Who here remembers my post from May 2018, On Giant’s Shoulders: The Power of Music in Writing?
(There’s no prize if you do. Though if you happen to be near the Hudson Valley any time soon, I’d be glad to make you a special batch of cookies and sit down for a music/literature chat over tea.)
I love music, and I love Story. These two loves play nicely together and always enhance my enjoyment of writing or reading.
You see, I hear all music through a “Story filter”: whenever I listen to a song, I am searching for the story behind it. Usually, I am trying to match that song with one of the stories I already know – and, once I find a match, that song is linked with that story in my mind ever after. (Example: the song “Starlight” by Muse will always, always make me think of Doctor Who – specifically season 2.)
So, when I am writing a new story, it only makes sense that I would start listening to songs through the filter of that story; and, when I find a song that works, of course I listen to it over and over again, trying to catch new glimpses of the story through the song.
With The Ancient, I listened to a lot of Future of Forestry, Sleeping at Last, and DFONTE.
My new novel – which, as I shared in a recent post, all started with a song by the band Wedge – has led me to spend much quality time with Panic! at the Disco, Mumford & Sons, and The Almost – to name a few.
So, as I am trying to devote as much time as possible to this new first draft (almost 17,000 words and counting! Woohoo!), I thought I would take the next few weeks to share some of this musical inspiration with you. (Poetry will still sneak into the blog occasionally. Fear not.)
To kick off this informal series, I give you two contrasting songs by Panic! at the Disco – both from the album Death of a Bachelor, which I received for Christmas and is now first on my running playlist.
Writing villains can be a tad uncomfortable for me, but this new novel has a doozy of a villain; hence, he gets a doozy of a song. This is one of the best running songs off this incredible running album, but its main attraction for me is the insight it gives me into my villain’s mind – a scary place, let me assure you.
(The official music video for this song actually shows the lead singer falling into hell and transforming, gradually, into a demon. The makeup is incredible, but the whole thing is more than a little creepy, so we’ll just stick with this nice lyrics video for now.)
That same album finishes with this quite different ballad, which seems to seems to arise from the soul of my narrator (while also showing off the nigh-inhuman vocal range of Brendon Urie, the lead singer):
See the contrast?
In the first song, we have someone who does not like the cards he has been dealt, and he decides to use his discontent as an excuse to grab whatever he can – even if it makes everyone else’s life miserable.
In the second, we have someone who does not like the cards he has been dealt, but decides to turn his pain into beautiful music.
Where do you find this music?
I followed most of that. . . I am sure if I had heard the music along with you I could follow better. What I got is SUPER!!!!!
Ok. Listened to both songs. The first is a really good description of the mind of man. The second is so much like the ballads of say Sinatra—pain in motion toward healing. Yeah!!!!!