Music Monday: Too Long Since the Last Prompts

Well indeed, the title says it all. So here is a set of prompts for you.

1. People never crumble in a day. (Slow Fade - Casting Crowns)
2. Will someone please radio for help? 'Cause I think I'm allergic to myself. (The One Thing I Have Left - Hawk Nelson)
3. There's just too much that time cannot erase. (My Immortal - Evanescence)

Enjoy these prompts, and let me know, as always, if anything comes of them!

Music Monday: Another instrumental

Remember those things called instrumentals that I wrote once upon a time? This one is called Tears. For those of you who are familiar with Waffles, he was with me when I recorded the song. If you know enough about music, you'll notice that he raises his head during the only major chord in the song, which I thought was pretty cool.

Anyway, enjoy this, and I hope it's inspirational in some way!

Music Monday: Dragging Out My Old Music

I used to write songs fairly often, and even recorded them on occasion. Sometimes people really like a song with deep lyrics, or just some lyrical instrumental music. I started a series of lyrical instrumental music a while back and thought I would share a piece I wrote called Conflicted.

Does the title spark some interest to you? Maybe the piece itself? Yes, it's on the short side, but that doesn't mean something can't come out of it.

Let me know your thoughts below!

Music Monday: Promptly Prompting Prompts

Sorry for the puns and alliteration, but I was hoping it would grab your attention. Now that I have it, how about attempting to write about some of these prompts?

1. Stay away from me, I need you too badly. (Stay Away - Secondhand Serenade)
2. I tried to be perfect, tried to be honest, tried to be everything you ever wanted... tried to be everything but you. (Everything You Ever Wanted - Hawk Nelson)
3. Now we've lost it all, and we can't go back, I'm sorry, I can't be perfect. (Perfect - Simple Plan)

Enjoy, and remember, if you write something based on one of these prompts, please let me know!

Music Monday: The Return of the Prompts

Now that you've seen an example of how to go about using these Monday prompts, how about I give you a few more?

1) It gets harder everyday, and I love you more than I did before. (Stay - Miley Cyrus)
2) My heart is so jet lagged. (Jet Lag - Simple Plan)
3) Today, you walked out of my life. Today, your words felt like a knife. (Like a Knife - Secondhand Serenade)

Write away right away! It takes five minutes! Give me your stories of what happens with these prompts!

Music Monday - A Writing Sample

The following is an excerpt from a lyric war I did based on the following:

"I'm in love with my own sins." (The American Suitehearts – Fall Out Boy)

***

When I do it, I know it’s wrong. But I love it.

I love it. I hate it. But sometimes, I think a bigger part of me loves it.

My hand, wrapped around the knife, clenches tighter. I’ve been told all my life it’s a sin to hurt myself. My body is supposed to be “a temple.” I’m not supposed to mutilate it. Slice it. Cut it.

But I do it anyway.

The door is locked. I lean against it, knees curled up to my chest. My arm trembles. It’s not the first time I’ll do it, and it won’t be the last. This should feel normal by now. I should be able to just do it. Don’t think. Just do. Think later.

I tell myself I’ll stop when I want to. Every day that passes is deemed the day I’ll finally not do it. But there’s no other way to take away the pain. As the world destroys me, I need to destroy something. And the only thing I can actually destroy is myself.

My eyes close. Metal against flesh. Just a little less space and they’ll meet. And since I’ve done this so many times before, this time, I won’t feel a thing.

The blade sinks into my arm.

I was wrong.

I still feel something.

***

I took this piece of writing and modified it to put it into my novel in verse, Indelible. As an example of what can be inspired, changed, or modified from a lyric war, I've put a sample below.

Music Monday: The Prompts Continue

Once again, please let me know if a prompt inspires you, or if you know of a really inspiring song that you want to share with others!

Otherwise, you'll be subjected to continuing to receive lyric prompts out of my limited pool of knowledge.

1. You're like my first bad habit, how am I gonna give you up? (First Bad Habit - Vanessa Hudgens)
2. Don't tell me who I should be, and don't try to tell me what's right for me. (Shut Up - Simple Plan)
3. So please let me be free from you. Please, let me be free, I can't face the truth. (Pretend - Secondhand Serenade)

Enjoy the prompts, enjoy the songs, and happy Monday!

Music Monday: Continuing the Lyric War Prompts

Hopefully, these posts are inspiring your writing, as well as introducing you to new music! Without further ado, I shall present some more lyric prompts.

1. I'm no one special, just another wide-eyed girl who's desperately in love with you. (Superstar - Taylor Swift)
2. I'd rather be anywhere else, anywhere else, anywhere else but here. (Anywhere Else But Here - Simple Plan)
3. I'm putting my defenses up, 'cause I don't want to fall in love. If I ever did that, I think I'd have a heart attack. (Heart Attack - Demi Lovato)

Enjoy, and happy new Monday!

Music Monday: Additional Lyric Prompts

As per what should hopefully be tradition each Monday from last week on, here are three quick writing prompts from songs that I happen to enjoy.

1. All this money can't buy me a time machine. (The One Who Got Away - Katy Perry)
2. When you get what you want but not what you need. (Fix You - Cold Play)
3. I must confess that I feel like a monster. (Monster - Skillet)

As mentioned last time, please send anything inspired by these lyric prompts my way if you happen to come up with something interesting, whether it be flash fiction or an entire novel. I'd love to see how this music can inspire you! If nothing, at least you have three new songs to look up.

Music Monday: Introducing Lyric Wars

*Adapted from when I blogged for The Sleepless Writers

For those who have never heard of it, I would like to introduce a concept called “lyric wars.” A lot of writers I know already participate in a game called “word wars,” where a certain time is set (i.e. from :10-:20 of whatever hour it is, as a lot of us are in different time zones) and whoever is participating writes for that amount of time straight. In this example, everyone would write for ten minutes, then post what they wrote and get feedback from the other writers. Lyric wars are different in that one person will first choose several different songs as prompts. Those participating typically vote on which prompt they want to write, and then they all write a scene inspired by those lyrics for 5 or 10 minutes. (I typically go for 5 for lyric wars.)

Why are lyric wars so awesome? My August NaNo novel was inspired by a random lyric war. Intending for it to just be a short story, I tried to expand on the 100 words I wrote in those 5 minutes. Then those 100 words became 1000, then 2000, and then before I knew it, I was writing a novel instead of a short story for an anthology. Point is, unexpected things can happen from lyric wars. So give them a shot! The possibilities are endless.

I plan to regularly post three lyric prompts every Monday. Please tell me stories of what happens with these prompts! The goal is to inspire others. (I'm happy to look over anything you might write based off them.)

Prompts for this week:

1. Your love is where I'm falling, but please don't catch me. (Catch Me - Demi Lovato)

2. It's like the world's closing around us and we're doing just fine. (No Distance - Jason Chen)

3. Every time I fight, the scars are gonna heal, but they're never gonna go away. (No Love - Simple Plan)

Enjoy, and happy writing!