Preview: From Song to Story

As a teenager in the late 90’s, I wouldn’t leave the house without my Walkman and my writing journal. I’d roam around my hometown, jotting down scene and character sketches, overheard conversations, and story ideas. Music was a way to turn my everyday life into a cinematic experience. It was a way to connect the outer world of my surroundings and the inner world of my emotions—and it became the foundation of my writing practice.

As I studied creative writing and ventured into a writing career, I would return to this simple exercise as a way to generate ideas, troubleshoot my stories, and develop my writing portfolio. This practice helped me understand that our favorite songs create an emotional soundtrack, connecting us to our memories, history, and inspiration. We can use music to harness our creative energy and channel it into a story. From Song to Story charts the process of writing a short story based on a song, using exercises that I’ve honed for over 20 years.  

From Song to Story walks you through the process of writing a short story from start to finish. You’ll go from listening to a song, generating and discovering ideas, identifying themes to construct a structure, then drafting and revising a final story. Working through the lessons and exercises in this course will help you develop skills as a storyteller. You can also use this course to build a portfolio of individual stories, a short story collection or a novel-in-stories, or as a reference guide to support your writing practice.

From Song to Story is a self-guided course that you can complete in your own time and schedule. It is for beginner and experienced writers to practice their craft and write their own stories.

Please reach out if you have any questions, or visit my shop to purchase your copy. Here’s a look at the first two exercises: