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So, what does inspiration sound like? It sounds like the sum of whatever you desire to take you to the world of the unwritten and coerce you into writing something. The sound can be anything. Let me repeat that. The sound can be ... anything. A child laughing could spark a thought that opens up a world of make believe. The sound of tires screeching could ignite a concept that drags you down the road at a hundred and twenty miles an hour with the sounds of metal crashing all around you. The chants of a hundred people could open up your mind and send you on a journey all the way to the end of a one damn good novel. When I write I always, once again I must repeat myself ... 'always' have something playing in the background. My flavor of choice could be anything. Whatever it takes to get them juices moving. It might be a specific song to capture the mood of the moment. It might be one continuous hum of notes priming my inner ear to funnel in the whomever and whatever.
For today's blog I will share with you some of the noise I absorb when the go needs to flow.
As I write, I imagine the characters springing to life on the theater's ninety foot screen in my mind's eye. I picture my thoughts as they would be after Hollywood had its way with them. I hear my words bellowing out of the surround sound speakers. The sounds of dialog. Crashes. Background noise. Everything. If it's got a ding or a hum or the sound of water dripping, I imagine it as if I were sitting in the back of a darkened theater with Dolby surround wrapping its audible arms around me. How awesome would it be to sit with keyboard in hand in a theater and write? Write a page, hit enter and watch it come alive in front of you. If it needed tweaking, hit backspace, rewrite, hit enter, and watch the altered version play out. Hell, writing bliss. I can only dream. The sidetracked point I'm trying to make here is that I connect the sounds I listen to to what might be heard behind the story playing out in front of me. So, what are some of the sounds I listen to? Allow me to share a few with you. Please, click on and get a little taste of what goes through my head as I do what I do.
This is one of my go to continual background sounds. It's long, dark, mesmerizing, and such a great noise to keep you in the zone. This particular one works well when writing on Gahnsonne my original vampire book. To me, it just screams the sounds of the biters. Whether the moment is a quiet one with Gahnsonne searching his thoughts and reflecting on a past time or maybe sizing up a potential victim who is about to give up some of that ruby red in their neck vein. This soundtrack has many different sounds for many different situations. I've also used this one for several of my other dark and disturbing writes.
This is another gem I stumbled upon. I needed some background noise to whisk me away to Ireland where I could imagine Gahnsonne meeting his partner in bite, the lovely Saelova. Something about this song helped me create the world of Irish green hills and the mystical magic of becoming a vampire in a beautiful way, as she did.
If you've already read my book, Caesar's Move, then you will remember the moment Marcus drove the streets of San Francisco while listening to this song. If you don't remember because you haven't read it yet ... what are you waiting for? Jump on over to angelobain.com and grab a copy. I spent a lot of time on Google Maps driving through San Fran and this little jingle always seemed to help me out.
This particular Manson song helped me out while creating the psychotic moments of Caesar. I tried to give him so much depth. From arrogance to childlike insanity. I wanted the reader to feel just how far gone the man was and this seemed to capture the vibe I was looking for.
The music of the times. That's what I listen to while writing on To Save One Man. If it was popular during the Vietnam war era then that's what was playing in the background. A whole lot of Rolling Stones, The Animals, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Jimi Hendrix, and such could be heard from my office when I am working on this story. I want to imagine what an eighteen year old growing up in that time would feel like while sitting on a helicopter, moments away from jumping out onto foreign soil. A feeble attempt to fully grasp the emotions, I know, but it does help. If you were a part of that world during that time the I must first thank you for your service and second, wish for you a peaceful mind and heart.
So, there you have it. These are just a few examples of what the sounds of inspiration (to me) sound like. Trust me, there are way too many for me to give you here. I had some choice classical tunes when writing Caesar's Move and have some instrumentals from the Italian 50's when I sit down to write on Gahnsonne. Music, music, music. Oh how it does help put me in the mood to write. I wanted this blog to be a bit more interactive for you so you could not only read my nonsense but be able to push play and venture down my rabbit hole just a little. Some of these you may already know, some you may not. Either way, I hope this gives you a better sense of who I am, what and how I do what I do. Grab yourself a good book and let it take you away.
Until then, continue to feed your brain. You owe it to yourself.
Angelo
angelobain.com
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