Music as Inspiration

I try to write everyday, outside of my many papers for school, and sometimes finding inspiration can be quite difficult and seem impossible. There are many websites out there that offer creative writing prompts that can be a starting point to get rid of that nasty writer's block. Though I sometimes turn to prompts to cure my writer's block I usually prefer music. There's just so many ways to find inspiration from music.

The lyrics are the easiest place to start for me, they are pretty much a story in and of themselves. And with the many genres of music there is bound to be a song to match whatever you feel like writing about. Even incorporating the lyrics into the story can lead to an amazing story. As long as you aren't plagiarising, because plagiarism is bad and the ultimate sin of the art world. Just give credit where credit is due then all will be well in the creative universe.

The next place I go for inspiration is the music. And you say "Well no duh, isn't that what this entire post is about?" and to that I say touche! But what I am getting at is that if you put the lyrics aside and just listen and feel you can get a lot of inspiration. This method of curing writer's block can be more difficult then using lyrics since you have to go off of pure emotion instead of concrete words and ideas. But with the right song at the right time amazing things can happen. It might be a little frustrating at first, but when the right song hits you, you'll know it and it will be beautiful and inspiration will flow like rain. Clearly I have a bias towards this method, but there's so much beautiful music out there that has no words that is getting neglected.

Anyway, before I go on a rant about music ,which we would never hear the end of, I will finish by saying that if you have writer's block do not despair, there is inspiration waiting for you to find it and music is a fantastic place to start. I only gave two good ways to find inspiration through music, but I am sure that you can figure out more. But I can give you some songs that I like to use for inspiration!

This first song is one of my favorite songs of all time since it can apply to everyone which is what also makes it a wonderful song to combat writer's block. There are so many directions that the lyrics can be taken, from the singers point of view, the friend, and the contrast of music to the lyrics. I could go on and on!

The second song is purely instrumental, therefore there are no lyrics to help create concrete ideas, but this song is beautiful and all of Paul Cardall's pieces are inspirational. I am challenging myself to write about these songs and will most likely post them sometime in the near future.