Guest Post: Music Inspiration for "The Weeping"

Music Inspiration for "The Weeping"

One of the questions many people ask me is, “What type of music do you listen to when you write?”

My answer is typically something along the lines of, “I don’t listen to music while I’m writing, I find it too distracting.”

While I don’t listen to music while I write, I do listen to a lot of music between writing. Not only does it calm me, but I also find a lot of inspiration in songs for characters, and for those hard to write scenes.

When I wrote “The Weeping”, there were three specific songs that I always listened to when I needed to “feel” a certain character -- namely Catherine, Heath & Molly.

Catherine, when she was alive, had a very rough life. She didn’t have many friends, thanks to her mother’s crazy ways, and people didn’t take her seriously. The only thing that kept her going was her love for Phillip. Even after he broke up with her, she held onto him because he was the only bright spot in her life. Even after her death, she clings to him. The power of her love, and her need to know he loved her back is what keeps her from moving on.

I felt that Jason Walker’s “Down” perfectly describes what Catherine is going through. Here are a few of the lyrics:

Not ready to let go
Cause then I'd never know
What I could be missing
But I'm missing way too much
So when do I give up what I've been wishing for.

I shot for the sky
I'm stuck on the ground
So why do I try, I know I'm gonna fall down
I thought I could fly, so why did I drown?
Never know why it's coming down, down, down.
Oh I am going down, down, down
Can't find another way around
And I don't want to hear the sound, of losing what I never found.

The character of Heath had a very easy life before the accident that killed his friends. Heath is an only child, was very good at sports, and one of the most popular guys in school, but after the accident, things changed. Heath is left with a lot of guilt. He feels his friends are dead because of him and he can’t let that go. In his mind, everyone blames him and it gets to be too much for him. When he meets Molly, he is immediately attracted to her, but he knows he could never date her. Not only is his friend Luke interested in her, but Molly is so lively and fun. Heath doesn’t think he would be good for her. My inspiration for Heath – especially pertaining to his feelings toward Molly – was the song “Belong” by Cary Brothers:

The moon is the only friend I have outside
One more drink and I'll be healed
I told you the words and then knew it was a lie
I wish I could offer an appeal

You're wrong
I don't belong
You're wrong
I don't belong to you

As I mentioned before, Molly is lively and fun, but she is also very down to earth, and though Heath won’t admit it in the beginning, she is exactly what he needs. After losing both of her parents, Molly understands Heath’s sense of loss and the pain he is going through. My song for Molly was Elisa’s “Dancing”, which fits for several reasons. First of all, Molly is a dancer, and I often visualized her pouring out her feelings while dancing to this song – a song about wanting to rescue someone and hold onto them even if it means she may get hurt.

I'm dancing in the room as if I was in the woods with you
No need for anything but music
Music's the reason why I know time still exists
Time still exists
Time still exists
Time still exists

So I put my arms around you around you
And I hope that I will do no wrong
My eyes are on you they're on you
And I hope that you won't hurt me

YouTube Link to the song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GO82zI3Wojw
YouTube Link to a performance on SYTYCD:  http://youtu.be/rRrBdU-ztO8

I had to throw the dance video in there. That is one of my all-time favorite numbers from “So You Think You Can Dance”, and it fits the tone of Molly and Heath's relationship pretty well, too.

So there you have it - the music that inspired three of my characters. What do you think? Do you love the songs? Hate them?

I’d like to thank Melissa for having me today!