Where to find inspiration, (Part 5)

You may have thought this series was over. If so, you thought wrong. It has recently come to my attention that I completely neglected to include a HUGE source of inspiration for writing and making art:

MUSIC!

Music can be a such an awesome source of inspiration. I like to listen to all types of music when I’m writing or drawing. I have different playlists in Spotify and on YouTube for setting certain moods or channeling certain characters or environments.

For anyone who has ever created an “OC” or Original Character, I feel like there are always certain songs that remind of you that character. Kind of like a character theme song, so to speak. Sometimes I come up with a song (or list of songs) that help me put myself in that character's head-space so I can write or draw them better.

In case you’re interested, here are just a few of the songs I like to listen to that remind me of characters or places from “A Songbird’s Tale”.

Jaren - Fine Again, by Seether
Jaren - Hard Sun, by Eddie Vedder
Jaren - What I’ve Done, by Linkin Park
Songbird - The Frozen Call, by Jonna Jinton
Songbird - In the Flood, from the Horizon Forbidden West soundtrack
Jaren and Songbird’s campfire moment - On a Good Day, by the Ambientalist
Tigraen - Age of Oppression, from Skyrim, covered/sung by Malukah
*Tigraen - How Many Souls, composed for A Songbir'd’s Tale by Arthur Rowan

*So you will notice that this song was written and composed for my book by Arthur Rowan. When I set out on the journey to write a book, I had no idea I would end up commissioning music for my book. But here we are. I’ve recently reached out to Rowan about writing a second song for my book. (Getting custom, one-of-a-kind music for you story is kind of addicting…) My writing mentor Dustin is also commissioning a few songs for his book, one of which is already finished. (Check out Built To Last).

I am in no way saying you have to have a musician make music for a book if you decide to be a writer. But in my case, this was one of the coolest decisions I’ve made regarding the process of writing a book. I like to have How Many Souls and Built to Last playing in the background when I’m writing and it really sets the tone.

Further, we get the added bonus of the music contributing to our world building. As I’ve mentioned before, one of our long term goals would be to release a World Guide for table top players, so they can also create and enjoy their own adventures in Galhadria.

There’s so much more I could say about music and dozens and dozens more songs I could share. But for now, I think this is a nice selection.

Until next time dear readers, go listen to some tunes and feel inspired! <3 - Tiff

P.S. Go check out Rowan on YouTube where you can listen to his awesome Star Shanties (like a Sea Shanty, but Star Wars!) and support him on Patreon!