"The nights were mainly made for saying things that you can't say tomorrow day." - Arctic Monkeys

There's something about their music that makes me feel like it is made for the night. The beats coupled with the lyrics, perhaps?  There's a way that it makes you feel like you're out in the cold, crisp night air that is enchanting. Listening to their music as I fall asleep makes me feel like I can appreciate the full breadth of the night.

There's this connection that writers have with the night, with this sudden outpouring of words that would dry up if you waited until morning to put them on paper. I've never thought of music coming out of artists the way words and sentences and scenes appear as writers drift to sleep.

I've been making playlists for different stories I have.  Songs that remind me of the time and place the story originated in me.  Songs that remind me of the characters and the mood of the stories.  Each character lives in my head, has a piece of me in them in such a way that I could never imagine them liking music that I don't.  Sometimes writers talk about hearing their characters talking in their heads.  They can hear those voices so clearly, but there are times when the voices go quiet and you have to craft a way to make them speak to you again. They come to you in the middle of the night, after you're exhausted from failing to fall asleep.  They start speaking and you forget why you wanted to sleep in the first place.  You feel crazy, but you love it.

“The most beautiful things are those that madness prompts and reason writes.” - Andre Gide

Labels: Andre Gide, Arctic Monkeys, how many secrets can you keep, night time, quotes, writers, writing