StoryTrax - The Adventures I See in Music - 004 - Sky Mind
Every song tells a story to me. Fascinating visuals broadcast through my mind like an IMAX presentation when I close my eyes and put my headphones on. I'd like to give you a glimpse into what I see, so feel free to listen along as I present the stories I've found while listening to some of my favorite tracks.
Today's track: Peter Crowley - Journey of Wonders
004 - Sky Mind
With an extravagant flourish the over-sized latch that held the twin barn doors closed was thrown aside. With a surprising show of strength and excitement despite a slender frame, Touvan thrust past the wooden doors, and the bright light of the morning autumn sun cascaded across his face. He shielded his eyes from the glare as the doors swung wide. With a deep breath, he smiled, barely able to contain his excitement. Today was the day.
Everything about the room was an astonishment to the senses. Sweet smells mixed with the oxidized scent of fresh metal welding. Tiny clockwork machines put the final touches to decorative inlays of the airships hull while sunlight reflected off golden embellishments and copper pipes. A cool breeze whipped through the open floor of the workshop. Everywhere various golems and patchwork automatons bustled, each one a significant achievement on the young Touvan's journey from apprentice to master artificer.
The culmination of his life's work stood before him, at least his life's work so far. Though he was just barely in to his understanding of being a man, and only recently old enough to drink, he had far surpassed most other's expectations. He had built his first flying ship, and though it was nothing grand of size, it was worthy of a few crew. He had yet to meet his future partners in adventure, but that was quest that could only be fulfilled in time.
His pace heightened, each step bursting with pride as he jumped, twirled, and bolted forth towards the craft. As he passed his workbenches and tables, he swiped items off of them with a demeanor that would seem to the odd observer as a random grab, but to him was a calculated choice of tools, sentimental gadgets, and the odd useful tidbit. Stuffing his many shirt and pants pockets full of brass and tin trinkets, he grabbed a hefty leather book, a catalog of his discoveries and a journal of his experiences.
Running on to the ship, he threw switches and levers as he passed, spinning release valves and casting off ropes. His excitement no longer contained, he laughed and whopped as tears rolled down his face. Once chained to the countryside, now he could finally reach above the clouds. Now his journey could truly begin.
It's tough competition but I think this one had the most impact on me out of all of them. Such a great upbeat song and a unabashedly happy story.
Thanks! This one was actually a bit harder to write, and I did a couple of different re-writes of the character in several different parts before I settled on his very brief backstory. It's so much harder cramming everything in to a single page, but I enjoy the challenge of writing this way instead of my usual wordy, chapter-by-chapter approach.
StoryTrax is such an awesome concept. The way you write is so awesome. You could really feel Touvan's excitement jump up from the page. The details are very vivid and the plot is so gripping. The arrangement of the sentences fit so nicely, they leave the reader wanting to know what happens next. It's so surprising that you fit so much stuff and emotion into such a short prose. Just goes to show you can say more with less. Overall, this really gave the song justice.
I've written quite a few short stories inspired by songs as well, but I haven't really refined or finished most (if not all) of them. One day, I might revisit them and share them on Steemit. With your permission, it would be an honor if I blanketed it under "StoryTrax" as well. It could be a thing. Music goes so well with literature, and I'm confident that it'll catch on in the community. A lot of writing could be inspired by music, and it's interesting to see the different stories that came from one song.
You most DEFINITELY may write storytrax of your own! I myself am also a wordy writer most of the time, and these are a real challenge, to try to fit a story to (roughly) the length of the song. Trying to keep things to one page, figuring out only the details the reader needs to have, and what they can make up on their own. So far these have been an incredible challenge for me as a writer, but I'm having a lot of fun with them.
Most of my writing is at least partially inspired by music, i pick my tracks based on what emotions or thoughts I need to convey for that paragraph or chapter. But with this, I am trying to fit sentences to measures of song, where before I would fit paragraphs to entire albums lol. It is definitely a test, but I do appreciate your kind words and thorough reply.
Oh, wait, ah! Were you the one who is used to writing 1000-word posts from Steemit Talk? I swear, I still couldn't tell you guys apart lol I'm on the same boat. It's really hard to limit the words used when you write, so great job doing so with this.
Personally, I don't write if there's no challenge. Whether it's a prompt or a burst of emotion, I always try to inject something else as I tell a story. Having templates and formulas when you write something takes the fun and passion out of it. It's nice to experiment on different things, and I'm glad that music does it for you.
Yup that's me! If the podcast gets a few more views we might be able to afford to stream it live with some cameras to help lol, but I digress.
I dont normally write with a template, but since it's been so long since I've done any writing, and the fact that I have such issues being wordy, I find this to be the most lax set of restrictions I can give myself while still maintaining creative freedom. On top of that, the amount of benefits I've seen from learning how to remove description in favor of the reader's imagination is interesting. Another tool for the toolbox!
Lastly, for me, a big part is just sharing. I love to share lesser-known musical bits that others might enjoy, and I figure while I'm there I might as well share the reason I love the tracks so much. I didnt want to make "music reviews" so I decided to review them my own way.
I've never looked at it that way, that's a very interesting motivation--sharing lesser-known musical bits. I think StoryTrax is a way better review than any music review. It gives life to the music in another form. It's not just praise or criticism, it's the offspring that resulted from the inspiration. I'd bet any musician worth his salt would be extremely honored that his work is being reinterpreted in a different way. I'm getting too psyched up to revisit my old sribbles and re-brand them as StoryTrax!
With regard to the podcast, video would be nice. It would open a whole new dimension to how you do your episodes. Because of timezone differences, live stream won't make any effect on me, but I'll be sure to catch it once it's up.