Music as a Muse

By Patricia Cates

Most of us know why we write. We also seem to have a fairly good grasp on how to write. The question that looms in many, weary, writer’s-blocked heads, is what should I write?

The answer has not always been simple or clear. There has been much ado about the advice given years ago (by Hemingway?) to simply “Write what you know.” However many writers disagree. (Boy do they!) They see it as limiting. I will counter and say the most successful comedians who write their own stuff, who have done interviews, admit that they get most of their material from everyday events. It’s the hilarity that comes with family life or even their sadly laughable adolescent years that works for them. If you write what you do know you will surely still have to do research, just not as much. But maybe it’s not in the knowledge as much as in the experience itself, and the emotions attached, where we get our inspiration. No matter the genre, we will always need characters plucking emotion in fiction writing.

Soooo…If you have writer’s block and do not know what to write, I have a suggestion. Grab a note pad (or voice command device,) pull out your favorite records from when you were in elementary school, close your eyes and see what happens. Are you 10 again? Surely a vivid memory or twenty will come floating back. Some might make you smile and others could make you cringe...and that's good! The feelings attached to those settings you are now recalling could make for great fodder for your next chapter. Hey, maybe you can even derive a book from one of those memories. If elementary school is reaching too far back, try high school or college. Music can trigger long forgotten memories like no other. (So can smells but that would be much harder and…um…strange.)

Drawing from life experience is likely practiced by romance writers everywhere already. They write about their first crush and change the name, and the outcome! Writers create justice in their pages where none was found in real life, (like the school bully they put up with for seven years.) We see that all the time. The clothing styles and descriptions we can put our characters in from days past are fun as well. Sometimes we just need a memory jolt to garner those bold descriptions of things we have already seen and have forgotten. Big hair bands anyone? Spandex pants? Grunge?

But what about writers who want to focus on fantasy. Can they draw any benefit from this method? How do our past memories relate to a world filled with fantasy? Certainly one could base a character off an old long forgotten school chum. As an author you can give them a special power or gnarly facial warts. Your elementary school library can become a porthole for the children who read a specific book found on aisle A-F. That song you loved from 1987 can be playing in the background of your novel. When your fairy is awarded her first wings, use lyrics from your favorite victory song, just remember to give the band credit. In mystery writing that same friend you now remember from 3^rd grade can be your supporting character and maybe even a suspect. I think pulling from our personal pasts is great and music can help get us there.

Do you need a setting? Could the music you listened to from the late 1990’s maybe remind you of a family vacation you took, and now you are suddenly transported back in time to that weird restaurant you happened across while driving? Voila! You have a new setting for your murder scene. After all the waiter WAS pretty creepy. All remembered because of a song you heard on the radio during that time.

But still stands the question of what to write! You are the only one who can answer this. Stop thinking so hard and just let it flow. Put your WIP down for a minute, get some Pandora or iTunes going and start jotting down your memoires. Let the music be your muse. I guarantee you that your fingers will start tapping pretty fast.

The Tape Deck

After our commuter car broke down definitively with the clang of a rod shooting through the engine block and out the oil pan onto the pavement below, we were in need of another economical and cheap car to get me 40 minutes there and back every day.

We found our sacrificial lamb car, buried on Craigslist like Spanish gold on the ocean floor. It's a twenty-year-old car with very low miles, high reliability ratings, years and years of service records, and

A TAPE DECK

For many this would be maybe a drawback. For me, pure gold. As I dug out my (large) box of tapes that I've never been able to let go, I almost giggled in anticipation of hearing some of those songs again.

I popped in a mix tape that I made in 1991 from the radio.

I know I'm not the only one who made tapes by sitting by the radio with my finger on the "pause" button, waiting for a good song.

Man. First of all, it's been a lot of years since that tape was last listened to. The fact that it still plays is miraculous in itself.

I was transported to my dorm room, with it's clever bed/couch design, leaning against the green back cushion/covered shelving upholstery, eagerly awaiting a song I'd wanted to record for days. It finally comes on and I expertly hit the pause button to begin recording the millisecond that the DJ stops talking.

A few gems:

• Vibeology by Paula Abdul. I'd forgotten that song existed. 
• Fishin' in the Dark. Okay, totally different direction from Paula, but I always wanted that song because it's the song I learned to country dance to. 
• You Think You Know Her by Cause and Effect.   Yes, I have very eclectic tastes. 

Then, some popping, some squeaking, and the sound completely changes. Girls clearing their throats, while music plays in the background instead of from the radio directly.

Is this really what I think it is?

My heart flutters.

There it is. My best friend and I, singing harmony to "Except for Monday"--we both didn't really like country music, except for dancing to, but we'd started singing with it because of the harmonies. So, we did a lot of making fun of the twang while we sang along with Lorrie Morgan.

Wow. My little 96 Lexus is a time machine. I felt like I could reach out and poke my best friend in the arm.

There was more. I liked to change the words to songs, and there was my long-lost recording of "Charity Went Down to the Palace"--poking fun at the aforementioned best friend by way of Charlie Daniels.  I could sing along with my altered lyrics even 25 years later.

I have a lot of cherished memories, and I remember moments and stories that are forgotten by most of the people who lived them with me. But music--music brings those things to life for me.

There's something about a song that taps into the deepest parts of my memory banks and does more than help me recall the memory. It pulls me back to the moment and makes me feel like I did when I was there.  I was seventeen, living in a dorm room full of people I loved like sisters, doing the one thing I loved to do more than anything--sing.  I was with my soul-sister, who loved to sing harmony (and who I blended with perfectly, by the way)--who liked my humor, thought I was worthwhile to be with, didn't think I was less-than anything.  It was a sort of new feeling for me at the time. It was the extended moment in time when I started finding who I really was, instead of who I thought I was.  In some ways, I long for the empowering, freeing moments I lived in May Hall at age seventeen (and eighteen, and part of nineteen). Sometimes I wish I could go back, just to visit for a little while.

When I listen to my tapes,  I can.

The Song Remembers When, or One Song is Worth a Million Words

(This isn’t just a post with a song’s lyrics in it, I promise.)

I was standing at the counter

I was waiting for the change

When I heard that old familiar music start

It was like a lighted match had been tossed into my soul

It was like a dam had broken in my heart

After taking every detour

Gettin' lost and losin' track

So that even if I wanted I could not find my way back

After driving out the memory

Of the way things might have been

After I'd forgotten all about us

The song remembers when

Yeah, and even if the whole world has forgotten

The song remembers when

-Hugh Prestwood, “The Song Remembers When”

 I started a new job in the past couple of weeks, and I now get to drive for a good half an hour on the freeway, against traffic, in the pre-dawn darkness. I’ve broken out my very heavy, very full CD case in order to reacquaint myself with some old, dear friends—namely my music collection. So for the past few days, I have been floating along blissfully in a cloud of happy little music notes (or at least that's how it would look if I were a cartoon). 

My tastes are varied, but the thing that the most valued “pieces” of my collection have in common, is the poetry of the lyrics. I am a fan of Sarah McLachlan (her less popular stuff, where she waxes more poetic); Tori Amos, Jann Arden, Indigo Girls. Something about the words transcends even the musical beauty of the songs and stays with me.

But, even the  non-poetical (I know that’s not a word) songs—Billy Joel’s “Only the Good Die Young” can do it too—it comes on and BOOM, I’m 17 and  riding shotgun up Provo Canyon with my best friend in a borrowed car. I can smell the fall air as it stings my cheeks through the open window, and more importantly, I feel the excitement, the freedom of being independent and of living in a moment.

I have a writing project that I started in college, and pick up from time to time, wherein I write about songs and the memories that come with hearing them. Relationships, feelings, thoughts, phases of my life, friendships—a song is almost like an encapsulated journal entry for me. You know that saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words”? Well, for me, a song can be a million words, a whole novel, a “year in the life of” memory. The music contributes, but it’s the way the poetry of the lyrics touches me that burns that information into my memory chips. If I ever want to remember not just the details, but the feelings of a memory, I just need to find the right song. The intensity of the memory, the viscerality of the emotion, can be downright frightening—like the first time you’re given a really great painkiller in the hospital and you realize you could get addicted to that feeling reeeeally easily.

So what is it about the combination of words and music that affects our recall of memory? I’ve been  reading around and found  an interesting study done by a professor at University of California Davis. Petr  Janata conducted this study where students (test subjects) were given music to listen to while having their brains mapped by fMRI. What was found was that the same area of the brain that responds to music, and particularly music that is familiar to  the  listener, is the area that responds to  salient memories—memories that stand out. It is like it is a hub and allows the brain to link the music and recall the memories. It’s a remarkable idea and has inspired music-based therapy for Alzheimer’s sufferers to improve their quality of life. 

This fMRI brain scan shows areas that respond to familiar music (green), salient memories (red), and music that is perceived as enjoyable (blue). The yellow area, in the medial prefrontal cortex, is a response both to music familiarity and salient memory. (Petr Janata/UC Davis image)

As I am wont to do, I’ve been trying to make use of this idea in my writing. Obviously I can’t just include an MP3 player in my manuscripts so that everyone can have a soundtrack to influence their emotion and memory of my words. Not only would that be uneconomical, but  the music has to be YOUR music, and YOUR memories, for this whole thing to work.

No, how I am using it is by analyzing the emotions that I am reliving when I listen, and trying to put them into words. Love, pain, loss, heartache, bliss—these are emotions that are so hard to pin down. By immersing myself in the experience, or at least the intensity of the emotional memory, I can stay in that  moment long enough to try and reproduce it on the page. It’s the difference between having a snowflake in your hand and trying to describe the pattern to someone, and having a high-resolution picture you can refer to again and again.

I know I’m not the only one to do it—that’s why writers have their playlists and bands get notes on Acknowledgement pages. That’s not necessarily what I’m talking about here.

My new half-baked project idea is that I  am just randomly, willy-nilly, selecting a song that I know “does something” for me—brings up some salient memory—and sitting and listening over and over again, letting the moment wash over me, while I write THAT memory, THAT emotion—and trying to distill those things down into words. Not for any particular story or reason, but just to have, to use when and if I need that emotion. It’s in embryo, and  I’m not in a place to share it, but  that’s my idea.

And if anyone starts seeing MP3 players being sent out with every book, just remember, I said it first!J

Drowning in the Sea of Nano

The goal is 50,000 words in one month.
Not that hard, they say, that's only 1500 words or so a day. 
Even if you fall behind, you can always catch up. 

Pretty, pretty lies, but LIES nonetheless. It is HARD HARD HARD.

It's November, after all. Kids are stir crazy and possibly still bouncing around from Halloween's sugar overdose. Thanksgiving is coming.

If you had teens (or volunteered to help) in the Phoenix Temple Cultural Celebration, then you were driving kids, sewing costumes, buying black pants, black shoes, then white shoes, white socks, no, wait, now it's black shoes again. Oh wait, now it's both. Back to the store. Then the Celebration itself, then the dedication of the Phoenix Temple! Veteran's Day, spring cleaning (It's spring here in the Valley of the Sun, by the way. Yeah, spring is in November). So much to do, and hey, let's write a novel!

Does anyone else have little keyboard shaped dents in their heads from the frustration? Okay, so that's established.

How about writer's block? Yes, that nasty beast FEEDS on NanoWrimoians like blue whales on plankton. I'm sitting here trying to write, and I've veered so far off my outline (yes, I OUTLINED) that I am now pantsing, even though DID I MENTION I OUTLINED??? The story went fabulous places, and then crashed. I don't want to go back to the outline. The pantsing version is much more awesome. AND also terrible and I hate it but I love it--

Yes, I am in the throws of the mid-Nano slump. Many of my colleagues are, as well. It's even got to the point where I have visions of Mork every time I say Nano (technically he says "Na-NU" but still). So, in honor of that, here's a little visual inspiration (it's no Avengers, and if you've seen that you know what I mean):

Okay. Got that out of the way. SO,
WHAT DO WE DO TO BREAK THE SLUMP?

Here you thought I was just going to complain and not give you any tips for breaking writer's block.  I wouldn't do that to you, gentle reader.  I have a few things that have helped me. Yesterday I did these things and got to a place where I could write 4000+ words over the course of a few hours.

1) Remember. It's not about making time,it's about protecting our time. I don't take credit for that. Deirdra Eden Boyd shared it. I had to remind myself and others that I had made a goal, a commitment, and I need to do what it takes to keep that commitment, to reach that goal. I sacrificed some much-needed relaxation time and skipped family movie night to write. It kinda stunk, but they got to watch a movie I wasn't very interested in, and I got almost unimpeded writing time.

2)Forget. Expectations have no place when you are writing for volume. I tend to edit as I write. I think about the words I want to use, sometimes a little too much. My first drafts are more polished than some people's second or third drafts. Nanowrimo isn't about that, though. In order to be able to write 50,000 words in a month, I have had to forget that expectation that what I write will be up to my normal first-draft expectations. The point is to get the novel out and ready to work with.

3)Inspire. What inspires you? If what normally inspires you isn't working in the throes of Nanowrimo, then maybe you can find something else, change it up a bit? Some little tidbits of inspiration suggestions I've found. I'll tell you about any of them I've tried, and how it's worked for me.

• Music:  this is a huge one for me this week. I usually don't like to listen to instrumental music, but I needed a change, so I googled "melancholy instrumental music" and discovered an artist named "Hauschka" who just... wow. It fit the bill and then some. I jumped on Pandora and let them pick out music in the "Hauschka Radio" station and I've found it fits the tone of what I'm trying to write, perfectly. Here's a little Hauschka: 

One person shared their multiple playlists that help them in certain situations, including breaking writer's block. Here is a link to their post, maybe it has some musical ideas for you: 

http://nanowrimo.org/forums/reaching-50-000/threads/194004

• Sprints:  Opening up Facebook (BEWARE! DANGER WILL ROBINSON!!!) and having friends to do sprints with has helped immensely.
• Write-In:  doing a write-in is always helpful. I have a faithful write-in group, that used to be part of the same ANWA chapter, but has since been scattered to the 4 corners of the globe. Okay, Texas, Buckeye AZ, and Louisiana aren't exactly foreign lands, but they don't lend themselves to all-night potluck write-ins, either. SO, we opened up a Google Hangout and did it online. There are virtual write-in's as well as Nanowrimo-sponsored ones, or organize your own. Everyone working on the same thing is synergistic and it helps me immensely. Having someone to give you instant feedback, or suggest a word here and there can break the ice of the impending writer's block. 
• Timers: the sprints are one take on timers, but there are other ways to do this, even alone. "Write or Die"is a software application that rewards you for meeting a goal, and if you don't, it punishes you. It might eat your words, or zombies may show up at your door. Well, maybe not zombies. Even just setting a Google Timer, and when it goes off, if you've typed your goal, you get a Coke. If not, no soup for you. 
• TURN EVERYTHING ELSE OFF!! This one probably won't work for me. It might just make me angry. But for some, it has to be distraction free. Having my music in my headphones helps me to really enter the world where I am writing, and sometimes I even have my eyes closed, which really creeps out my son (thank you, former career where I had to type and look at a million other things all at once). Kill Facebook (unless you are using it for sprints, then just have it open JUST for that. No need to check any updates or anything). Remember--PROTECT your time. 

These are just a few little ideas. What works for me may not work for you. Heck, you may not even need it. Maybe your muse is sitting right there next to you and you are having a great laugh together at the poor whiner with her Mork and her Hauschka, just trying to finish her Nano novel in 2014.  

Oh, I almost forgot. 

4)JUST DO IT! Don't delay. Write. It's easier to write, when you're writing. You know what I mean. Good luck. May the force be with you. May the odds be forever in your favor. All that good stuff. 

And my favorite:

JUST KEEP SWIMMING!!

Discussion time:  how's your Nano-vember going?  What antidotes to mid-Nano venom do you have in your writer's first-aid kit? 

A Note to Write Upon

When I write, there are times when I like it serenely quiet.  There’s nothing wrong with this as I’m sure some of the greatest works of literature were penned (or typed or dictated or…) by the side of a placid lake, the edge of breezy beachhead, or in the quiet introspection of one’s writing ‘place’.  There are times when I need it to be void-of-space quiet, lest the least bit of distraction ruin a perfectly good train-of-thought and make me reconsider my recent self-diagnosis (based upon a somewhat reliable website) of adult ADD.

There are other times, though, when there is a need to pop on the headphones (ear buds, et al) and surrender my creative processes to a higher plane of melodic-inspired musings.  In fact, I’m going to recommend that, as often as possible, authors make it a practice to write with music.  To take this a step further, I’m going to recommend that the music you choose to have playing as you write fit within a certain criteria, and not merely be a collection of our favorite techno dance songs from twenty years ago.  There’s actually a bit of good research out there pointing to music being an intellectually healthy addition to our creative endeavors.

Music is one of only a few activities that exercise both hemispheres of the brain; and, if you happen to have played an instrument (or still do and haven’t hidden your talents under bushels like I have), you have huge advantages in your cognitive ability, critical thinking, and verbal (i.e. writing) skills.  Based upon a study of nursing students at Texas Woman’s University, the application of music to learning or creating non-music related topics (so in this case…writing) were obvious, the advantages being that the use of music improved motivation, concentration, reasoning, confidence and self-efficacy.  In other words, we feel like writing, we write like a marathoner, our writing makes sense to others (Obviously it makes sense to us. Duh!), we believe strongly that our final product will sell, and even if it doesn’t go ‘Top 10’, we still believe in our future potential.

But what kind of music is responsible for this leap in creativity?  My high school Chemistry teacher played baroque music during exams, claiming that it helped the brain with recall.  It might have, but it was so relaxing that it usually only helped my brain take a snooze.  I’ve reviewed education journal articles that trumpeted Mozart; human resource journals promoting the group-think music selection as the golden path; and of course, the religious admonition to ‘just sing a hymn’ if the mind wanders. 

May I suggest a more umbrella solution that incorporates all of the above and none of the above.  What? (He’s lost it…He should relax and listen to Mozart.)  What I mean is that it does not matter what music is chosen so long as it meets two important criteria: 1) There must be modality.  There must be interplay between traditional and irregular scales with resolution; light versus dark; good versus bad. 2) If there are lyrics, they must be conducive to the Spirit.  

There aren’t a lot of things in life where a person can say ‘I know’ or ‘I guarantee’, but this is one of them for me.  I know that there are harmonics in a lot of great music that resonate with our soul, which thereby achieves the modal interplay that exists at a higher plain of existence and which can unlock a higher level of inspiration and creativity; and, if we sup at the table of lyrics that can comfortably meet a Christ-centered focus (could be regarding the physical world or universe; could be about emotions associated with the Savior; could be about anything that is true and good), then I can promise that our level of inspired authorship will rise and improve.  We will feel it when we are in sync.  It’s tangible.  It’s delightful.  It’s delicious. 

So, take some time and go through your collection of CDs and playlists.  Sample everything.  Add more if you need to do so.  Make a ‘writing music playlist’ or mix CD.  It will probably span the range of genres, and so long as it meets the modality and lyrics template, you’ve probably got a winner.

Let Freedom Ring

    With many of my friends' husbands coming home from deployment this month, and many more (including my own) getting ready to leave later this year, Independence Day has a deeper meaning for me than in the past. As we sang our National Anthem this past Sunday, I pondered over those things that it stands for, the freedoms and blessings that I enjoy as a citizen of this country.

    "Oh say, can you see, by the dawn's early light, ...."

    The words to this precious song are rarely sung by my own mouth. For me the words usually go more like this: 

    Seven years of marching band, playing our national anthem at every home football game, many pep rallies, and other performances have ingrained this in my brain and muscle memory. It helps me to remember that the celebration of our freedoms and those things our nation is built upon is not just a celebration for a single day. It is something to be remembered every time we participate in any event, gathering, or church service.

     I have also spent many years playing in community music groups, symphonies, bands, and church related groups. They have given me the opportunity to play for many occasions including national holidays, remembering our veterans and those who currently fight for our freedoms. I'm sure all of you will agree that words are very powerful and that writing is a great expression of the soul. For me, music speaks much louder than words. A great speaker may stir my soul, but music moves my soul. It brings tears to my eyes to sing, play, or hear these great works of music. I am grateful to have these great reminders each and every day of the blessed country I have to live in and be a part of. It gives me a great desire to take more part in the decisions that are made that will have lasting effects on our country's future.

    Let us remember that this is a Promised land. Let us declare, shout, and sing our praises to God, and express our thanksgiving for a blessed nation, not just on the Fourth of July, but EVERY DAY.



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Creativity

What is creativity? When we are talking about fiction writing, we are usually talking about taking seeming unrelated things, smooshing them together in unexpected ways, and pulling a book out of your brain through the painful process of translating it from brain to fingers and onto the page.

But lots of time we take what has already been deemed a "classic" and see a whole new spin on it. How could we not, as we are different than the original creators? That doesn't make our efforts less original, though the source material is well known. Instead our efforts, combined with the strong foundation of the original work, can help us reach heights we couldn't achieve on our own.

In light of that, I'd like to present two videos from "The Piano Guys". They are Jon Schmidt and Steven Sharp Nelson, a pianist and a cellist, respectively. With classically trained musicians, it's almost expected that you keep to the canon of accepted classical music. But they have succeeded in taking it to a whole different level. One is a fascinating interpretation of "Carol of the Bells" in honor of Christmas. The other is a hilarious take on a modern classic. As you listen, see if you can pull inspiration from these classics, with a twist. Imagine what kind of twists you could create on something you know well. It could be just what you need to jump start your writing this winter. Merry Christmas!