Video game music is almost as good as movie soundtracks at evoking a sense of scene for me. They’re always filled with emotion and pictures, which makes them very easy to match to scenes while writing. Today’s piece of music is one of my favourite writing songs. While it does contain lyrics, they are surprisingly non-distracting. This week’s writing music is an amazing arrangement of the song Baba Yetu, the theme of the game Civilization IV, performed by one of my favourite musicians, acappella singer Peter Hollens.

To me, this song is all about beginnings and discovery. The start of the piece especially feels like we’re sweeping into a scene from afar, zooming in. It would suit a scene where a character is discovering an exciting new place for the first time or a scene where the character is having a new experience. It could also fit a scene where the characters are setting out on a quest, all positive and full of excitement about the road ahead.

What sort of scene do you think this piece suits? What writing music are you listening to this week?

Over the past couple of months, I have been studying poetry as part of my university course. Now I would be the first to admit that I’m not that good at writing poetry. My poems range in quality from horrendous to merely terrible. However, I do enjoyed reading and analysing poems. Their imagery, creative metaphors, and often elegant language have a strange appeal. And while I have been studying the mystical world of the poem, I have learnt something interesting. Writing poems teaches you not only how to write poetry, but also how to write better prose as well. To prove it, I’ve made a list of three things that poetry can teach you about writing in general.

To Write Briefly: Some poems, like the Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner, go on and on for pages true. But the majority of poems are short. Some, like The Red Wheelbarrow, are no more than twelve words long. Some are even shorter than that. However, despite their lack of length, most poems either tell a compelling story, or contain a deep thought captured inside a tiny space. Writing poetry teaches you to convey your message in a small amount of words, yet without compromising any of its meaningfulness.

To Describe Well: Poems are filled with beautiful images, imaginative metaphors, and creative descriptions that colour the world in a totally new way. It’s this creative way of looking at and describing the world that makes each poem unique and enthralling to read. Writing poems forces you to think outside the box and be creative in the way you describe things so as to avoid boring clichés while portraying a thought or idea in a new light. So poetry teaches you how to describe things in a vivid, unique way.

To Hear the Musicality of Words: Some poems seem to sing off the page. Every word works with the others for a harmonious sound and a poem that flows effortlessly. The best poems manage this in the simplest way without resorting to ‘purple prose’. Composing poems gives you a great sense of the musicality of words as you are forced to think carefully about each word you use and how it affects the overall work. In poems especially, the right combination of words really makes a piece sparkle. Writing poems helps develop your ear for the right combination of words to make your writing really stand out.

So there you have it, three reasons why writing poems is good for you. Do you write poems? If you’ve ever written poetry, what do you think you’ve learnt from the experience? Do you agree with any of my points?

I am a big fan of Disney movies, and especially of the amazing music in those films. I shared a few of my favourite Disney songs in Writing Music posts last year, which you can find here, here and here. Today’s piece is another great Disney song. This time it’s The Circle of Life from The Lion King. However, this isn’t the ordinary version from the movie but a breath-taking remix by African musician Alex Boye.

This remixed song has quite a tribal feel to it with the drums and other instruments in the background. It is a positive, upbeat song, with a feeling of determination in its strong beat. I think it would do very well as either inspiration for a tribe, or as a theme song for a character who has a dark past but who is pushing past it and not letting it drag them down.


What are you listening to this week? What is your favourite Disney song?

It’s been a while since I last joined in with the Top Ten Tuesday linkup, which is a bookish meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. So it’s more than time for me to share some of the books I’ve been reading. This week’s subject is a freebie, so even though it’s halfway through January already, I thought I’d recap my top ten reads from 2014. Here we go!

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This is the third and last book in the Shadowfell series, one of my favourite fantasy trilogies. It’s full of Irish style faeries, which is so cool, and is the conclusion of an epic quest to save both the magical and the mortal worlds from a tyrant. I was almost afraid to read this book in case the ending didn’t match up to expectations. But read it I did, and I was ever so glad. This is an epic ending to a great series.

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These books both deserve to be on my list because they are as awesome as each other. I am a huge fan of fairy tale retellings, and these are some of the best I’ve ever read. They have androids, cyborgs, spaceships, and are still recognisable as Cinderella and Little Red Riding Hood retellings. I don’t know how Marissa Meyer did it. These books also inspired me to start writing my own series of fairy tale retellings.

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This book was a bit of a dark horse to me. It had something to do with a giant wasp, and that’s exactly the only thing I knew when I borrowed it. It turned out to be a story about miniaturised people, insects, and broccoli. It has hilarious humour too. It’s definitely one of my most fun reads from last year.

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Again, two books that both need to be on this list. I knew nothing about these books when I borrowed them either (that seems to happen to me a lot). Turns out it was a post-apocalyptic fantasy book with snooty faeries and man eating plants. Trust me, you do not want to go out and pick the daisies in this world. And it has the sweetest lead male I’ve ever met. Another great discovery.

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This was one of my two most anticipated books released last year. It’s the last book in Rick Riordan’s Heroes of Olympus series. I’d like to say I was nervous about seeing whether he was going to wrap the series up well in this book, but this is Rick Riordan we’re talking about. I’ve only read about twelve of his books without being disappointed so far. Obviously he wasn’t going to disappoint me now.

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This was my other most anticipated book release of 2014. Some of you may remember that I was gushing over the first two books in the series earlier last year (those being The Raven Boys and The Dream Thieves). So of course I was desperate to read this book too. And Maggie Stiefvater did not disappoint. Loved the book so much. I think the characters were even better in this book that they were in the last two. Can’t wait for book 4!

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This book is written in a really unusual story telling style, which I found rather cool. It also has ghosts in it, which I’m not normally into with my books. But the main character was so quirky and lovable that she make the book awesome. She kept introducing herself as different people, which is something I’d love to be able to do. And it had faeries. Hmm, a lot of my favourite books from last year had faeries. Coincidence?

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I borrowed this book simply for that one line on the cover that says ‘This is not a love story’. Obviously that meant it was in fact a love story, but it definitely wasn’t conventional, which made it all better. It has a secret group terrorising the school, an unusual romance, and burning buildings. What else is needed for a great book?

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I wasn’t sure I was going to like this book when I started it. It looked a bit too romantic for my tastes (a very little romance will suffice for me), but I was really glad I stuck with it though. It has two different timelines for the same characters, which somehow managed not to be too confusing, and one of the funniest male romantic leads I think I’ve ever read about. Totally still sad about the ending though.

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I mentioned this book a few times last year after I first read it, but it definitely earned its place on this list. It has really weird superpowers and people literally living in pockets of the past which are hidden in the present. Plus the old photos that are scattered through the book are super creepy. Still haven’t managed to read the sequel yet though. Maybe this year it’ll happen?

Have you read any of these books? What was one of your favourite books from last year?

While surfing through YouTube this week, on the prowl for great new music to share with you all, I stumbled upon a real gem of a song. Most people have heard Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy from The Nutcracker Suite at least once in their lives. This version, performed by the talented Pentatonix, is sung acapella, and it is, in one word, amazing.

Watching this video, I immediately thought that it felt rather like a darker fairy tale retelling. To me, this song has more than a hint of tension, not like the character is in immediate danger, but maybe like they’re searching for something, or moving through a building while their nerves are on high alert. It could just be me, or the animation from Disney’s Fantasia, but this also has a feel of snow about it.


Do you get a fairy tale feel from this video? What sort of scene or situation do you think this fits? What are you listening to this week?