Writing Prod - Music Muse 2

Are you ready to rock?

For the prod this week we are revisiting . . . Music Muse. This is probably my favorite writing prompt because song lyrics tend to be so wacky to begin with that they can lead to incredibly interesting plots. The first step is to select a song. This can be a favorite song that you know by heart, or a random one that you hear on the radio. You can also select a song for the occasion, such as Halloween if you are wanting to write a holiday specific tale. The lyrics can be taken literally to create the plot, or you can work with them in a figurative manner, possibly leading to a more fanciful tale.

            For my example, I turned on the radio and used the first song that I heard. Then I traveled to a website that had the lyrics and read them. (Okay, it was actually the second song, because I didn’t want to write a love story.)

         China Grove (by The Doobie Brothers)

 

When the sun comes up on a sleepy little town
Down around San Antone
And the folks are risin' for another day
'round about their homes.
The people of the town are strange
And they're proud of where they came. 

Well, the preacher and the teacher,
Lord, they're a caution, they are the talk of the town.
When the gossip gets to flyin' and they ain't lyin';
When the sun goes fallin' down.
They say that the father's insane
And dear Missus Perkin's a game. 

But ev'ryday there's a new thing comin',
The ways of an oriental view.
The sheriff and his buddies
With their samurai swords,
You can even hear the music at night.
And though it's part of the Lone Star State
People don't seem to care,
They just keep on lookin' to the East.

 

                        Samurai Sheriff 

Helen breaks down in the little town of Grove, Texas. Right away, she can tell that this is no ordinary place. The people all have a strange accent and are led by a Samurai sword-wielding Sheriff called Chow-Lin McGhee. Worse yet, the town doesn’t have an auto mechanic, or any automobiles, or even any phones so that she can call for help. All she can do is wait for the next stagecoach out of town and hope it takes here someplace familiar.

But while she’s waiting, one of the townsfolk is murdered. Could it have been done by the crazy preacher? Or the spirited school-marm? Until the stagecoach arrives, Helen is on the case and plans to find out not only who done it, but why the town is the way it is.

 

Because Halloween is fast approaching, I have included a bonus example. This is a matter of going more with the spirit of the song rather than launching from the exact lyrics. It is based on one of my childhood favorites – The Monster Mash. Without further ado, here it is:

 

 

 

 

Spook Dance 

Frankie is no different from all the other monsters. He has a creepy family, a bunch of ghoulish friends, and a sinister job. But he also had a dream. Frankie wanted to dance. He could feel the beat coursing through his body; all the way from Bernard P. Wilson’s head down to Thelma Billing’s big toe. The problem was that having been put together with parts from so many different people that he had no rhythm. Or maybe it was a matter of having too many rhythms and not being able to get all of them to agree on when he should move. Determined to be Transylvania’s premiere entertainer, he set out to Vegas to find his groove.