Virginia Crow – On Music as an Inspiration for Writing

I am collaborating with Crowvus Publisher once again for The Creator’s Roulette today! I have author Virginia Crow with me and she is sharing about music and how it inspires her in her writing career. Let’s learn about her first and then we will dive right into music.

Virginia grew up in Orkney, using the breath-taking scenery to fuel her imagination and the writing fire within her. When she’s not writing, Virginia is usually to be found teaching music. She believes wholeheartedly in the power of music, especially as a tool of inspiration. She also helps out with the John o’ Groats Book Festival which is celebrating its 4th year next April. Virginia lives in the far-flung corner of Scotland, soaking in inspiration from the rugged cliffs and miles of sandy beaches.

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Using Music as Inspiration
By Virginia Crow

Before I set off on this music/writing journey, I’d just like to thank Kriti for finding space for me to appear on this blog so close to the publication of my latest book Baptism of Fire. It’s great to have this opportunity to share my thoughts about these two things which are so important to me: Music and Writing.

Whenever I begin writing a new book I always assign it a set of songs or music. It’s part of my writing structure. Sometimes there are an equal mix of songs and instrumentals, but there are almost always a combination of the two. Pieces are rarely exclusive to one book or another, either. These ones ultimately make it onto the Crowvus Inspirational Playlist, our Spotify creation which accompanies many of our writing sessions.

As Crowvus is a family-run business, we spend a great deal of time with one another, including travelling to places. In the car, when a particular song comes on, we’ll ask each other who it’s most like from our writing. This sometimes results in amusing answers, since most of the music we choose to listen to does not match our choice of writings very well!

But the point is there: whenever there is music, there’s writing being thought of. And whenever there is writing, there is music.

While writing is what I spend all my free time doing, it is not my primary occupation. (I’m sure you’ve guessed where this is going!) By trade, I’m a music teacher. As well as teaching people how to play music, my students also look at how certain music creates a required setting. Sometimes it’s more obvious to spot than others, beginning with the favourite question: Is it happy/sad/spooky?

But there is also the personal association we have with music. For example, if a person hears a certain song at a wedding or a funeral, a time of heightened emotional strain, this song will likely conjure either feelings of elation or sorrow respectively. But to someone who has not had that connection with the song, it might represent the exact opposite emotion.

Here’s how I use music to inspire:

• Songs – these I usually designate to characters. The reason for this is that the majority of song lyrics are usually about a person. These can vary enormously in genre and interpretation, and sometimes there is only one line in the whole song which makes it perfect, but that song then becomes intrinsically linked to that character. I don’t just do this for my writing, I also attribute certain songs in my head to real people (usually people from history). From a personal perspective, though, I struggle to write when songs are playing. It’s not that they’re any less inspirational than instrumentals, it’s just that I usually end up interspersing my writing with the song’s lyrics! Songs with lyrics in a language I don’t know are fine, though!
  
• Instrumentals – There is a wealth of hugely evocative music out there! I love that I’m still discovering new composers, some contemporary, others long gone. I love listening to soundtracks, epics being my favourite, and these very often invoke the emotions and the images of the film/series which they are taken from. Whenever I watch a film, I always tune in to the music at least as much as the special effects. This is a double-edged sword for an author, providing a temptation to sink into already written scripts, while they invariably teem with inspirational guidance – why is life never straight-forward?!

So, putting that into practise, here are some examples of music which has greatly inspired my writings (there are three songs and two instrumentals):

1. The Dancing Floor [Runrig] – There is something unspeakably powerful about the nostalgia of this piece. This song, along with Hills of the North, became intwined with my new book Baptism of Fire. And it’s not just the words which make this a nostalgic piece of music. From the first chord and its echoey sound, this music just sings of memory. Each character in this book is affected by a past (who isn’t?) and so this piece fitted it perfectly. As for Hills of the North… well, that would be a spoiler!
2. The Last Farewell [Billy Boyd] – Oh my goodness, I defy anyone to listen to listen to this and not feel even remotely moved! This song, its lyrics and sense of conclusion and entirety, makes this a perfect song for Dr Henry Fotherby in my family saga books Beneath Black Clouds and White and Day’s Dying Glory. For my first ever book launch, my sister made me a CD and this was on it. But each one of the Crowvus writers have claimed this for a character in their own books. I wonder how many other authors have this on their playlist..? For those of you who have never heard this song, this is what it says to me: Longevity comes at a price, but it’s a price worth paying. Isn’t that true of a character in most books?
3. Fortune’s Wheel [Clare Mann, Aaron Jones] – This was found for me by another sister (my sisters are great!) when we were building one another a playlist for our stories. I absolutely fell in love with it! The partnership of flute and vocals is just so evocative, to say nothing of how perfect the words are for Caledon. But, as with the other two songs, I tend to be just jotting down plot notes when this song is playing because, if I was writing, I’d just end up writing the lyrics. Incidentally, this song has a fascinating history, and appears with many slightly different lyrics. This is what make folk songs so intriguing as inspiration for writing – keep your eyes peeled for Dance With Me, a book which is built on this premise.
4. The last three tracks of the Gladiator soundtrack (Elysium, Honour Him, Now We Are Free) [Hans Zimmer] – Yes, there are lyrics, but they are in a language I don’t understand, so I’m able to write as these are playing. It’s a little bit strange hearing these without one another, they run through so perfectly. Between them, the music covers almost every human emotion: hope, sorrow, pride, joy… and so on. The only one missing is fear, so this piece is ideal hero material. Not that heroes feel no fear, but they become heroes when they have confronted that fear.
5. The Breaking of the Fellowship [Howard Shore] – The Lord of the Rings was the first film I bought the soundtrack for. Since then, the music has accompanied me in the writing of every story I’ve written. But this piece just slightly tops the others for me. It’s that long violin note growing out of the darkness of the silence, and the gradual – but subtle – building of the music. As I listen to it, my writing builds in just the same way. Genius! This is one of those pieces of music I wish I had written first!

Now it’s your turn!

What’s the one piece of music which sums up your WIP? Why?

I hope you enjoyed this guest post by Virginia. Connect with her on Twitter (@DaysDyingGlory), Facebook (@DaysDyingGlory); and her website (www.stompermcewan.com).

Banner image from Unsplash.