Behind so many novels and poems there is inspiration. That inspiration can be anything from a random thought, cloud in the sky, or music. Classical evokes imagery and emotion as the notes ebb and flow from the instrument. They help to build the crescendo of battles as they leap from the worded page to your receptive mind. The notes evoke love and drama and swirl merrily about like leaves on the wind. There is a story hidden within those notes and instrument.
Modern styles of music do the same. With the sung words and the pounding beats, more stories spring forth. Several ideas spring to mind while listening to these songs. Country, rock, pop, metal, thrash, techno, they all bring about ideas to the author’s mind.
Some bring the right emotional response for a stuck scene. Others help build the drama of the overlying plot. Most are just there to help write, offering tantalizing tidbits when the words come slowly.
One such song has inspired how the characters react to their current situation in my newest work in progress. Diamond Eyes (Bully Boom) has several phrases that in so perfectly to the narrator, her mate and a few others in their group of new therians:
Out on the frontlines,
Don’t worry I’ll be fine,
It only just the beginning
There is more but these few lines fit in so perfectly to the tone. There is tension with how things are going down but Karina, the narrator has to keep the calm and reassure these people s they begin to learn about what they are. For her, this is nothing new but the amount of students is definitely not what she is accustomed to directing. From beginning to end, Diamond Eyes describes what she has to deal with and what is going through her mind. Her mate has similar thoughts, as does Nick, their adopted son. Nothing in her life has prepared her for what she has to do.
Another song, called the Beast talks about being the evil inside a werewolf as they change from human to beast. This is the classical sense of what a werewolf is, but it still plays into the whole therian thinking. Some will misunderstand and do exactly what they think a were-creature should; which is bringing about terror and kill mindlessly. As the song says, they will dine in hell tonight.
In another, the songs Beth and Mamma I’m coming home bring about the scenes in Society of Night and Lies. The first death scene, when Sabrina’s husband is shot, the song Beth comes strongly into mind. She hears him calling for her but she just cannot be there for him. It is a very harsh emotional response, so sad and heart wrenching, even I couldn’t hold back the few tears.
Mamma I’m Coming Home comes at the end when Sabrina is leaving with the body of her best friend, her cousin, Jason, and her best friend’s husband to leave that dark part of her past behind forever. She is going home to a place where those old memories can’t threaten her any more. Still, the look in the eyes of the man who saved her from the streets and an uncertain life of poverty is where the song fits best. He didn’t want things to end like the way they did.
For those more fun scenes where joy can’t help but to be felt, a whole plethora of songs spring to mind. Such as Stray Cat Strut, or Look What the Cat Dragged In. Love scenes I only hear More Than Words. That song alone says it all and offers the feeling of a gentle, sweet, encounter between two lovers Every Rose Has Its Thorn and November Rain invoke the bittersweet endings that inevitably come.
Those are all rock and pop songs. I don’t listen to country as much, but those few odd ones sneak in and make their presence known. A little known song call A Letter to You comes when Nightwing is thinking about his beloved ShadowWing in Way of the Comet. Also appears when Larana thinks about the younger of the three males in her entourage. He’s young and handsome and someone she can relate to even when something very new happens to her. It can’t be helped and it is only be her wishes that he goes to her to help take care of the situation. There will be consequences, of course, but at this point, they don’t matter. They will soon enough then another rock song comes into play.
Music is a great background when writing. It helps to shut out the world around you while you concentrate on the plot and what is doing what to who and why they are doing it. Whether there are children or lots of adults, phones ringing off the hook, or work calling you back to do something, music allows you to escape and find yourself someplace else until you are ready to return to the land of the living.
It is definitely more than just noise that I like. It is inspiration!
Candace Gauger 