars in the dark"
carry a lot of associations with them, they say a lot more than the words used to write them down - even without them being sung by a singer. It's fascinating trying to decipher that and make use of it the stories to try and reach similar effects. Trying to find out how I can write one thing, while at the same thing making the reader think of several other things, is something I really enjoy.

I like what deilaith says about poetry being musical speech and I think a lot could be learned from listening to how songs are written or from reading poetry (even though I almost never actually read poetry myself).

 

[Sanctified]

Do I sound like a freak if I admit listening to funk and disco while working? Haha.

IMO there's nothing like this in the world that gets a real groove going:


[Nu Disco] - Televisor - Rock The Flock [Monstercat Release] - YouTube

Cheryl Lynn - Got To Be Real - YouTube

Let's Stay Home (A Director's Cut Classic Club Mix) - Frankie Knuckles, Director's Cut & Inaya Day - YouTube


Then again I can think of few songs that tell a story as vividly as this:

One Armed Scissor (official video) - YouTube

"Yes this is the campaign, slithered entrails in the cargo bay
Neutered is the vastness, hallow vacuum, check the oxygen tanks
They hibernate, but have they kissed the ground?
Pucker up and kiss the asphalt now
Tease this amputation, splintered larynx, it has access now

...

Banked on memory, mummified circuitry,
Skin graft machinery, sputnik sickles found in the seats
Self-destruct sequence, "This station is non-operational"
Species growing, bubbles in an IV loitering

...

Dissect a trillion sighs away, will you get this letter?
Jagged pulp sliced in my veins, I write to remember

cut away, cut away
send transmission from the one-armed scissor
cut away, cut away"


And, finally, I'm a huge fan of Golden Age and underground hip hop:

Immortal Technique - Peruvian Cocaine feat Diabolic, Tonedeff, Poison Pen, Loucipher, C-Rayz Walz - YouTube

"I'm on the border of Bolivia, working for pennies
Treated like a slave, the coca fields have to be ready
The spirit of my people is starving, broken and sweaty
Dreaming about revolution ("¡Revolucion!") looking at my machete
But the workload is too heavy to rise up in arms
And if I ran away, I know they'd probably murder my mom
So I pray to Jesus Cristo when I go to the mission
Process the cocaine paste, and play my position


Ok, listen, Juan Valdez, just get me my product
Before we chop off your hands for worker's misconduct
I got the power to shoot a cop up, and not get charged
And it would be sad to see your family in front of a firing squad
So, uh, feed your kids? I need these bricks
Forty tons in total, let me test it, indeed, I... SNIFF!
Shit, this is good, pass me a tissue
And don't worry about them, I paid off the officials


It don't come as a challenge, I'm the son of some of the foulest
Elected by my people, the only one on the ballot
Born and bred to consort with feds, I laugh at fate
And assassinate my predecessor to have his place
In a third-world fascist state, lock the nation
With 90% of the wealth in 10% of the population
The Central Intelligence Agency takes weight faithfully
The finest type of China white and cocaine you'll see


Honey, I'm home! Never mind why our bank account's suddenly grown
It's funny, we're so out of this debt from this money we owe!
Would you mind if I told you that I had two governments overthrown
To keep our son enrolled in a private school, and to keep our tummies swollen?
Come on, our f*cking home was built on the foundation of bloody throats
The hungry stolen of they souls, of course this country's running coke
I took a stunted oath to hush the ones who know
The CIA conducts the flow for these young hustlers who lust for dough


I don't work in the hood, hit my connect
Plus what's really good, they supply work for the hood
These dudes f*cking crack me up, scrutinize like we inferior
Petrified when we meet in my area (calm down!)
My crew shoot until I say so, you got the loot?
Give me the "Yay-Yay!" like Ice Cube, so don't play with my yayo
We won't stop for you bastards, my crew chop it and bag it


Taking pictures and tapping phones, baiting snitches and cracking codes
Fast to cuff or blast a foe on any hustler stacking dough
who's pumpin' crack or blow, and my overtime is where your taxes go
I gain your trust, get you to hand weight to us because we paid up front
On the low with cameras taping you
Getting pop away? The prison sentence is due
Making the collar to leave with two keys out the evidence room


With my fame, truck, boat or plane, they watching you
You think you got work? They copping, too!
We control blocks, they lock countries
And own companies, we had nice cars, and sneaker money!
Now there's players out there, talking 'bout they holding
With bugs in they house like they down South with windows open
Your dough ain't long, you wrong, you take shorts and soon
Feds will be up in your mouth, like forks and spoons
So enjoy the rush, live plush off coke bread
Soon you'll be in a cell with me, like Jenny Lopez
In school, I was a bully, now life is fully a joke
I keep a flow on a boat for Peruvian Coke
Players do favors for governors and tax makers
Fat Quakers smoke crack and sex acts with bad mayors
The walls got ears, you big mouths probably scared
Not prepared to do years like Javier [prison cell shutting]

The story just told? It's an example of the path that drugs take on their way to every neighborhood in every state in this country..."

 

[Xitra_Blud]

Anytime I write my story I turn on Evenscence. I swear, my whole Evenescence playlist sounds like it could be the sound track to my novel. Nothing inspires me to write it more than they do. That and classic violin music. But, yes, I completely understand what you mean.

 

[Feo Takahari]

A while back, I entered a contest to write a story based on a song. My story based on The Birthday Massacre's "Blue" took second place. The winner was a story based on "Odd One" by The Sick Puppies, but I thought it relied way too much on shock value. (It was a story about a doctor murdering a terminal patient to help provide a better life for her child.) I kind of developed a grudge against the song, and didn't like to listen to it.

The other day, I was trying to write the female love interest of my current story, but was having difficulty characterizing her. She's a very quiet person, and she doesn't have much in the way of social skills, but she's also very creative and intuitive. And then I realized:

You live your life in your head
Some call it imagination

I listened to "Odd One" from beginning to end, and suddenly I had a handle not just on her, but on the male love interest as well*, and what he sees in her. He's something of a human chameleon, behaving in whatever way he thinks will make people like him, and this song gave him a sense of futility--a recognition that his friendships only matter if he's being himself, even though he doesn't know if he has a self to be.

In related news, I'm now listening to The Sick Puppies.

* They're in love with each other, but they're both ultimately love interests to the female lead. It's that kind of story.