‘Sup peeps? KelseyDragon17 here. Young Writer asked me to do a guest article for her, and I’m like, “What? I don’t know how!” But here I am so hopefully this isn’t the worst thing you’ve ever read.

She asked me to write what makes me be creative or what inspires me. So here we go:

The #1 way how I, KelseyDragon17, get my creativity going:

Music.

This has to be the sole reason I’m creative in any way, shape, or form (minus God’s gift of creativity to me 🙂 ). This is what even started the writer in me many years ago.

I don’t play music really. I played piano for 7 years but I’m not naturally gifted at it. But listening to music is everything. It all started in 6th grade, when my dad found these two epic instrumental songs:

Two Steps From Hell – Archangel

Two Steps From Hell – Heart of Courage (Invincible)

I listened to these for hours and hours on my old iPod Nano. I pictured my characters moving along the soundtrack, like a movie, in my mind, and the whole world lit up. I started drawing the images in my mind (my art skills were non-existent at this time), and I started developing my story more. It has come a longgggg way from that time, but it was still a start. I actually didn’t start writing it until 4 years later, after deciding there was no point in waiting. But that’s a story for another day.

I still find music that creates images and movies in my mind. Even now, I come up with new story concepts just from listening to instrumental music. Movie soundtracks are very inspirational too because I always like to think of my stories as becoming movies themselves one day (a girl can dream, can’t she?). Even music with lyrics that match up with your character’s thoughts or emotions. So pretty much any kind of music. I created a youtube playlist so I can listen to it while I’m writing, and that music can even coax a few sentences out of me when I’m having the worst case of writer’s block.  I also found that piano music is also helps me write even if I don’t tie the song in with my stories. Pandora radio is good for that. Also this song: Microsoft Windows XP Welcome Music (I know that title sounds weird, but trust me!)

If any of you are interested in what my Youtube playlist is, than you’re in luck! Here is the link: KelseyDragon17’s Story/Writing Music (lots of links I’m sorry).

But music isn’t just for writing, it can be used for creating art too. This image below was inspired by the song “The Lightning Strike” by Snow Patrol (which is in the playlist by the way).

I made this on my iPad using the Paper app by Fifty-Three. This is one of my characters. This scene doesn’t really happen in my story, but concept art really helps set the mood for the story. Much like how different genres or music styles can help set mood in your story.

I know I’m not the only one who uses music to develop their story. Veronica Roth, author of the bestselling young adult dystopian series Divergent, included playlists at the end of her books. She writes in the bonus section of Insurgent, “I always listen to music while I write, and the music selection process can be tricky, because if I can’t find the right song, sometimes it’s hard for me to work, which is not ideal! I don’t pay attention to genre at all–only to what kind of scene it makes me see.” I feel you, Veronica!

I hope this article was helpful, informative, or at least a little humorous from my complete lack of writing skill. 😛

Hope you have a magical, writing, drawing, inspiration-filled day!