When people find out I’m a writer, almost always the first question they ask me is: “Where do you get ideas for stories from?"
Well, the answer isn’t exactly one thing. It’s not like I have a mason jar brimming with ideas that I can pluck out and write (although that would be cool and maybe I should start one). It could be the awesome jar but as always, I digress.
I saw an internet meme once that said: “If you want to know what the inside of a creative persons mind is like, try opening 5,469 internet browser tabs all at once.” It’s an apt description in my opinion.
I could write hundreds of stories if ever I had the time to. If I was ever a rock star, New York Times best selling author, I could pen endless tales but alas, that time is not here… yet. #powerofpostivethinking
In short though, inspiration comes from everywhere. There is a whole wide world of it. It’s in the people we meet every single day, it’s in the experiences that shape us and in something as simple as the way the sunrise can stretch across the horizon and take our breaths away.
One of the things that MOST inspires me though is music. Music: its whole crazy beautiful complexity. Lyrics are stories (at least the good ones are) and I find a limitless supply of inspiration.
If you’re reading this, perhaps you’ve read some of my stories. If you have, thank you, if not, this next part may make zero sense to you but I’m going to use it as an example of how I wrote a book inspired by song lyrics.
My first full-length completed story is called Amaranthine. I was sitting at work, throwing myself a pity party because I really wanted to write NanoWriMo but just couldn’t think of something with enough substance to pull me through to the end.
SPOILER ALERT: IF YOU HAVEN’T READ AMARANTHINE AND ARE PLANNING ON IT AND DON’T WANT TO RUIN THE WTF MOMENT, PLEASE STOP READING NOW, IF SPOILERS DON’T BOTHER YOU, BY ALL MEANS READ ON.
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After I stopped feeling terrible for myself, I plugged in my iPod, set it to shuffle and went back to work.
Not long after, the song Inside the Fire by Disturbed came on. Some of the lyrics:
“Devin won’t go to Heaven,
she’s just another lost soul about to be mine again,
leave her, we will receive her,
it is beyond your control will you ever meet again….
….Devin lies beyond this portal,
take the word of one immortal,
give your soul to me for eternity…”
My writer brain: If I had a villian in a story who was trying to steal a girl’s soul, that would be an interesting read.
I tucked that little thought away and immediately after the song was over, the iPod flipped to the next track which was “Don’t Fear the Reaper” by Blue Oyster Cult. Old tune but classic nonetheless. Some of the words:
“All our times have come,
here but now they’re gone.
Seasons don’t fear the reaper,
nor do the wind and the sun and the rain.
We can be like they are,
Come on baby,
Don’t Fear the Reaper,
Baby take my hand,
Don’t Fear the Reaper,
We’ll be Able to Fly,
Don’t Fear the Reaper,
Baby I’m Your Man….
…Romeo and Juliett are together in eternity..”
My brain: What if the grim reaper fell in love with his victim? What if there were two reapers, one good and one bad, vying for the same soul?
Boom. Amaranthine was born.
I went home that night and wrote the last scene first. Then I went back and started from the beginning and wrote for 7 months straight. Every single night for an hour or two. I ate, slept, lived and breathed that story until the end.
So there you have it. How lyrics to a couple songs, inspired me to write 85,000 words.
Have a listen to the song on the side... it’s my number one favorite song, of all time ever. (Especially at 3:55 --- mind blowing) Coming from an absolute music fanatic, that says a lot and I’m 100% sure there is a story in this song.
What inspires you?
