Dear Jukebox Writer...
Hello!
Thank you so much for volunteering to create a gift for a stranger with similar musical tastes. I'm delighted to see what you come up with, and am giving you some prompts to help out. If you already have an idea for the song that we matched on, please run with it!
Don't tell anyone, but the sad truth is that I am super-easy. :) Write a story that you enjoy writing and I'm sure I'll love it and enjoy reading it. BUT, if prompts tend to make you chafe, then by all means, just read the do-not-wants paragraph and then go away and write the story. I want you to have freedom, if that's what you need.
Above all, have fun. If you find that the suggestions feel like a burden, then ignore them and write something that interests you. True passion shines through and makes a story special.
I like...
angst, UST, longing looks, long-repressed feelings that explode one day, kid fic, teamy goodness, found or chosen families, epistolary fic, well-done hurt/comfort, broken people finding their way together, AUs that arise from roads not taken in canon, zombies, wacky road trips, old friends, handsome strangers, ghost stories, crazy decisions that are right even though they seem so very wrong, 2nd person narratives, porn that reveals more than just naked bodies, unreliable narrators, opening your presents on Christmas Day rather than Christmas Eve, and long deep slow kisses that last three days.
I do not want..
passivity, first-person narration, incest, non-con, non-canon slash, child death or grievous injury, and misusing the words less and fewer.
See, I told you I was easy.
And now the song-specific prompts:
"Terrible Love" - The National (song) - Video * Lyrics
"And I can't fall asleep/without a little help/It takes awhile to settle down/My ship of hopes/until the past leaks out"
"It takes an ocean not to break"
"But I won't follow you/ into the rabbit hole/ I said I would/but then I saw/ the ship of woes/ they didn't want me to"
I love the wistfulness of this song, and the idea that even though love can excite you, it can also scare you. Does the narrator take the chance, or does he/she hold firm to the promise not to go into the rabbit hole?
"Slow Show" - The National (song) - Video * Lyrics
"You know I dreamed about you for 29 years before I saw you
You know I dreamed about you, I missed you for...for 29 years"
I love all of this song, but that coda catches me in the chest every damn time. It was one of the first lullabies that I sang to my son. The rest of the song is a perfectly described party scene of a socially awkward guy just trying to make a good impression when the stakes, to him, are obviously so high. I'd love to read a love story of any kind - romantic love, platonic love, or even a parent's love for a child.
"Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)" - Arcade Fire (song) - Video * Lyrics
"Then we tried to name our babies
But we forgot all the names that
The names we used to know"
This lyric has always haunted me. What the hell happened to these people? Why are they living in a frozen wasteland? Why can't they remember names? This song speaks to my deep love of all things post-apocalyptic.
"Need a Friend" - EL VY (song) - Video * Lyrics
"You were supposed to be here before the last song
You were supposed to bring me your brother's weed
You were supposed to walk me home from the river, man
This is heartbreaking, heartbreaking, heartbreaking"I feel like every line of this song is its own story, but I need to know more about the brother, the weed, the river. Why is it so heartbreaking?
"All I Want" - Kodaline (song) - Video * Lyrics
"All I want is nothing more
To hear you knocking at my door
'Cause if I could see your face once more
I could die a happy man I'm sure
When you said your last goodbye
I died a little bit inside
I lay in tears in bed all night
Alone without you by my side
But if you loved meWhy'd you leave me?"
I'm a big baby, but this song makes me cry every time. Tell me about this epic breakup. Or if you want to go with something from the video, that's cool too.
"Ain't No Way to Live" - Mick Flannery (song) - Video * Lyrics
"Fallin' in to Charlies, seven in the mornin'
You give me double brandy and whatever she wanted
This ain't no way to live I ain't gettin' any younger
This ain't no way to live and I'm thinkin' we are done girl
Oh little darling, I'm sitting in a doorway
Beatin' on this drum here, blarin' over Broadway
The train is leavin' townThere ain't no way you' gonna stop me getting on it"
Falling into bars at 7 am - that certainly is no way to live. But what makes this guy decide he's over it? What was his breaking point. Where's the train going? What's going to happen next?
"Fake" - The Frames (song) -Video * Lyrics
"Come on the guy's a fake
What do you love him for?
And it was my mistake
Just kicking in his door
And if it's just a gameThen what are we crying for?"
My request here is pretty simple: I have always wanted to know the story of the mistake - of kicking in the guy's door.
"A Sort of Homecoming" - U2 (song) - Video * Lyrics
"And we live by the side of the road
On the side of a hill
As the valley explode
Dislocated, suffocated
The land grows weary of its own
Oh, oh, oh...on borderland we run...
And still we run
We run and don't look back
I'll be there
I'll be thereTonight"
My love of all things post-apocalyptic knows no bounds. Where's the narrator going to be? Why? What's going to happen? What kind of world is this and how do they survive?
Thank you so much for volunteering to create a gift for a stranger with similar musical tastes. I'm delighted to see what you come up with, and am giving you some prompts to help out. If you already have an idea for the song that we matched on, please run with it!
Don't tell anyone, but the sad truth is that I am super-easy. :) Write a story that you enjoy writing and I'm sure I'll love it and enjoy reading it. BUT, if prompts tend to make you chafe, then by all means, just read the do-not-wants paragraph and then go away and write the story. I want you to have freedom, if that's what you need.
Above all, have fun. If you find that the suggestions feel like a burden, then ignore them and write something that interests you. True passion shines through and makes a story special.
I like...
angst, UST, longing looks, long-repressed feelings that explode one day, kid fic, teamy goodness, found or chosen families, epistolary fic, well-done hurt/comfort, broken people finding their way together, AUs that arise from roads not taken in canon, zombies, wacky road trips, old friends, handsome strangers, ghost stories, crazy decisions that are right even though they seem so very wrong, 2nd person narratives, porn that reveals more than just naked bodies, unreliable narrators, opening your presents on Christmas Day rather than Christmas Eve, and long deep slow kisses that last three days.
I do not want..
passivity, first-person narration, incest, non-con, non-canon slash, child death or grievous injury, and misusing the words less and fewer.
See, I told you I was easy.
And now the song-specific prompts:
"Terrible Love" - The National (song) - Video * Lyrics
"And I can't fall asleep/without a little help/It takes awhile to settle down/My ship of hopes/until the past leaks out"
"It takes an ocean not to break"
"But I won't follow you/ into the rabbit hole/ I said I would/but then I saw/ the ship of woes/ they didn't want me to"
I love the wistfulness of this song, and the idea that even though love can excite you, it can also scare you. Does the narrator take the chance, or does he/she hold firm to the promise not to go into the rabbit hole?
"Slow Show" - The National (song) - Video * Lyrics
"You know I dreamed about you for 29 years before I saw you
You know I dreamed about you, I missed you for...for 29 years"
I love all of this song, but that coda catches me in the chest every damn time. It was one of the first lullabies that I sang to my son. The rest of the song is a perfectly described party scene of a socially awkward guy just trying to make a good impression when the stakes, to him, are obviously so high. I'd love to read a love story of any kind - romantic love, platonic love, or even a parent's love for a child.
"Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)" - Arcade Fire (song) - Video * Lyrics
"Then we tried to name our babies
But we forgot all the names that
The names we used to know"
This lyric has always haunted me. What the hell happened to these people? Why are they living in a frozen wasteland? Why can't they remember names? This song speaks to my deep love of all things post-apocalyptic.
"Need a Friend" - EL VY (song) - Video * Lyrics
"You were supposed to be here before the last song
You were supposed to bring me your brother's weed
You were supposed to walk me home from the river, man
This is heartbreaking, heartbreaking, heartbreaking"I feel like every line of this song is its own story, but I need to know more about the brother, the weed, the river. Why is it so heartbreaking?
"All I Want" - Kodaline (song) - Video * Lyrics
"All I want is nothing more
To hear you knocking at my door
'Cause if I could see your face once more
I could die a happy man I'm sure
When you said your last goodbye
I died a little bit inside
I lay in tears in bed all night
Alone without you by my side
But if you loved meWhy'd you leave me?"
I'm a big baby, but this song makes me cry every time. Tell me about this epic breakup. Or if you want to go with something from the video, that's cool too.
"Ain't No Way to Live" - Mick Flannery (song) - Video * Lyrics
"Fallin' in to Charlies, seven in the mornin'
You give me double brandy and whatever she wanted
This ain't no way to live I ain't gettin' any younger
This ain't no way to live and I'm thinkin' we are done girl
Oh little darling, I'm sitting in a doorway
Beatin' on this drum here, blarin' over Broadway
The train is leavin' townThere ain't no way you' gonna stop me getting on it"
Falling into bars at 7 am - that certainly is no way to live. But what makes this guy decide he's over it? What was his breaking point. Where's the train going? What's going to happen next?
"Fake" - The Frames (song) -Video * Lyrics
"Come on the guy's a fake
What do you love him for?
And it was my mistake
Just kicking in his door
And if it's just a gameThen what are we crying for?"
My request here is pretty simple: I have always wanted to know the story of the mistake - of kicking in the guy's door.
"A Sort of Homecoming" - U2 (song) - Video * Lyrics
"And we live by the side of the road
On the side of a hill
As the valley explode
Dislocated, suffocated
The land grows weary of its own
Oh, oh, oh...on borderland we run...
And still we run
We run and don't look back
I'll be there
I'll be thereTonight"
My love of all things post-apocalyptic knows no bounds. Where's the narrator going to be? Why? What's going to happen? What kind of world is this and how do they survive?