The inspirational Power of Music · 5:35pm Jul 24th, 2014
I haven't done a blog post in quite a while. Things aren't looking so brightly for my stories I suppose. Compared to the hundreds of active readers I had before, I can be lucky for getting even 5 unique clicks for my chapters now. I am not even sure if anyone will bother to read this. But to those few who still read my work, I would like to apologize for taking so long with my chapters. I don't really have an excuse. Though I can say, the next one is mostly done now and only needs a few more scenes before I can send it to pre-reading. It is just developing very slowly at the moment. In any case, to make this up a bit, I would like to share a trick I learned when it comes to writing and finding inspiration.
I know a few guys personaly who want to write stories themselves, but have a hard time finding inspiration. One of my biggest helpers in creating scenes or characters is music. Whenever you have a scene in mind, or just need a song for a specific atmosphere to inspire you, go on youtube. Find a song that appeals to you, preferably purely instrumental, since lyrics often force you to think in a specific way, preventing your thoughts from roaming free to the music. Close your eyes and just try to let things related to your story pop up in your mind as you listen to the song. Sometimes, you can create incredibly epic scenes this way. Have a piece of paper or a writing program open and available as you do that and immediately note down every bit of inspiration. Do not make a selection just yet. It does not matter if the idea is good or bad. Just note it down and make a quality check afterwards.
When it comes to dark stories like mine, I have an awesome two-man band named Nox Arcana. Nearly all the songs I took for inspiration are from them and I consider many of their songs the theme songs of various characters and scenes from the MI series. They sure know how to nail atmospheres. Let me give you some examples.
Dementia 13 (Despair's theme song from MI1)
The Pit and the Pendulum (Skin-walker Despair's theme song)
Calliope (Toxica's theme song)
The White Queen (Crystal Blossom's theme song)
Fading Embers (Amber's theme song)
Echos Of The Living (Theme song of the demon stronghold Tartarus)
Night Wraiths (King Blueblood's theme song)
There are many, many more songs I took from them as inspiration for specific scenes in all three books. If you are interested, I could give you a few more examples. Other than that, this list only serves to show just what kind of impact the right music can have when trying to create a story or a character. Obsidian Shards had by far the most theme songs. A different one for each stage of his development and for various scenes. Perhaps this is why he turned out to be maybe my best, yet most controversial character. Gosh I miss him.
Anyway, I hope this helps you a bit and don't forget, I am always available for comments and questions. Expect the next chapter soon.
Wow, amazing selection of music. My reactions of listening to them.
Despair's theme song = gave me the chills, totaly can picture this music in the background as she is born.
Skin walker Despair's theme song = Feels like it has that "Is something there, is something gonna get me?" feeling
Toxica's Theme song = wow, really great background music for her. Definitely has that deathly playfulness of her.
Crystal Blossoms theme song = Pretty good. Feels like it really fits Crystal Blossom as she's a reaper.
Amber's theme song = Got the chills as how well it felt it fit her when the group first found her.
Demon Strong hold Tartarus = Again, some chills. I imagine this background music as they got closer and closer to the stronghold.
King Blueblood's theme = Has that feel from when they first encountered Blueblood and the 2 Princesses had to give up their powers.
Summary = I can imagine all your music selections that inspired theme/scenes/characters fits just as amazingly as these examples you gave.
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Oh they absolutely do and did. One of my favorite songs from Nox Arcana is Lost in Darkness. I took this as Obsidian Shards' depression theme, during the last few chapters of his life.
Also, I can not help myself but to thank you for sticking around and reading my posts.
Seing that you could actually relate to all scenes across all books gave me some much needed confirmation that my work is not in vain.
2312536 weird, don't understand the reply system, should show your name, but shows numbers.
You are great on your work, no doubt about that. Once you finish this 3rd story, things I imagine will come to a crawl or not even move. But I imagine it took you quite some time for the idea of starting Maledictum Insania to manifest and start even your first chapter of the first story, as you had to pretty much make it from scratch. That said, I will have complete faith and interest if you ever started work on a new series, that it will be just as amazing as the Maledictum Insania series.
And if you want to know my reaction to the song you picked for Obsidian Shards' depression theme, I can picture this music fitting in as he starts hating himself. To me, the music not only fits that depression well but has the feeling of the situation he's in will turn really bad. The very end of the music as it comes to the end, feels to line up on the last moment that Obsidian finally turns insane.
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It shows numbers just until you sent it. If you refresh the page, you will see the numbers are replaced by a name. I still get your messages, dont worry.
MI3 is the last book in the series. It all ends with this one. And yes, it took a long time to develop the storyline. Before I even began to write the first chapter of the first book, I developed the story for over a year. Same goes with every following book, as I developed their concepts while the previous was still going.
That said, I think I am pretty much done writing MLP fanfics after the MI series ends, seeing how people show less and less interest in my gruesome work. I might continue Cupcake Factory for a while, but that will eventually come to an end too.
My plan is to actually go from fanfiction to real books. I want to become a hobbyist author and publish real unique stories to get some money. I have millions of stories in my head outside of the pony universes and I think with all the practise I gained from writing the MI series, I am now well prepared to go for the real deal.
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Ah, ok. Well then, I'm sure you will do quite well. Sorry that the interest of your stories has been decreasing as I'd say they are well written. I'm just a reader but I think this series surely is a great first step for you before heading to real books. I suppose this is just about all there is to say from me for now. Have fun in the meanwhile.
I agree, music helps greatly when writing, I'm writing my original novel that had 14 years of development, but i'm focusing on one character at the moment, and I noticed I wrote a great deal when listening to music, dark music. So it does help.
I quite enjoy your writings, Perhaps advertising on different sites could be helpful to get viewers?
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That is a topic so many others have told me before.
I published the MI series on fanficiton.net, google docs, fimfiction and on deviant art. What more advertising can I as a fanfic author do?
Lost track of how long it has been since last chapter. Started wondering if something gone wrong with my account or something happened to you, mate.
I sometimes listen to music and daydream with scenarios flowing through my mind. Sadly, I kinda gotten bored of writing on my fanfic. I found your fanfic by accident when i was bored, on fanfiction.net. I'm glad you posted it there. I've enjoyed reading it.
I be honest with you, mate. I really think you will do well writing your own books. Your possibly the best fanfic writer I've seen. You never know, one day your book may appear as a movie.
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That would be a dream come true.