Does music inspire me to write? I guess you could say it inspires me to do just about everything. Okay, almost everything. By that, I mean that music puts me in a certain mood and place, and that, often guides whatever I’m doing. If I’m trying to decide what color to paint a wall and a lively song comes on? The wall is likely going to end up a bright and cheerful yellow or burnt orange. If a slow, soulful song is on? My wall’s probably going to be a pleasant and peaceful gray or blue.
Another factor that enters in for music is, we travel. A lot. And, each time we do, we assemble our pictures into a slide show or video, set to music. Music that I often spend hours hunting for so that it reflects where we’ve been and what we’ve seen. Lively Irish dance music when we were in a pub in Dublin cheering on a football team. Slow Irish tunes as we traveled through the rolling Irish hills. Fast lively African dance music as we chased a herd of elephants in Botswana in our Range Rover. A slow African tune as we sat for hours with a pride of lions, taking a thousand pictures of them just lying around being lions.
All of that adds up to music not only determining my mood but also, reminding me of places we’ve been and things we’ve seen or done.
When I’m writing, I always have music playing. Make that blasting, if it’s a song I really like. And, like my painted walls and travels, whatever music comes on can inspire a mood, a place, a wonderful memory or a not so great experience. All of which may lead to a book, a chapter, a new plot line and even characters.
Also, because of the way I write, songs just seem to fit into whatever I’m writing at any given moment. What’s that mean?
When I write, my mind is almost always in three places: Whatever I’m working on, whatever I just finished, and whatever I’ll be doing next. If I’m in the middle of a chapter, my mind is not only on whatever scene I’m writing but also the scene ahead and the scene I just finished. That’s how I keep things tied together. Worse yet, that means if I’m starting a new book, my mind is also mulling over is the end of the previous book. Likewise, if I’m finishing a book, my mind is laying out the beginning of the next book. Weird, I know but, that’s me.
Because of that, when a song comes on, it might mesh with any of the three things running through my mind. So a particular song may trigger what that next scene I’ve been struggling with will be. Or, the smile and a memory of someone or something a song brings to mind might trigger how to describe that character, or place, whose description I wasn’t happy with. And, either of those could be in something I finished, the current scene I’m writing or, a future idea in an outline.
Let me give you a few examples.
The third book of my Horses of Tir Na Nog romance trilogy, Dreams came to life as I was listening to Dream Lover by Mariah Carey and writing a scene in book two that had my two couples visiting the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul Turkey. The combination of the song, and that scene inspired CJ’s dream visits to the merchants at the Bazaar in books two and three, and the title for book three, Dreams. Up until then, I didn’t even know there was to be a book three.
In book two, The Sisterhood, I was writing the wedding scene, while my mind struggled with what I was going to do for their reception, which came next. Mid-way through the wedding scene, I Could Use a Hero by Bering Strait came on. Instantly, I had the perfect centerpiece to design my wedding reception around.
Several Bruno Mars songs (including Just The Way You Are, Grenade and Let it Rain) helped set the mood and scenes in book one, A New Door Opens, as my MC couple got to know one another.
Following the Sun by Enigma and It’s London Calling by Kane, inspired many of my descriptions of London and Canterbury, England in book two. Sarah Brightman’s Eden, and her album Harem had me closing my eyes and picturing the many times I stood between the Blue Mosque and Saint Sophia. That, led to the description of my two couples marveling at both mosques in book two.
In my autobiography, the theme from Phantom of the Opera received honorable mention as I described waiting for my wife in the atrium bar of the hotel in Christchurch, New Zealand, and the piano player started playing her favorite song.
I can go on and on but I think you have the idea.
So, as a Time to Say Goodbye by Sarah Brightman and Andrea Bocelli, finishes and the next song, Awakening by Celtic Woman begins, I’ll close my piece on music as inspiration and let Awakening take me back to the Writers Museum in Dublin, Ireland. But, not before I write down an idea to add to my next romance story, The Beach Pool.