A Good Song can Inspire

An Example of an artist who constantly inspires
MP3 player © vectorlart – Fotolia.com

I write to playlists. Each one composed of songs that inspire or really relate to the story I’m working on. But I find a really good song, with well written lyrics, makes me want to write.

Whether it tells a story itself, or just has amazingly emotional lyrics, I’m always in search of a great tune. If I’m lucky, I find one that I can listen to multiple times a day, everyday, for months on end and never get tired of it.

For instance, a catchy song like “Call Me Maybe” may find it’s way onto my playlists, but it will never stay around because it’s just beaty filler that doesn’t do much more than give me energy. Better for a long walk than a writing marathon. But “20 Good Reasons” or “Good to You”, songs that have some power behind them may make their way on a permanent playlist, retired from future projects but can still be listened to on repeat without issue.

And of course there are songs that I’ve stumbled across melodies that I have yet to tie to a story but I feel desperately need to be. I feel like I’m wasting a good tune if I can’t find a project that it “fits”. I feel worse when there’s an artist that has a lot of these and I can’t seem to use them properly.

Maybe I’m the only writer out there who feels this way, or maybe there’s a ton of us that have a folder filled with amazing pieces of work that they just don’t use. But then again, I may be the only one that uses a song only once. Either way, I hate feeling like I’m doing an injustice to something that is trying really hard to plant the seed of a story in my head, but it just never seems to be ready.