It Started With a Song
Jun. 14th, 2021 02:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
deemoyzaI came across a lovely post on Tumblr today about how we, as writers and storytellers, include little elements and details in our work that seem mundane to others, but evoke strong emotions in us. The poster describes it as "the quiet, personal mythology of individuals," which is honestly far more elegantly than I would ever be able to describe it, and it really struck a chord with me. It's worth reading the actual post because of how eloquently and accurately it describes this tendency.
It also made me want to share a bit of how that tendency has manifested in my own writing, particularly in regard to the fic, "Where the Streetlights Glow." That fic is littered with quite a few little details from a summer over ten years ago (none of which include the sexy bits in the fic, so don't worry, this isn't going to be TMI), and just writing it made me feel nostalgic and warm.
As the post title suggests, it started with a song.
Back in 2009, I made my first of only two trips overseas to Florence, Italy. I rented a tiny apartment there for a month and would fall asleep each night listening to a local radio station that played a mix of English-language and Italian songs. Which is how Coldplay's "Life in Technicolor ii" became inextricably linked with my experience there. Just hearing the opening notes of the song takes me back to rainy-night carousels and visits to the gelato shop at 11 PM.
This picture captures so much of that trip for me, and I didn't even ride the darn thing.
While I was in the process of developing the fic, that song came up on my iPod (yes, I still use an iPod) while I was working one night, and a lot of the fic's mundane little details began to fall into place.
Dollet has a very western European vibe to me, what with its cobblestone streets and city wall and streetlamp-lined bridge, so that was the perfect setting to inject with some nostalgia-soaked minutiae. The museum and café and the quiet little park; the evening stroll and the chocolate-orange ice cream; the glow of streetlights and even the title of the fic, taken from the lyrics of the song. The only thing missing was the smell from the leather market, but I didn't trust myself to incorporate that without taking the fic too far in a different direction. ;)
That trip in 2009 was such lovely time for me, a point in my life where all possibilities were still open, a time when I was coming into my own as an individual. Every museum and park and niche on the street held the possibility of thrilling discovery, and standing in front of paintings I'd seen in countless textbooks, or walking the same streets as poets and philosophers and artists and inventors walked centuries before me, was both mind-blowing and a nearly religious experience in and of itself. It's no wonder the city and my time there left their prints on my brain, and all it takes to bring it all back is a song, or a smell, or a taste, or just the warm glow of streetlights in the dark, reflected on wet pavement.
Why wouldn't I want to share something like that? Even though the details refer to a strictly individual experience, including them gives me hope that the emotions they stirred in me--the wonder, the excitement, the love--come across in the writing, and gain a life of their own.
It also made me want to share a bit of how that tendency has manifested in my own writing, particularly in regard to the fic, "Where the Streetlights Glow." That fic is littered with quite a few little details from a summer over ten years ago (none of which include the sexy bits in the fic, so don't worry, this isn't going to be TMI), and just writing it made me feel nostalgic and warm.
As the post title suggests, it started with a song.
Back in 2009, I made my first of only two trips overseas to Florence, Italy. I rented a tiny apartment there for a month and would fall asleep each night listening to a local radio station that played a mix of English-language and Italian songs. Which is how Coldplay's "Life in Technicolor ii" became inextricably linked with my experience there. Just hearing the opening notes of the song takes me back to rainy-night carousels and visits to the gelato shop at 11 PM.
This picture captures so much of that trip for me, and I didn't even ride the darn thing.
While I was in the process of developing the fic, that song came up on my iPod (yes, I still use an iPod) while I was working one night, and a lot of the fic's mundane little details began to fall into place.
Dollet has a very western European vibe to me, what with its cobblestone streets and city wall and streetlamp-lined bridge, so that was the perfect setting to inject with some nostalgia-soaked minutiae. The museum and café and the quiet little park; the evening stroll and the chocolate-orange ice cream; the glow of streetlights and even the title of the fic, taken from the lyrics of the song. The only thing missing was the smell from the leather market, but I didn't trust myself to incorporate that without taking the fic too far in a different direction. ;)
That trip in 2009 was such lovely time for me, a point in my life where all possibilities were still open, a time when I was coming into my own as an individual. Every museum and park and niche on the street held the possibility of thrilling discovery, and standing in front of paintings I'd seen in countless textbooks, or walking the same streets as poets and philosophers and artists and inventors walked centuries before me, was both mind-blowing and a nearly religious experience in and of itself. It's no wonder the city and my time there left their prints on my brain, and all it takes to bring it all back is a song, or a smell, or a taste, or just the warm glow of streetlights in the dark, reflected on wet pavement.
Why wouldn't I want to share something like that? Even though the details refer to a strictly individual experience, including them gives me hope that the emotions they stirred in me--the wonder, the excitement, the love--come across in the writing, and gain a life of their own.
no subject
Date: 2021-06-16 06:35 pm (UTC)Thank you so much for sharing!
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Date: 2021-06-25 09:51 pm (UTC)Oh, late-night talks under the stars sound so cozy! It's always so nice when we can incorporate comforting details into our own works. It's a way of opening up and sharing our fond memories without having to spill every little detail, and I love the tiny connections writers and readers can make without even knowing it.