Guest Blog with Charlotte Blackwell
What inspires you? We all have something that inspires us. It could be our children that inspire us to be better people, or out grandparents that inspire us to be hard workers. I have several things that inspire me, but when it comes to writing my inspiration comes from music.
Music can do so much to the human body. It can bring back a memory that has long been forgotten. It can make you think of a place you want to go, someone you once met. Music can bring all kinds of feelings and emotions to the surface. A certain song can make you cry, laugh, or even feel love just by hearing a few notes from it. Some songs can even bring out frustration if you don’t like that song, artist or genre. When you have your first kiss or you dance with the love of your life, you will never forget the song that played. My husband and I first danced to a Grease Lighting Remix at my cousins wedding. Now every time I hear that song I laugh because neither of us can dance.
So how do I find inspiration from all the different songs out there? Well I draw on the feelings that I get when listening to a song. I pull from the lyrics of the song and what that song means to me or more so what it means to my characters. A song can make a variety of things happen to the story or the characters involved in the story. When I first started writing I wouldn’t listen while writing only before I would write. Now I have music on all the time.
Now what kind of music do I listen to when I write, well get a pen and write these bands down because they are AMAZING! I listen to all genres, but I have really taken to the pop/punk genre. Marianas Trench is my all time favorite band. Their music all tells a story and each time I listen to it I get something different from it. From there I have found other great bands that I have also added to my playlist. Bands like Fighting For Ithaca, Halfway to Hollywood, For One More Day, Hey Bombshell and so on. Now country music also offers a lot to my writing too. I like listening to it when I have to write a romantic scene or a sad scene. I also know lots of authors that listen to classical while they write. So whatever music you like to listen to, next time sit down, close your eyes and just see what it makes you think of. You will see how powerful music can be to your mind, heart and soul.
Now of course there is one…no three other things that inspire me and that’s my children. They inspire me to follow my dreams, be the best I can be and always try my hardest to succeed. No matter what it is that inspires you to do better in your life, grab a hold of it and let it take you where ever your dreams lead you.
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Author Elissa Daye 