inspiration

I listened and I heard music in a word, and words when you played your guitar

The Twirl and Swirl of Letters

Pretty much, Pete Townshend is a lyrical god.

That said, a lot of inspiration can be pulled from music. Inspiration for writing and visual arts, and other music as well.

One of my biggest inspirations is the album Quadrophenia. This was a major influence (along with All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes) on my first novel. I found the ideas expressed on the album weaving their ways through my writing. In the case of the latter, it could have been because I had that album on perpetual repeat during the drafting process.

Quadrophenia in particular provided a lot of ideas because what the main character in the album, Jimmy, goes through similar emotional and personal revelations that my character Will goes through. Isolation, alienation, and, of course, the difficulties of progressing into adulthood.

Sometimes I’ll listen to an instrumental or a foreign language piece to get into a different mood. If I’m writing a particularly emotional bit, I might switch to listening to a track from the Atonement soundtrack (possibly “Elegy for Dunkirk”) or “The Galapagos” from the Master and Commander soundtrack.

Music takes a completely different route in my mind. The different sounds influence how I feel at a moment, or bring back memories.

More on this later.

On inspiration

The Twirl and Swirl of Letters

I get inspiration from everything, but lately my classes have been knocking me over the head, idea wise. I’m taking one on the Prophets and Prophetic Literature in the Bible, and another on human nature.
I find that my writing and characters are taking on some more religious vibes because of the first course, and a wee bit philosophical because of the latter.
The themes that my religion class explore are really fascinating; the enduring ideas of righteousness and justice (plus fun little things like royal theology and, of course, prophetic poetry). Reading this different kind of literature is interesting: it provides a different way to look at things, and has some wonderful turns of phrase.

Human nature is casting a shadow on my work as well. I’ve learned about the philosophical bigwigs–Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, Hobbes, Marx…and their ideas are creeping into my work and thought process. Its easier to create characters with different world views after learning about different philosophies. I may try creating characters that embody different philosophers’ ideas. But that may be a wee bit pretentious of me.