I’m not feeling too great today. I’m suffering from what I classify as a ‘mild’ migraine, as in I have nausea, tiredness and a moderate head pain. I’ve medicated it, but my medication often makes me feel funny, even if it does succeed in numbing the pain. I’m not ready to do any fiction writing, so I’m doing the next best thing and that is blogging.
It’s been a while since I last covered one of the many places I get inspiration from. So, I thought I might as well use this brief break from fiction to cover another one of my big places for inspiration.
This time?
Songs.
I hear so many people talking about getting inspiration from songs, and of course, I am no different. I’ve managed to write countless stories with songs as a starting point. Every other fanfiction seems to have some quotation or another heading it – or even quoting the entirety of the song. And if not, then the title may well be a song – or lyrics from a song.
When you really think about it, it’s hardly surprising. Song writing and story writing come from very similar starting points: it’s all about thoughts and feelings. Song writers use their emotions to channel into their lyrics. Is it really that much of a surprise that these feelings can trigger emotions in other people and make them want to tell a story? Of course, it might be nothing like what the song writer was feeling when they wrote it, but that’s the beauty of it all: every single person has a different interpretation. There’s a specific saying I’ve always loved:
there’s my truth, your truth and the cold, hard truth.
And that especially applies to writing. Because no two people see things in the same way, everyone’s ‘truths’ are going to be different. Even if you asked two people to write an account of an event they were both it, the two stories would be vastly different. Of course, with any type of writing – especially fictional – there’s no such thing as being ‘wrong’. As a consequence, getting inspiration from a song and using it to derive something completely different to what the song writer intended is completely legitimate. Nobody’s feelings are wrong, because they belong to them and them only. Meanwhile, TV shows, songs, theatre shows, films, books… arguably, once they are out in the open, they belong to the public. This means that people can choose to get whatever they want from them, other stories included.
But as for getting inspiration from songs to write a story myself? I go several ways about it:
1. Listen to the song as a whole and address the way it makes me feel.
This method pays only moderate attention to what the lyrics are saying and more portrays the feelings of the song as a whole. It’s a freeing way to write because it means you can take bits of the song which are more useful and discard the rest. Overall, the story that is written as a consequence might have a similar feel to the song, but it will never be entirely the same.
2. Fast, free writing using shuffle on a music player.
Usually, I’ll assign myself a number of songs to listen and write to and write short pieces. This is reliant on what I can remember about the song as I listen to it and makes sure I’m thinking hard and fast. The stories written in this brief time can either be expanded upon (or pared down into a drabble) and can be vastly different to one another. Like programmes designed to make you write faster, this method of using songs for inspiration is all about quick writing and seeing what ideas I can derive from a song in a limited amount of time. Some may be too weak to use elsewhere, but some could spawn a whole novel if I feel like the premise is strong enough. This method probably pays the least attention to lyrics and most to the ‘feelings’ derived.
3. Listening to one song on repeat as I write.
This is another crossover of getting ideas from specific lyrics and the overall feel of a song. In this case, listening to the song over and over ‘traps’ me in a moment and a feeling in order to stretch it until the story is over. Of course, it can get a little maddening after a while, so it may be advisable to take breaks on occasion!
4. Dissecting lyrics of a song I love.
Taking a song I love and picking out the key lyrics can inspire some beautiful things. Sometimes, as I write a story, I might just have a key lyric from one song in thought – even if the story is novel length. This is mostly because it summarises the concept of the story so beautifully. It allows you to take purely what you need from a song, and get rid of the rest, including things which might contradict the path the rest of the story has to take.
When I dissect the lyrics of a song, I’m looking specifically at what is being said. It can be the message of the song overall, or it can be just from one line or two. Looking at this meaning can inspire my mind and my characters to take specific routes and then, there’s an idea to start building from. Knowing the song already will mean that there are influences from it as a whole and this can be reflected in the story.
5. Dissecting lyrics of a song I am unfamiliar with.
With this one, I’m talking specifically of a snippet. I will occasionally ask – or look – for prompts and often, they come in the form of lyrics. Like above, I will look for the hidden meanings in the lyric and such, but it won’t be tainted by knowing the rest of the song. In some respects, the quote could have come from anywhere – it just happens to be a song.
So yes, songs are an excellent source for plot bunnies and there’s so many ways to use them when looking for inspiration. I hope this might have helped you in some way!
Tracie Writes 