I can’t be the only one who imagines entire original scenes while listening to epic music, right? I’m sure that I’m not. But just in case, here’s a writing tip/trick that’s worked extraordinarily well for me: listen to music. Dance around. Imagine things.
Whole stories can come out of scenes imagined from song lyrics or even just instrumentals. Whether it’s Olivia Roderigo or the Piano Guys (and yes, both are on my Spotify playlist), there’s always something to glean from how your brain interprets an artist’s creativity.
Like many fellow writers, I tend to get stuck when I’m in the middle of a novel draft. Around 100 to 150 pages is usually where my muse abandons me and it becomes a slog to struggle through the rest of the draft. Thankfully, the dreaded writer’s block was thwarted while I wrote one of my old fantasy novels, and that’s all thanks to Simply Three. This was around the time when instrumental versions of pop music (sometimes combined with classical music) was booming on YouTube, and Bridgerton made the trend even more popular. As a teenager, I listened to the Simply Three instrumental arrangement of “Wake Me Up” by Avicii instrumental over and over, knowing there was something there, a story to be told.
Without knowing any of the lyrics off the top of my head (besides the obvious chorus), I started imagining an entire scene—no dialogue, just a dance scene. I could see it so clearly in my head, and I had movements and rising action for every note. Acts one, two, and three, all wrapped up in a nice little package. That was one of the most developed scenes in the whole book, and knowing it was coming up (I wrote it out of order) gave me motivation to keep writing and finally get to it. And then, when I did get to the spot where it belonged, I excitedly popped it in and kept writing. It was like a nice little break in the middle of the slog. The next thing I knew, I had the energy to keep going.
I ended up finishing not just that novel draft, but also its two sequels. I started listening to more instrumental covers of pop songs and had one special sequence for each book. I’m not saying that’s all that kept me going—but it was one of the reasons I kept writing through the mid-novel slump.
This is my justification for listening to the same song over and over with my headphones on max volume. My cats look at me like I’m crazy, but sometimes I even act out the scenes like a weirdo (one of the perks of having only cats for roommates—if they’re going to judge me anyway, I might as well have fun with it). Sometimes I don’t imagine any scenes at all. Sometimes my mind sinks its nails into one specific song and creates an entirely new novel series out of it. It’s not like I end up writing them all out—yet—but there’s something special about music that just gives the imagination a special sparkle.
So, here’s a challenge for you: Find a song. Any song. It could be your favorite artist or someone you’ve never heard before. If your mind latches onto it—for the lyrics or the drum beat or something else entirely—then there’s probably a story there. Try listening to it a few times, imagining what could be happening. What characters are there? What’s the situation? Then, write down the scene that comes to mind. Even as a short writing exercise, you’d be surprised at some of the creative visuals that come up.
Rachel Sandell 