Hey everyone,
When you first sit down with a new idea in your head, what do you lean on to get started? For some people, it might be a mood, a memory, or even a single image. For some people, it could be something visual, like something they saw in real life, maybe a movie, or even something they heard. I am curious what others use as that first spark when they begin turning an idea into an actual story.
For me, it has always been music. I like listening to songs from different genres, and sometimes a line of lyrics or even just the way a track builds and shifts gives me a kick, a feeling I want to chase. That feeling often turns into a scene or a mood in my head, and from there I start thinking about how I can shape it into a story. Or sometimes I already have the story in my head, and a song helps me build it all out.
I was heavily inspired by Alessia Cara while working on The Girl I Undressed. Her songs "Scars to Your Beautiful" and "I'm Yours" from her album Know-It-All gave me a lot of inspiration. The lyrics in those tracks have always hit me hard and helped me set the tone for some parts of the story.
Just when I thought I had a few things for the follow-up to The Girl I Undressed figured out, I hit a bit of a wall. I decided to go back to my playlist of songs for inspiration, and that is when I finally found the song that would be my muse.
I am sorry, I do not know how to post a YouTube video directly here, so I have just linked it instead. The song is "Radio" by Henry Lau from his EP titled Journey. I find it to be a powerful track, with strong lyrics and a great music video, which helped me realise the kind of journey I want to write about. The song, the visuals in the music video, and my own interpretation feel like different versions of a similar journey, something I can look at through a slightly different lens as I work on the new path Ashley and James/Emma will take.
While the song is not entirely in English and is mostly in Korean, I still encourage you to listen to it by watching the music video and turning on the lyric translations in the closed captions. It might give you a small hint of the direction I will be taking. :)
Love,
Emma
Comments
Sparks are...
Everywhere, at least for me. I generally write by putting the reader into a situation - which is either the basis or gonna get you there I have gotten a spark of an idea from. So, no long buildup or grand history lessons for a character, just BOOM! something is going on and I'm trying to drag you into it and like the character enough to stick around. I have figured out sparks / situations / ideas for stories from Meme's, blog posts, someone posting a picture of whatever on Instagram, or even someone saying or me reading a single sentence. That can make it tough to roll that way consistently to build a full fledged story because I am not disciplined enough to map out every step of a story. I rely on the hem of my skirt in the moment and I 'feel' blah blah blah to drive the process of getting words to spring from the keyboard. Don't recommend this and that I produce anything is a miracle. Your results may vary, but if you're putting your heart into it, peeps tend to pick up on that and often times are entertained enough to read your story (hopefully).
Hugz!
Rachel M. Moore
I can’t summon my muse
I can’t even court her. She comes when she comes, and generally doesn’t stay for long. At her best, she inspires; occasionally, she demands. Once her needs are met — a story begun, or a feeling captured— she wanders off, leaving me to struggle through longer projects on my own. I’ll see her, from time to time, her slender arm casually draped over the shoulder of another author, as she whispers enticingly into their ear. She knows I see her, and she laughs at my discomfiture, because she knows I’ll come running when she calls my name again.
Music? When I am in my muse’s clutches, I hear only her voice. When she’s gone, though . . . music provides a soundtrack to the many hours when I need to finish writing a story without the blinding flash of inspiration that prompted me to begin it. Depending on the story, I’ve leaned on music associated with a pretty diverse group — Walk the Moon, Pete Seeger, Van Morrison, Don McLean, Jay Ungar, Adolphe Adam, Jeremy Young, Gilbert and Sullivan, Giacomo Puccini, George Frederick Handel, Julia Ward Howe, and even General Dan Butterfield.
— Emma
Muse
Well she has been amazingly generous already given the stories you put out so maybe she is taking a breather?
She will be back, I think you are one of her favorite people.
Andrea, my mus, often works with
an ambiguous phrase and a bath tub. An example - a blog some ago had the headline "Too Hot to Write". Of course that cried out to be twisted. Then it was left for some hours of fermentation in the tub. Another was the heroine addict.
Of course Andrea is not a muse, "only" a mus (a very sensitive subject for him) and thus never provides straight ideas, only twisted.