Tuesday, April 28, 2015

X by Ed Sheeran: How Music Inspires My Writing

I have been looking forward to writing this post all month. I basically thought I was the most clever person ever when I was able to tie in the topic of music with the letter X. Please, hold your applause.

Music is a huge part of who I am. Someone in my house is always singing, playing guitar, piano, or banging away on the drums. Usually, all of that is going on at once.

I love music. Seriously just love it. I love how it portrays truth and beauty, how it can lift your spirit. Or weigh down your spirit. Music has so much power. I love how it always tells a story.

Music tells stories. Just like I do.

When I was younger, I could never listen to music while writing. It was way too distracting. Now, I rarely write without listening to music.

Music pushes me forward.

Within music, I have found characters. I have found plots. I have found scenes. I have found answers and I have found questions.

Music is the ultimate short story.

When I'm writing a novel, or even a short story (which, in reality, is never very short), I usually put together a playlist of songs that go along with my story. Other times, I'll go to whatever my favorite Pandora station is or I'll just listen to random indie music that I don't know. Depends on my mood.

Some of my favorite writing musicians include Ed Sheeran, Needtobreathe, Mumford & Sons, Echosmith, Lorde, Birdy, and so, so many more.

How does music inspire your writing? Do you listen to music while you write? If so, who is your go-to musician?

21 comments:

  1. Music is my biggest writing muse. I listen to music every time I'm writing. Many songs have inspired scenes in books. :)

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  2. Music is powerful! There are some days I must have music to write and other days I need dead silence. I'm stuck in the 80s with music or I listen to some of the alt. pop rock bands of today:)

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  3. I love music too. I very rarely listen to music while I write, though when I was in school, I always had it on while studying. You're so right about music being its own short story. I can imagine an entire book in a song. Good music is as wondrous as magic.

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  4. Music definitely helps me. Sometimes it inspires a scene or sets a mood. Often times I'll find a theme song for the series or book as a whole which will help me stay on track with what I'm doing.

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  5. Music definitely helps me brainstorm and get into the mood to write. I can't actually write while listening, though, since it distracts me too much.

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  6. Great post. Though I seldom listen to music while I'm writing, sometimes when I'm playing the piano, a song will speak to me. I may not mention it in the story, but it affects my characters, inspires me in some way. When I play that song, I think of my characters.

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  7. Love this so much! I always listen to music when I write. It's usually some type of chill indie or classical. Although today I've had Addict With A Pen by Twenty One Pilots on repeat; it's kind of my recent obsession :)

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    1. NO ANNA DON'T CAVE IN TO THE TWENTY ONE PILOTS FANDOM!! Joking. Maybe. Probably not.

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    2. BUT ANNIE IT'S SO WELL WRITTEN

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  8. I love Ed! "Tsunami tides in my eyes" (Ed Sheeran U.N.I.) He is great. I love the story telling aspect of music and am always inspired by it but cannot write with music on.

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  9. I listen to my "Two Steps From Hell" station on Pandora. All epic soundtracks to movies.

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  10. Oh my goodness. This is perfection. I agree 100%.....Music is what drives me to write, and some of my best plot twists have come about due to listening to intense classical music. ;)

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