CONFESSION TIME: books aren’t my favorite artistic medium. I listen to music allllll day long. While I work. While I drive. While I cook. And you better believe I have something in ears while I write. The only time it’s quiet in my house is when I’m asleep, and even then, a song always seems to be playing in my dreams. (The other night, it was Tom Petty’s “Here Comes My Girl.” Sure was a nice dream.)
If you’ve been following this newsletter for a while (thanks btw ily!), you know how obsessed I am with the differences in artists’ creative processes. I’ve learned a ton from the methods of artists whose mediums differ from my own. And since I love music so damn much, I’m forever finding parallels between music and writing.
It doesn’t hurt that my husband is a musician, and a really good one at that. (A thing I brag about too much: I heard Alex’s music for the first time when one of his bands had a song on my favorite show as a teenager, The O.C., which in retrospect was a terrible show with an incredible soundtrack.) I’m always learning from his process—practicing, noodling, changing one note in a bass line just to see what happens. His approach to music inspires me to get more experimental in my own work.
This week, I rounded up some of my favorite writing tips from a few of my *other* favorite musicians. (Alex, you’re my forever favorite. Happy early Valentine’s.) Let’s find those parallels.
Taylor Swift Watches Movies from the 80s
For her 1989 album, Taylor Swift wrote songs while watching some of her favorite comedies from the 80s.
“I would watch John Hughes movies and I would think, ‘OK, pause, freeze frame: What’s he thinking in this moment? What’s she thinking in this moment?’”
I love this exercise in interiority and use it with my students all the time. (When the All Too Well short film debuted last year, we watched it together in class, listing off emotions we could read on the characters’ faces.) (Yes, I am the coolest writing professor ever.)
If I’m ever having trouble accessing characters’ emotions, I pull a Taylor Swift and give myself a visual. Our imaginations can only fill in so much!
When in Doubt, Jeff Tweedy Writes Nonsense
Wilco is my favorite band of all time. I’ve learned more about writing from frontman Jeff Tweedy than I have from anyone else. Tweedy tells compelling stories and isn’t afraid to get weird in the telling.
Clear storytelling with a sprinkle of the strange. Isn’t that what we should all aspire to in our work? It’s what I attempt every time I sit down with my laptop or pen.
In his phenomenal book How to Write One Song, Tweedy touts the practice freewriting. But not just any kind of freewriting. Nonsense freewriting. Stringing words together just to see what happens, suspending word associations and all that jazz.
This approach might seem like it’s solely for the songwriters and poets out there. I beg to differ. Whenever my prose feels stale, writing a little nonsense in a notebook gets me loose and free. It feels a little crazy. But it works. In Tweedy’s words:
“If you feel a little uncomfortable, maybe a little embarrassed even, you’re on the right track.”
Adele Records Voice Memos of Everything
“My Little Love” is arguably the most emotional song on Adele’s latest record, 30. She wrote it for her nine-year-old son, Angelo, as an attempt to explain a tough, messy concept to him—her divorce to his father.
The song is made even more heartbreaking by the inclusion of Adele and Angelo’s voice exchanges. In what sound like iPhone-recorded voice memos, she tells her son things like:
“Mummy’s been having a lot of big feelings recently.”
“Just like… my feelings are trapped. Like, um, I feel a bit confused.”
“I don’t really know what I’m doing.”
The emotional knife-twist is when Angelo can be heard asking, “Why?” and, “Like how?” And, of course, when he confesses to her, “I feel like you don’t love me.”
Through tears, Adele admits to her listener:
“I’m having a bad day. I’m having a very anxious day. I feel very paranoid. I feel very stressed. I have a hangover, which never helps, but I feel like today is the first day since I left him that I feel lonely, and I never feel lonely.
I love being on my own. I always preferred being on my own than being with people. And I feel, like, maybe a bit like overcompensating and being out and stuff like that to keep my mind off of it. And I feel today I’m home, and I want to be at home. I just wanna watch TV and curl up in a ball and be in my sweats and stuff like that.
I just feel really lonely. I feel a bit frightened that I might feel like this a lot.”
Anxious. Paranoid. Stressed. Lonely. Frightened. Hungover! That’s a lot of vulnerability. And we wouldn’t have heard any of it if Adele hadn’t pressed RECORD.
Taking a page out of Adele’s book, I’ve been recording myself more often. Talking through feelings, through decisions I need to make. Sometimes, I’ll just talk through problems I’m having in the novel I’m revising.
I go back and listen to these recordings weeks later. And when I do, I’m blown away by how vulnerable I’m willing to get when I simply speak. I’m also amazed by how much I can solve through talking. I’m going to use this tool much more often. Thanks, Adele. (lol can you imagine if Adele subscribed to my dumb little newsletter?!)
Really Digging This
I asked my pal Chrissy Hennessey to recommend some books to us. I’ll let her introduce her lovely self and her own writing newsletter, which is an absolute must-subscribe!
Hello! I’m Chrissy and I write So Relatable, a bi-weekly newsletter about creative projects, big goals, and delicious snacks. In each issue I share conversations about the creative process, updates on my writing projects, ideas for nourishing yourself, and a few great links to keep you inspired. Thanks to Hurley for having me; on to the book recommendations!
The Christie Affair — I just started this mystery based on the real-life, 11-day disappearance of Agatha Christie in 1925, and I can’t put it down. Also, not to brag, but Nina de Gramont was my thesis advisor and one of my favorite professors when I was in my MFA program, so it’s been positively delightful to watch the rest of the world realize what a wonderful writer she is.
Outlawed — I loved Anna North’s playful yet poignant twist on the Western genre, this time starring shunned women and non-binary outlaws in an alternate version of the United States. The book I’m working on is about a couple who attempt insurance fraud, so I'm especially interested in stories about people who break laws. This one did not disappoint!
Today a Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket — I picked up this short story collection for two reasons. First, because I just finished the fourth draft of my novel and wanted to remember how short stories work. And second, because it was included on a list of authors who published their debut books later in life. This collection includes stories written over the last 40 years, and it was incredible to watch Hilma Wolitzer’s considerable power as a storyteller get even better over time. (The last story is particularly unforgettable!)
Writing Workshops Coming Up
I’m teaching one-day fiction and nonfiction workshops soon on a computer screen near you! Sign up for my teaching newsletter to be among the first to know when classes are open for registration.
Tell me about your lonely victories.
“I started a book again! I lost a book I’d written with a giant chunk of it drafted to a computer mishap (you know, the not-backing-up-your-work kind) and never got around to starting again. But I just did and I’m so excited to be back at it.” —Taylor
Taylor, I’m so sorry you lost part of your book. I am *beyond* proud of you for taking a deep breath and starting again.
Readers! I want to hear about your lonely victories in your writing life.
Don’t celebrate your wins alone. Share them ~avec moi~ in my reader questionnaire. Merci!