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ON WRITING | MUSIC | INSPIRATION
Playlists for the Creative Act
Soundtracks for my Muse and the characters in her head
Someone somewhere once said that there are no original stories left to tell. All the tenets of tales have been told, and all the tropes trampled. I’ve never been a big believer in what “they” say, but it got me thinking of where and how I source my “original” material. After some brief soul-searching, I realized a terrible truth.
I am a thief.
Until my characters show up on the page and they start telling me what they’re up to, I almost always steal inspiration from artists in creative disciplines across the board. Once the mischief begins, and my fingers race the characters against the keyboard to keep up, those musical and vocal artists fall into the background, their soundtracks adding colour, pace, panic and pain to my stories.
There are as many writing rules as I have socks in my drawer, and like those shabby sole sleeves, very few match. Some writers love music in the background while they write. For others, it’s ambient sounds, whether from the environment heard through an open window or nearly muted on the volume dial from their preferred musical delivery device.
