IT’S ALL ABOUT – MUSIC AS A WRITING PROMPT

3/8/2021

By Melissa Stoller

I have always been fascinated by how music can spark memory. Taking that further, music can provoke memories that can inspire story ideas. Try these steps to help generate some drafts this month:

Write down the names of three favorite songs from childhood.
Jot down the titles of three songs you currently love.
Brainstorm songs that were special to you from three different periods in your life – perhaps a wedding song, a song you remember from prom, a song from a beloved TV show or movie, a song connected to summer fun at the beach or winter snowball contests, or a song tied to a special person in your life.
If possible, play some of this music.
Describe in writing what makes these songs special – how does the music make you feel, what are the lyrics bringing forth, why does the song speak to you. Think about the memories from the songs listed above. What do they say to you now?
Finally, do the music, lyrics, song titles, or associated memories help you generate story ideas – read what you wrote in response to the prompts above. Do you notice any patterns? Does anything leap out to you? Perhaps there are some ideas ready to be discovered that will become your next manuscripts.

Enjoy using music, songs, lyrics, and memories to help uncover ideas that may be waiting for you! Let me know in the comments what you find! Cheers to creativity!

MELISSA'S BIO:
Melissa Stoller is the author of the chapter book series The Enchanted Snow Globe Collection - Return to Coney Island (Clear Fork Publishing); and the picture books Scarlet’s Magic Paintbrush, Ready, Set, GOrilla!, and Sadie’s Shabbat Stories. (Clear Fork). Melissa is a Blogger and Course Assistant for the Children’s Book Academy, a Regional Ambassador for The Chapter Book Challenge, a volunteer with SCBWI/MetroNY, and a founding member of The Book Meshuggenahs. In other chapters of her life, Melissa has worked as a lawyer, legal writing instructor, freelance writer and editor, and early childhood educator. She lives in New York City with her family, and enjoys theatre, museums, and long beach walks.

CONNECT:
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https://www.TheBookMeshuggenahs.com

8 Comments

Anna Maledon link

3/9/2021 12:51:26 am

At the moment I don't need any more stories. I just need to work on the ones I have already written (30+) but this is an interesting idea.

Sometimes I listen to some music when writing, but this is always music only, without lyrics. I usually just search for "crative writing music" on Youtube. There's plenty to choose from.

But, yes, you are right, Melissa, music does spark memoris.

Nanny K seesingsay link

3/9/2021 02:16:13 am

Sing is an amazing skill we all tap into that is free & enhance our well being. Your insight into using Music as a trigger is so true.
I’ve been trying to encourage people to rediscover the power of song to teach children, in a fun way, to learn new words & so increase their vocabulary they hear everyday.
Music & images spark triggers from our brains & enabled us to sing along to our favourite songs & enabled us to say more words.
My observation from my own personal experiences in the past 30 years of looking after children especially the very young, children learning more than one language or those with speech delay is that Singing songs with easy & short rhythm & rhyme to describe what we are doing enable all children to understand the world they live in.
Increasing their vocabulary & understand far quicker & easier than talking alone. It also is so much more fun for both child & adult. The simple repetition of words makes easy short rhymes which then repeat to a short rhythm making a quick, fun song to explaining what is happening or what is needed to be said given children exposure to a greater number of words & using the musical area of the brain which works in a different way to the talking area.
I am excited about this concept and have created over 500 easy rhymes & songs, many can be sung to well known nursery rhymes from the past by changing the words or just used in a rhythmic tone rather than talking. When sentences are repetitive a natural rhythm can be achieved without using a specific tune.
This will help them to say new words & increase there vocabulary & helps them to understand what is happening around them.

I’ve looked after many children for over 30 years and it has always amazed me how many toddlers can sing the tune of “Twinkle twinkle little star” before they can say a word of it. This gave me the inspiration for this project to create songs about life skills & things children do all the time everyday.
Nanny K seesingsay

Sheila Lewis

3/9/2021 03:35:40 am

Melissa, this cheers my heart and music-challenged memory. I do recall early and teen era music, and most of the rest is classical. Much research about our musical set points, why we tend to like best music from our teens (yeah, Beatlemania, Bob Dylan) and have a harder time liking newer, popular tunes.
That said, the rhythms of classical music, Mozart, Bach, Vivaldi, Beethoven, and certain instruments, folk, bluegrass, etc. seem just right for me depending on what I'm writing.
Thanks for the prompts and reminder that music (and all the arts) are gateways to refreshing our writing (and great boon, memories)!

Marcie Colleen link

3/9/2021 10:00:12 am

I love the idea of using music to bring about emotion. When I was writing SURVIVOR TREE I had a tough time getting into the right frame of mind each time and I didn't feel like reliving the moments of September 11th over and over each time to get into the right head. So I searched Spotify and found some moody instrumental music that helped me become grounded in the hopeful heartbreak I was writing about. I would listen to the music as I worked and each time I sat down to write it instantly transported me to the heart of my manuscript.

Claire Noland link

3/9/2021 12:26:42 pm

Songs do bring back memories! I recently created a playlist of songs that were part of my life over each decade. Thanks for the suggestion of using these songs to prompt story ideas.

Marilyn Wolpin link

3/9/2021 01:39:11 pm

Melissa, I have been thinking lately about using song titles from a certain band as prompts for stories. (Though so many of their songs are already stories.) I also find that playing certain kinds of music greases my creativity gears. I used to think writing prompts didn't do anything for me, but lately I've been finding them to be very fertile ground. So now I have to try music. Thanks for these exercises.

ANNETTE SCHOTTENFELD link

3/10/2021 07:44:58 am

Melissa, I loved this article and the idea of tethering story ideas to songs. Just like favorite childhood books, songs bring people back to specific times in their lives and carry emotions with them. I can't wait to try this technique! Thank you. Annette

Ellen Leventhal link

3/13/2021 03:38:38 pm

This is great. When I taught creative writing, we often used music as a prompt. However, I forgot about using it to generate story ideas. Thanks for the reminder!

IT’S ALL ABOUT – MUSIC AS A WRITING PROMPT

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