Sometimes when I write or brainstorm, I draw heavily on music for mood. Almost never for plot or narrative structure ideas, but just the feel of events or how characters themselves might feel. I also like to create mini-soundtracks for characters/story arcs. It gets a little trickier though because I want the playlists to consist of music the characters involved would listen to themselves.

So anyway, this song (from their 2013 album Cupid Deluxe) is basically like the centrepiece for a story I want to start working on soon. For whatever reason, the first time I seriously mulled over my idea, the entire series of events popped into my head almost immediately. Crazy how something so nearly fully formed can just jump out of your brain like that (shout out to Athena, I see you).

And on an unrelated note, a poem I just did.

Let This Warpaint Fade

The colours are faded, I revisit some old paintings
of landscapes that need tending to
and faces in portraits that have aged faster than those depicted therein
some I no longer even recognise
the skin is that cracked, the creases that deep
and the weeds so overgrown

I apply warpaint to an old friend become new stranger
then throw down my brush
no more
already no more
which idiot would willingly vandalise his own work any further?
let gardens grow and persons wrinkle
let it all stand untouched
they were young once and that is enough

Abdul J