Nathan Bransford - The Forums

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?

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.

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!!!

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

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.

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.

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 ;)

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.

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).

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.