 Short Stories: October 02, 2013 Issue [#5923] |
  Short Stories
This week: Music as a Tool Edited by: 🦄🏳️🌈Sapph  
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The purpose of this newsletter is to share my personal thoughts and ideas of what can make (or break) a short story. In doing so, I hope to inspire new, creative stories and to help short story writers improve their craft.
Today's Topic
Music as a Tool
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Many writers listen to music while writing a story. When I'm writing, I have to have some music going in the background. Even writing this newsletter I have music on.
Music can be used as a tool by writers in a number of different ways. It can help to set the mood of a story you're writing, it can get your mind into a story or it could inspire the whole thing!
 Setting the mood
Many stories have a mood that you, the author, are trying to direct to the reader and make them feel. Listening to music that evokes those same kind of feelings in you could help to translate them into your writing.
 Get your mind in it!
Every story that I write has a mindset that I need to be in when writing. I use music to get myself into that particular set of thoughts. This can be music that draws on the mood I'm attempting to convey or a playlist/song that encompasses the direction and feel of the story. This could not only help when writing, but if you would hear a song used somewhere else it could make you reflect on the story and ways to continue or improve it.
 Inspiring the story
Music is even capable of sparking a story. A song has the ability to resonate with you and brings some ideas to mind. If you're struggling for ideas, listening to some music could help to inspire that next story.
The next time you're writing a story, think about using music as a tool to create the world you imagine through mood, mindset and inspiration!
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My question for you this time: Do you use music when writing a story? How do you decide what music to listen to while writing?
Question from before: When writing a story, do you tend to include pieces of your own experiences or simply from imagination?
Rhyssa  replied: The simple answer: yes. The longer, more complicated answer: I write from my own experience or simply from imagination--depending on what I'm writing. Everything that I write takes from experience, but it's crafted by imagination. I get in trouble if I try to come too close to either extreme--if I get to close to experience, my writing suffers. If I rely too heavily on imagination, the writing isn't emotionally grounded and relevant. Even when I'm writing a character who is far from me, I need to use my experience to make him or her feel true. On the other hand, if I'm too close, I leave things out--so it reads like an inside joke, not a story.
blunderbuss replied: Enjoyed the newsletter - not too long and just covers the one, pretty major issue! Thank you. As to the question - I think you draw on your own experience whether you are conscious of it or not. I find when it's very direct, I have to shift it to 3rd person - it can be too painful otherwise! Plus, that little bit of distance can help with really tough experiences - I mean the writing is better.
Inordinate Allen replied: I've been trying to do a little of both. Writing from experience is definitely easier, but I think it limits your creative options. Writing from imagination is riskier. You're taking a chance that it just won't jive. I believe that the potential rewards are worth it, though.
shaara replied: An agent I was working with said to never, never write from a personal experience. She said it trapped the mind into relaying the truth. I didn't agree with her, but it was an interesting thought. Sometimes a story really can be improved from departing from what really happened. We can take that piece of drama, that setting, that horrific incident where we wish it had gone.
Of course, I don't have a lot of problem in that area. No aliens dropping into my personal experience, which means that I always get to have an adventure outside my compass. Much much more fun!
vada replied: Interesting newsletter. I've done both, but believe that those I've written based on my own experience have been easier to write and hopefully, added depth to the characters.
maieshl replid: Writing from experience and the use of ones imagination are both at hand in creating a story. I, for one, base some of my writings on past experiences and adding a brush of imagination to make it a tad different from mine -- to be its own. Or, maybe it's the other way around. I write using my imagination then incorporate a scenario that I've lived through to make it more realistic. Either way, both are essential tools.
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