Have you ever been inspired by a song?

The writing process, writing advice, and updates on your work in progress
User avatar
abc
Posts: 168
Joined: December 7th, 2009, 10:15 pm
Contact:

Have you ever been inspired by a song?

Post by abc » January 28th, 2010, 8:24 pm

Have you written a poem/short story/novel/screenplay after being inspired by a song? I know that Sean Penn's The Indian Runner was inspired by a Bruce Springsteen song but that is the only one I can come up with.

Sometimes I challenge myself with writing prompts taken from lyrics (often Sufjan Stevens), but I've never done more than that.

If you have, what song was it?

tameson
Posts: 66
Joined: January 19th, 2010, 7:34 pm
Contact:

Re: Have you ever been inspired by a song?

Post by tameson » January 28th, 2010, 9:57 pm

I have two future novel ideas that were initially inspired by songs, but both are still at the notes stage. I was listening to a song recently though and it was like, omigosh- that is so my character! So, that might help with the rewrites, but not really inspiration on that.

User avatar
JustineDell
Posts: 293
Joined: January 15th, 2010, 11:38 am
Location: Indiana
Contact:

Re: Have you ever been inspired by a song?

Post by JustineDell » January 29th, 2010, 8:11 am

I haven't been inspired by a song itself for a story idea, but a song helped me decide the title for my current WIP. Titles are always difficult for me, but when I heard a song on the radio one day while I was aimlessly driving in my car I heard...the lyrics that would be my new WIP title. It was like - DUH! That's it!!!
Last edited by JustineDell on January 30th, 2010, 6:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.

http://www.justine-dell.blogspot.com/

"Three things in life that, once gone, never return; Time, Words, & Opportunity"

beacon22
Posts: 54
Joined: January 15th, 2010, 9:11 am
Contact:

Re: Have you ever been inspired by a song?

Post by beacon22 » January 29th, 2010, 8:13 am

I have a whole list of songs that I listened to over and over when I was writing my book. Most of them were depressing, but I needed to be in a sad mood to write a lot of my scenes! I had a playlist called "Sad Songs to Write to" on my ITunes and my boyfriend found it thinking I was crazy!

Here's the post I did about songs inspiring my writing (with a list of songs):
http://freckle-head.blogspot.com/2009/1 ... ation.html
Come on over to my blog and lurk a little!

http://www.freckle-head.blogspot.com

User avatar
Scott
Posts: 116
Joined: December 7th, 2009, 3:14 pm
Contact:

Re: Have you ever been inspired by a song?

Post by Scott » January 29th, 2010, 8:48 am

I wrote my entire novella listening almost exclusively to NIN's "Ghosts" CD. It's instrumental, and I really think it set the tone and helped me keep it consistent.

Anavaz
Posts: 18
Joined: January 19th, 2010, 1:08 pm
Contact:

Re: Have you ever been inspired by a song?

Post by Anavaz » January 29th, 2010, 11:51 am

Yes, I have. I love to listen to music when I'm driving or at work and sometimes I listen to the lyrics and suddenly a scene flashes through my mind and I get a whole new idea for another story. I think 2 of my MS were born like that, hehe.

lmjackson
Posts: 40
Joined: January 12th, 2010, 10:06 pm
Contact:

Re: Have you ever been inspired by a song?

Post by lmjackson » January 29th, 2010, 1:14 pm

Not really. I feel like I'm a minority in that aspect. I also photography and design in my freetime, and I seem to be the only "artist" who doesn't get inspired by songs. It's more like I will have an idea, or a product, and then I will look at it and be reminded of a song. But the song did not inspire the original work.

I'm sure songs influence my writing in some subconscious way. After all, we are all products of our experiences and environment, and music is a part of that. However, I cannot recall when the motif for a writing project was directly pulled from lyrics.

Maybe I'm just listening to the wrong music ;)
Junior student studying at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Loves reading, writing, photography, dance, and long walks on the beach :P

bgannon
Posts: 13
Joined: December 8th, 2009, 11:46 am
Contact:

Re: Have you ever been inspired by a song?

Post by bgannon » January 30th, 2010, 1:00 pm

Not exactly, but: As part of a web design project i did a sample promotional site for my WIP. In it I included a "soundtrack" page with a Flash music player. I assembled a playlist of royalty-free music that fit the theme and story arc of the book. I kept the "soundtrack" around afterward and have grown surprisingly attached to the songs. When I'm having a hard time picking up the tone of the work, or when I know I'm getting into an especially important passage, the music helps me focus on the good stuff.

User avatar
writeitsideways
Posts: 32
Joined: January 14th, 2010, 4:54 pm
Location: Australia
Contact:

Re: Have you ever been inspired by a song?

Post by writeitsideways » January 31st, 2010, 3:00 am

Tragically Hip's "Bobcaygeon" is one I listened to a lot when my book was still in the mental composting stages. I loved the line, "But it was in Bobcaygeon, I saw the constellations reveal themselves one star at a time." Bobcaygeon is a small town in Ontario, which is where my story is set (Ontario, not Bobcaygeon specifically).

lexcade
Posts: 107
Joined: January 2nd, 2010, 12:57 am
Location: northern ky/cincinnati
Contact:

Re: Have you ever been inspired by a song?

Post by lexcade » January 31st, 2010, 4:16 pm

yeah. i make soundtracks to write to. my last one consisted of disturbd, mudvayne, coldplay, sick puppies, godsmack, my friend's band and a couple others.

one of my WIPs will be almost all shinedown songs.

it helps me to get into the mood. but i'm fairly certain that i'm one of the few who thought the intro to mudvayne's "scarlet letters" was great running-through-the-desert music.
"Art imitates nature as well as it can, as a pupil follows his master; thus it is sort of a grandchild of God." ~~Dante

User avatar
christi
Posts: 166
Joined: January 31st, 2010, 3:54 pm
Location: Texas
Contact:

Re: Have you ever been inspired by a song?

Post by christi » January 31st, 2010, 5:47 pm

I generally listen to Blue October or Death Cab for Cutie while writing, turned down low. Anything more than that, I'm singing along and totally distracted. I prefer silence most of the time, unless I'm on a roll and can tune everything else out.
Would you sign my story for a Klondike bar?

http://christigoddard.blogspot.com/

ivanpope
Posts: 8
Joined: February 6th, 2010, 10:53 am
Contact:

Re: Have you ever been inspired by a song?

Post by ivanpope » February 6th, 2010, 2:28 pm

My current WIP had a working title of 'You forgot to answer', which is the title of a Nico song. For a book about memory, it's a good song. It didn't inspire the book, that came a long time before the song out of a variety of sources. But the song helped me to understand what I was doing. I thought the concept of 'forgetting to answer' was great. The song is actually about Nico's lover, Jim Morrison, and the last time she saw him before he died, in a limosine in New York, and he didn't answer her question ...

When I remember what to say
When I remember what to say
You will know me again
And you forget to answer

When I remember what to say
When I remember what to say
You will know me again
And you forget to answer

You seem not to be listening
You seem not to be listening
The high tide is taking everything
And you forget to answer

When I remember what to say
When I remember what to say
You will know me again
And you forget to answer

User avatar
abc
Posts: 168
Joined: December 7th, 2009, 10:15 pm
Contact:

Re: Have you ever been inspired by a song?

Post by abc » February 10th, 2010, 5:27 pm

I once wrote a *bad* screenplay called When You Were Mine--title taken from a Prince song. Almost as cool as a Nico song, no?

Songs I'd like to write something inspired by:
Neko Case's Middle Cyclone
PJ Harvey's You Said Something
Sufjan Steven's Casmir Pulaski Day.

jnduncan
Posts: 15
Joined: December 7th, 2009, 1:08 pm
Contact:

Re: Have you ever been inspired by a song?

Post by jnduncan » February 11th, 2010, 11:45 am

I definitely have. I've had a story based loosely off of Neil Young's "Unknown Legend" for several years now which I intend to write some day.

Betrisha
Posts: 5
Joined: December 7th, 2009, 6:48 pm
Location: Australia
Contact:

Re: Have you ever been inspired by a song?

Post by Betrisha » February 11th, 2010, 7:50 pm

I usually find a song that fits with whatever story I’m writing at the time. I listen to set the mood. It helps me find the right emotion for my MC. In one story, I used Michael Jackson’s Ben. I used ‘There’s A Place for us’ from West Side Story in the one I’ve just completed.

There’s a song for every story. I love that.

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Ahrefs [Bot] and 12 guests