#i love talking about music so brace yourself for a ramble laskfjl

[revelisms]

okay this is so random but how are you with music when you write and read? like, what goes through your mind if anything because I. cannot. do it. people be all like “oh, I find inspiration through the music I listen to” and “listening to music while I read is so calming/immersive” and I’m just over here feeling alone and unable to understand because my brain literally refuses to focus on writing/reading if there is music on (unless it’s only instruments, in which case despite the fact that it does take a brief adjustment period, my mind manages to just tune it out and focus a good 80% of the time). like, it feels like I’m trying to focus on two stories at the same time if I have music on?? Idk.

Oh this is a great question! I also completely feel you on this. Lyrics can be a big distraction for me, so I have to be fairly intentional about how and why I'm listening to something (especially for doing busy work/editing - I can only listen to white noise or instrumentals for that, otherwise I get too sidetracked 🙃). Oddly, I sometimes like to listen to the audiobook version of something while I'm reading it (I find it helps me pay attention a bit more?), but music during reading is a movie soundtrack or bust.

As for writing with music, that's actually pretty ingrained in my writing process. I find it helps fill in the visual gaps for the scenes I'm trying to paint. In a way, that means it is about the "story" in the song - but it's more my own interpretation/experience of what sensations the music is creating, and less me trying to force the story that the lyrics are actually presenting into the idea I have.

For example - here's two songs I anchored on when I was writing 'like leaves of a lotus' and the final chapter of 'heron blue':

Like Leaves of a Lotus, Francis Wellis - Obviously, this became the fic title (and I suck at titles, so songs often do), but this whole album is an incredibly cinematic, woodsy, soft, and emotional set of instrumentals - just a beautiful artpiece, track to track. This was when I was writing a lot of Powder/early Jinx POV, so I was trying to find something musically that captured a sense of childhood innocence and wonder, and this song just fit the bill. Those first minutes hit me immediately with a sort of Narnia-esque image of old trains in a city, steam and winter, exploration and excitement, but also with this twinge of uncertainty and self-consciousness undercutting it all. That storyline dumped itself basically start-to-finish into the fic: we open on a winter morning in Piltover, Jinx staring out of the windows of a steam carriage and taking in the scenery surrounding her - while throughout the story, there's this emotional thread of her fascination/nervousness that acts as the foil to Silco's stoic façade (which we gradually see through, as she does).

Wrong Crowd (Live in Dublin), Tom Odell - In the other vein, here's a live lyrical track that is eerie, powerful, and in TO fashion (love him) broody and gut-wrenching as hell. I latched onto this for a few reasons when I was writing the final chapter in 'heron blue'. That storyline is all about the resolution of the tension built up in the fic: Jinx starting her baby steps out of Silco's shadow and reuniting with Vi, her sadness and anger bubbling up from years of lost time/lack of answers, and her bitterness. The first thing that hit me here was just the raw build of the instrumentals. This track starts soft and melancholic, musing about the struggles of finding the right person/lover, and launches to a spiteful, self-depricating uproar that hinges on a belting admission: I can't help it, I don't know how / I guess I'll always be hanging around / with the wrong crowd. I heard both Silco and Jinx in this: Silco, the building anger in the piano, resenting Vi's presence and the influence she continues to wield over Jinx, protective and possessive in turns; Jinx, the mounting howl of the vocals, screaming her heart out to be understood by Vi. That had a big impact on the emotional intensity of the scenes, especially the argument Vi and Jinx launch into near the end of the chapter.

So for me, it's more about that initial inspiration/vibe, rather than just having background music on while I'm writing. But in some cases, I will just pop on a character playlist I've curated to tune out while I'm writing them. I find those help to anchor me on "who" the character is, and how they feel - so it's not so much the specific story in the songs in that case, either, but rather what I'm associating with them.

(Interestingly, my Jinx playlist is very linear in how it's structured, so I almost have to listen to specific parts of the playlist to reconnect with those ideas/parts of her character. Silco's, on the other hand, is completely disorganized, which can be a total whiplash to shuffle through. I kind of like that, though - I feel like it throws all the layers of himself on the table, from his younger self to his current regalia, which I find is helpful to capture the complexity of his character when I'm writing his scenes/dialogue).

In any case, all writing processes are different and inspiration can come from a myriad of sources, so you're not missing out if music isn't ticking your box!

#thank you for the ask! :-) #i love talking about music so brace yourself for a ramble laskfjl #replies #writing #music