There was a writing exercise my favorite teacher in high
school would occasionally have us do (this was back in the pre-Common Core [TM]
days, when teachers had some freedom with their curriculum). He would play a
piece of instrumental music and have us write to the music. I don’t mean write
to the beat – though I suppose one could have done that. And I don’t mean
listening to music to help capture a tone, as I described the other week. I
mean we would listen to a piece of music and write in a stream of
consciousness. You could write in prose or fragments, a narrative or just a
scene, where ever the music took you.
This exercise was something I’d all but forgotten about
until it came time to write a particular sequence in my story. I don’t know how
it came to mind, and I don’t know how this particular song came to mind (I don’t
get the Led out much these days), but for the particular scene I had in mind,
it was perfect.
Have you ever done any stream of consciousness writing to a
piece of music? Where does your mind go when listening to this song? Let me
know in the comments below.
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