Happy Friday!
Happy Jewish New Year!
Word of the Day Webinar
I’m so excited to teach next week’s Word of the Day Free Webinar. I’m going to be sharing how to use the technique to generate story ideas, develop characters, and structure scenes. Please join me to learn how to connect deeply and effectively with your creative self so that your first draft can be as good as your third one!
Music and Story Ideas
When creating characters, I find that creating a history or back story from scratch is laborious and boring. So I indulge another passion, listening to music on my excellent sound system. I surf, listening to anything that catches my fancy, and have found that there’s an amazing bonus: the comments about the music hold histories and stories. I’m often inspired to create a new character by using a snippet of a comment!
For example, when I listened to one of my favorite songs, Feeling Good by Nina Simone, Patricia D. commented:
“Love this song. I play it for my mom when we wake up in the morning. She’s 96 years old and the song puts a smile on her face “
I immediately envisioned a scene in my next book: The main character and her mother listen to a special song together, which can be used as a timeline throughout the novel. I was pleased, and then a second bonus:
When my mother was dying of lung cancer, she lost her power to speak. So she and I would hold hands and listen to tango music, which she loved. I was with her when she passed, and this song was playing:
Vuelvo al Sur by Gotan Project
The lyrics are about someone saying goodbye, as they face death.
I’m going back to the South
as love always goes back,
I’m going back to you,
with my desire, with my fear.
I take the South
as a destination of the heart,
I am of the South
like the tunes of the bandoneon1
I dream of the South,
a great big moon, sky upside down,
I seek the South,
the open time, and afterwards.
I love the South,
its good people, its dignity,
I feel the South,
like your body in intimacy.
I love you South,
South I love you.
I’m going back to the South
as love always goes back,
I’m going back to you,
with my desire and my fear.
I love the South,
its good people, its dignity,
I feel the South,
like your body in intimacy.
I’m going back to the South
I take the South,
I love you South,
I love you South…
https://lyricstranslate.com
Coincidence? Synchronicity? You can’t make this stuff up!
Then I remember how I honored her by performing tango to the song playing when she died. You can watch it here:
Mom’s Memorial Tango
You can see how inspiring this exercise can be. Here are two other tunes with good stories. Enjoy!
Save The Last Dance For Me, Written by Doc Pomus/Drifters
Comment: “The songwriter, Doc Pomus, was crippled, but his wife or girlfriend loved to go out and dance – so he would go with her to the clubs so she could dance. She would dance with other men while he sat on the sidelines and watched. But when it was time for the last dance of the evening, he would get up and dance the last dance with her. Hence, the song. True story and very touching! That is how this wonderful song was written! (He was crippled, so he couldn’t really “dance,” but he would go out there for a minute, and she would push him around the floor a bit.)
Comment: “My father was a jazz musician he played the saxophone. He was never in my life just came and gone. Visited like every other weekend. Then he just stopped and I never saw him again. He passed away in my twenty’s didn’t really feel hurt by him being gone though. I do however have a love for jazz soul blues and anything with a saxophone. I guess I am drawn to this type of music but inside it makes me feel closer to my father. Who I have come to miss and dearly love over the years despite him not being alive. A son will always need his father even in death. Love you dad.”
Here’s to your successful writing,
Professor Marilyn Horowitz
