Friday, May 20, 2011

Jamming Out and Jotting Down Article Ideas

My trusty article idea notebook.
To the left, to the left
...side of the brain

I can't rock out and write, but that doesn't mean tunes aren't totally part of my creative process. Courtesy of YouTube, today I danced around while 80's hair bands emoted on love, with a little Beyoncé and Carrie Underwood backbone for some confident hip shakin' attitude. With a clear mind and buoyant spirit, I stopped every now and then, jotting down article ideas in my mini Yahoo! notebook.

Queuing up a Bon Jovi ballad playlist, with the likes of Skid Row ("I Remember You"), the Black Crowes ("She Talks to Angels") and multiple replays of "Irreplaceable"  thrown in for good measure, I shook it while doing laundry and cooking supper. By the time I finished up with "Before He Cheats" I had a nice list of evergreen article ideas and talking points to toy with. Oddly enough, mostly centering around children and business. I would of thought I would have been channeling relationship ideas with those songs, but not so much.

For me, brainstorming article ideas to music has to be done to songs I know so well I can keep belting out the lyrics even if YouTube is buffering in silence. It's a process that requires no
thought. A ritual of the same songs, some from before my teenage years. It keeps me engaged while still keeping my mind open for ideas.




Maybe I should have been concentrating on topics for the eight news articles I should write by the end of tomorrow. Nah. There's not likely to be a lack of material there, with the Zombie Apocalypse and all. Even ignoring a potentially imminent Rapture, I'll find another story angle to write about "in a minute." Don't think so? Well, then, "You must not know about me..." ;-)






What part does music play in your creative process?

Photo credit: Tamara McRill

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