Inspired to Write: Getting inspiration from our playlists (and at the store)

Hi everybody, and welcome back to Too Many Books to Count! I’m so glad you stopped by. All month long, we’re talking about the various ways we writers find inspiration in the world around us. Some of it is from things you might expect, like everyday life and the things we watch on television, but others I’m sure will surprise you along the way. What I hope to do in this series is inspire you to look for inspiration in places where you might not have thought to look before, or to open your eyes to inspiration that was right in front of you, yet somehow overlooked before. Trust me, we’ve all been there.

So far in our series, we’ve talked about finding inspiration in our everyday lives and from our own adventures, and about being inspired (and not stealing from) television and movies. Today, as I love to do, we’ll be taking the logical next step:

Inspired to Write: Getting inspiration from our playlists (and at the store)

You know me, I love music. I talk about it a lot. Maybe I talk about it too much, for some of you. But for others, you’ll love to talk about the tunes you listen to all the time. It’s not just about the things you listen to while you’re writing, you know. It’s about the music you listen to all the time.

For me, I get the most inspiration out of orchestral or instrumental music. I don’t know why, but I have a hard time writing to anything that has lyrics. But that’s when I’m literally being inspired as I’m writing. There are other times when I’m just inspired in general, by something in the lyrics. The song then becomes something I listen to before I write, because, while I can’t easily write while listening to it, I can be inspired by it and have an easier time with writing in general once I’ve listened to it.

That’s why you need to keep your ears open, as it were, for the lyrics in the songs. You’re a writer. Words are your thing. So you need to listen to them. you need to hone your skills in understanding what singers are saying, what words they’re using to get their point across. Because, while a lot of songs sound exactly the same these days (am I right?), there are some, though sometimes few and far between, where an artist does something unique, and you’ll find yourself in the throes of inspiration that you just can’t set aside.

That’s what you always need to be on the lookout for (the listenout, perhaps?). Whatever music you listen to, whether you’ve always been able to write to it or you find yourself constantly unable to write to it, listen for words and thoughts and ideas that you could use as inspiration for your current WIP—or for something you’re keeping on the shelf, an idea that you’ll want to work on later on down the line.

Point is, there’s always music on. Whether you’re in your house, in your car, at the store, or wherever else you find yourself, it’s extremely rare to be in the still and the quiet without at least a little bit of music in the background. So use that to your advantage, and see what inspiration you can find from it, along the way.

You might be surprised, by the things you end up with.

Next week, we’re bring our inspiration search back to home base. What do I mean by that? You’ll just have to wait and see ;-)

[love]

{Rani Divine}