Do you Rock when you Write?
I once posed the question about music and the art of writing to a bunch of other scribes on Agent Query Connect (a great site with similar crazy souls like myself).
Their answers were near unanimous: music is our muse.
When I began writing more than fifteen years ago, I listened to a variety of music, often rock, while penning an article. I recall many a time when the music would match my written voice. When I was suckered into interviewing the FROSTBITE FLEET (aptly named, btw – my article is in the link) during the dead of winter on the Hyannis docks, I knew I would be rocking out to ABOUT A GIRL. Those hearty, fearless souls were the embodiment of Kurt Cobain . . . minus the drugs and drinking. Nirvana was my muse as I envisioned them (and the loss of feeling in my toes) while writing their story.
So it was no wonder, when it came to UNDERTOW, that music played a pivotal role. Especially in the creation of the characters, Eila and Raef, Ana and Kian and MJ.
Raef and Eila’s torturous, yet elegant relationship, quickly garnered an anthem to their hearts in the form of Evanescense’s BRING ME TO LIFE. I now see their faces, feel their story, the moment I hear that song. It is not that it is the only song I listened to (my playlist pushes easily 200 tunes), but it fueled their passion and their pain.
For writers, music is like a sensory link into the mind’s eye. It can help us push through the difficult spots in a manuscript or envision new moments for our characters. It can draw out the deep agony of loss or the luminous passion of a first kiss.
For the inspiration of my characters and the revelation of a world within our shadows, I raise my pen to those who call to me through their own creativity encompassed in a thrumming guitar.
Long live the Rock N Roll Muse.
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Cape Cod Scribe 
No music but sometimes while writing I am tempted to ‘rock’ backwards and forwards in a corner.
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Totally agree! :) :)
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I have to say I agree, though I don’t always listen while I write. In my first novel ,Radio Echo , set in 1940’s Italy, music features a lot. So I was immersed in Cole porter , Sydney Bechet as well as the Trio Lescano and other Italian musicians from back in the day. When I do listen to music when I write, it totally effects what happens. Thanks for reminding me.
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Love to have music on when I am writing, not too loud though. And I love ‘bring me to life’.
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I write in complete silence, but I am weird that way.
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“She was a strange one, that Trisha Leaver . . .” LOL
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Reblogged this on Story Rebels and commented:
Music as a Writer’s Muse
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