This week’s inspiration post is an exercise I have just attempted, to make sure it’ll work. It’s a bit of fun mixed in with a tried and tested writing exercise – writing to music. I enjoyed this one so I hope you have a go and let me know what you think!
Firstly, find the theme tune from a TV programme you watched as a child – there are loads of these on YouTube. In fact, I got lost in the nostalgia when I was looking for something! Listen to as many or as few as you like, but choose a particular one and listen to it a couple of times, thinking about when you might have watched the programme. Let your mind wander back in time! If the introductory video is also attached watch it if you like. Then write down everything you can think of from your childhood related to that programme – the chair you sat in/the wallpaper in the room/what you might have had for tea/who was with you. If you struggle to be accurate, don’t worry – you can focus on a particular day or a time of day, or simply a few clear details from your house as you grew up, or school. Whatever you find most compelling.
Once you’ve done all of this write a short piece of autobiography or fiction based on what you have written down. I cheated a little, and used the outcome of this exercise for flash fiction as a possible example for my writing group because my partner and I had, independently, both written about space travel so I needed a new approach!
Here’s the theme tune I started with – I’m dating myself a bit with this and can only say I watched it when it was repeated some time after the original release 🙂
My first thought was tea time with cutlery on the table, the retro place-mats we had (and I think my parents still have – they were built to last!); I then thought about a particular food I loved, about the dogs we had growing up that sat semi-patiently waiting for us to drop something. I thought about the carpet, the fireplace, the door to the kitchen. I don’t think all the memories fit together chronologically, but it doesn’t really matter because I write fiction. In fact, what I ended up with was nothing to do with any of these memories, but came from them.
When I’ve shared the piece in my writing group, and had a chance to tidy it up a little, I’ll post it here. And unlike the poem I’ve meant to finish and post, I’ll actually do it!
I’ve given up on that poem for now, by the way. I’m not sure I can focus on an Anglo-Saxon feasting hall – although maybe it’ll be easier than I think, if this exercise took me straight to dinner time..!
Happy writing,
EJ
🙂
Becoming a writer 