I can’t listen to music when I write, save for on rare occasions…if there is one song that’s perfect for a scene, or some classical or instrumental music, turned low, that I’m not overly familiar with, those are things I can listen to while I write. But mostly, I can’t because music, to me, tells a story all by itself, and most of the time it’s not the story I’m trying to tell.
For instance, have you ever heard Smetana’s “The Moldau”? (Note, I said classical that I’m not overly familiar with, earlier…) It starts out all gentle and floaty, then becomes this dramatic march. When I listen to it, it becomes the story of the Queen of Winter, and her love for a man of the summer lands, and their battle, and the triumphant end. “Bolero” is a chess game, fought between a couple and the cruel man who wants to steal the wife from her husband. Roxette’s “Fading Like a Flower” is a parlor piece, set in the 17th century…a love story between a highwayman and a young lady. Maybe it’s because I started listening to the radio in earnest when I received my first radio in 1987, when the TV show Friday Night Videos was still on, showing the rock videos for the most popular songs of the week, but I always see images when I hear a song, I put together a story.
There have been, once in a great while, songs that spurred a story that I would have to write. There was a song by INXS’s Michael Hutchence, that he sung for a movie soundtrack called “Rooms for the Memory,” that inspired a short story. I remember, since this song was on a tape, going over to my Brother Word Processor, hitting play, writing for the length of the song, pausing, rewinding, hitting play again, over and over until the story was done. To be honest, I’m not sure if the song and the story that eventually came from it match each other very well, but this was how I managed to write…and finish…my first short story.
By the way, the next Drollerie Chat is on Sunday, September 27th, at 4:00 PM eastern. We’ll be giving away copies of our September releases…so come and talk to us!
Recently:
- Where to find me online
- Drollerie Blog Tour: Anna the Piper on Dangerous Writing
- Upcoming publications
- Straying from the Path
- Drollerie Press book sale
- Drollerie blog tour: Cindy Lynn Speer talks about music
- Call for Submissions: Trafficking in Magic/Magicking in Traffic
- Updates to appearances
- Because nothing goes with chocolate like excess…
- Celebrate Chocolate Day–20% off The Chocolatier’s Wife
