Sunday, December 15, 2013

Soundtracks of Our Books

When you pick up a book and have a look at it, you as a reader, might not realise that the author had music in their heads at certain scenes - much like a movie does when things happen.

However, I have found that music often sets the scene with my writing.  I've had the dreaded Writer's Block for a while now... right up until 'If I Had A Tail' by Queens of the Stoneage came out on the radio.  The moment it hit the airwaves, my block moved out of the way and the third Fry Nelson book started to write itself in my head at lightning speed!  I could barely keep up with it!

I was amazed at what this song did for me!

The problem with it was that it wasn't long enough.

In any case, my block was moved and I had to wait until I heard it again on the radio - as I didn't have a copy of it and couldn't afford to buy it on iTunes - so I've been carrying around my iPod with me so I could write down what would be happening in my head when 'If I Had A Tail' came on the stereo... and when it did, I dropped everything and began writing!  What I got out in those few minutes was fantastic!  I loved it!

I've used all kinds of music to get my brain working in a book the way I want it to.  From opera to heavy metal to golden oldies swing music, I've used it... I even used a cd of rain and storm music to set the scene when I needed a huge storm in my book and it was bright and hot and sunny outside.  I could darken my house, but we weren't going to get storms for months.  So, out came the nature/sound effects cd and I wrote the storm going on inside my home.  And yes, my neighbours thought I had a few screws loose, but it worked so well!

So, what have you done to set the scene?  And which songs have you used to make that dreaded blockage move?  I betcha it was a song as interestingly weird as mine!  And just to show you, I thought to share it with you here... it's become a bit of a favourite of mine too.  Until my next post, happy reading.

Queens of the Stoneage 

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