Writing Prompt: writing to music

 

Quickly find some music to listen to – turn on the radio, ask your smart speaker or find something on your phone. Listen for twenty minutes and note down all the images that come to you. Pick three of them, or more if you wish. 

 

Can you weave these into a story? Or will these lead to a piece of creative non-fiction? Does music already tell a story?  

 

If you’re listening to a pop-tune can you unfold the words a little?  What has made the singer tell this story?  Remember of course the rules about not using song lyrics in fiction. Could such music be the catalyst to a story rather than be telling the story itself?

 

For example could you tell the story of someone watching the roof-top performance by the Beatles?  Might your story be about someone listening to this music and making ti all about them?      

   

Might the music just be a background to your story.  

Gifts

 

Have you thought of turning your work into gifts.

Limited edition

Consider producing a short story or piece of flash fiction that you give away as a limited edition. You could make this into a little booklet, hide it in a ring-pull can (available from https://tinwaredirect.com/products/pressitin-body-and-base ) or perhaps put in pretty little box or envelope.  There are some lovely products available.

You can use the function in Microsoft Word to print your work as a booklet. Vista Print and Canva  (see below) are also helpful. 

Greeting cards

Make your own greetings cards from short poems such as haiku. You could make an acrostic poem about the person to whom you are sending the card. Start each line with a letter from their name.

Poetry as art

Get one of your poems printed in a large font.  Frame it. You could take a photograph or supply a piece of your art work to go with it. Not good at photography or art? Could you work with a friend who is?

Poems and Flash Fiction – wearable and usable

Take a look at Vista Print: https://www.vistaprint.co.uk/

Could you provide a poem or a piece of flash fiction to go on:

Mugs

Coasters

Mouse mats

Bags

T-shirts

Water-bottles

Note books

Calendars

Vista Print can also help with calendars. Create your text and turn it into a picture. For each month choose a poem, a piece of flash fiction or an extract from a longer work.    

Design with Canva

You can have a free account with Canva. A professional account isn’t over expensive or a group of people can join together to use a professional account. The professional account allows you lots of extra resources. A great advantage of using Canva for design is that you can get your work to the right size and resolution for your projects. Using this tool is almost as creative as the writing itself. https://www.canva.com