OP
TVvoodoo
Ambassador of The Comfortably Slung
@Kerry Brown this is the place Yessir! Funny.. just yesterday we were kicking around our oldest/first memories here at Casa Voodoo
✧ Project: Orpheus - Imagine Create Share ✧
- Thread starter TVvoodoo
- Start date
Sargeant Preston
Ambassador of The Ninth Chord
@Kerry Brown
"When I Started Remembering" is a great title for a concept album.
If I were to write a song about my first childhood memory it'd be about the time when I was only 3 years old sitting in the backseat of my dad's car on a road trip to Virginia. My mom had a habit of always making me wearing a stylish fedora like Frank Sinatra would wear. And there I was, sitting in the backseat, with the windows wide open....and my hat flew out the window!
Mom yelled, "Stop the car!"
Dad said, "NO!" And he kept on driving down the highway for another 20 miles and then all of sudden there was a loud POP.......flat tire.
If I were to write a concept album beginning with my first memory the song title would be
"My Hat Flew Out The Backseat Window"
frostyjr2
Well-Known Member
OMG ... reading the description of The Man Who Sold His Shadow just gave me the chills.
Creepy ... but then that's good. If art is supposed to make you feel ... something ... well then
i'm already there.
SO my elevator pitch will be that basic story, but twisted to my own purposes, ofc.
Would you expect anything less from em?
Creepy ... but then that's good. If art is supposed to make you feel ... something ... well then
i'm already there.
SO my elevator pitch will be that basic story, but twisted to my own purposes, ofc.
Would you expect anything less from em?
Last edited:
OP
TVvoodoo
Ambassador of The Comfortably Slung
@frostyjr2 I had the very same reaction.
Aynirar27
Well-Known Member
hey hey, I’m severely stuck between 2 directions for this project. I’ll spend some tonight to nail one down and report back soon. I have an artist coworker that would love to add some imagery to the project so I’m feeling her out on what style she is picturing, as it may spark some additional motivation for the music
ibmorjamn
Ambassador of Moar Jammin
Get back to us soon I am highly anxious.lol
OP
TVvoodoo
Ambassador of The Comfortably Slung
Ok, well I was hoping by now everybody would be in with the main idea, but like all organizational things here on TTR....
An oldie but a goodie!
So my Creative Maestros... do not despair. Still plenty of time, but don't fall back too far!
Please drop in your elevator pitch as soon as you can.
OMG! Don't find yourself stuck here!
If you cannot do this small part, it's likely:
1. In a minor creative miracle your project *may* come together as you go
2. You're gonna end up with a loose collection of... something!
As your "tour guide" helping you stay on track to get things done proper, the show must move on.
Remember that last graphic I posted around week 2 With all your sparks beginning to get organized into a somewhat linear story?
That's where we are right now.
The entire universe was created in 7 days, so it is written! You too are now tasked with creating your own small
world which YOU will be the omnipotent ruler of, hopefully not starting from scratch!
And, you get TWO full weeks!
Now, turning a pile of random idea sparks (scenes, characters, images, lines of dialogue, themes, “what-if” questions) into a logical/coherent plot is ABSOLUTELY one of the most common stuck points for creatives. Some of you will find it easy and very natural. Others? Not so much. If you feel you are having trouble, here's various tried and true methods to help you cross that chasm. It may seem like a LOT of work, but I promise you will find it worth it, and propel you forward as you progress along in coming months, and your final product will thank you later.
1. Brain Dump
Spread the cards on a table or use a digital corkboard and ask:
3. Identify the Emotional Core / Central Question.
Among all your sparks, which one gives you the strongest gut punch or that “ OMG I have to write this” feeling?
That’s usually a GREAT place for the very core of your story. Examples:
Everything else should eventually serve that idea or orbit it in some logical way.
4. Every good story has a "Bad Guy" or "protagonistic/antagonistic" entity/situation. Feel Their Want vs Need.
Look through your sparks for a possible character/creation who:
5. Use a “Story Spine” or Minimal "skeleton" structure to Force Connections between your sparks.
Try this exercise - it's known to work for almost anything!
No two cards can be connected by “and then.” They must be “but” or “therefore.” This forces cause-and-effect and is a useful way to kill off boring filler.
6. Reverse-Engineer from the End Trick
Pick the spark that feels the most climactic or heartbreaking (often the one you thought of first).
That’s probably your ending or Act III turning point. Now work backwards:
Take two random sparks and force them to collide:
Spark A: A priest who lost his faith VS Spark B: A time-travel agency for tourists
→ “Yes, the priest books a trip to witness the Resurrection… but he arrives three days late and sees the empty tomb with no explanation.”
→ “No, he didn’t witness it, and now he’s stuck in 33 AD with no way back.”
Keep smashing ideas together until that friction creates new sparks.
8. Three Practical Tools People Swear By
9. When You’re Still Stuck try the “Private Detective” method:
Pretend someone else wrote those crazy sparks and you got hired to figure out what story they were trying to tell!
Writing a neutral case report: (“Subject appears obsessed with lighthouses and betrayal…”) often reveals the hidden thread.
The moment it clicks You’ll feel it physically — a sudden “Ohhh, of course these belong together.”
That’s the signal you’ve found the story that was hiding inside the chaos all along. You’re not inventing the plot from nothing. You’re excavating the plot that was already secretly connecting all your sparks. You just need to dig 'til you see the shape.
One last thing. As if all the above wasn't enough LOL!
Since we are making a collection of music to tell a story, I hope you will see the logic in using light and shade in your creative endeavors.
I suggest it may be a wrong choice to make your concept album ten songs at similar BPMs which are all in a similar say, "heavy rock style."
Variety is the spice of life. I learned this as a TV cameraman years ago. Keep it interesting. Tight shots, wide shots, medium shots. low or high angle power shots. mix it up and keep the viewer guessing. Want a boring TV news story? Shoot it all with the same kind of shot, same talking heads and no natural sound. UGH!
So, try NOT be a ONE TRICK PONY. When you are considering dividing up your plot points, even if YOU only like one type of music, consider telling your story with different types of music. I made this chart for myself. With it I can draw lines from my plot points to different flavours of songs on the left - and of course the are NOT to be taken as some sort of prescribed order. You also may not want to use this many, you may even think of others I've not thought of, but I urge you to use variation in your collection, if not for yourself, for others who you will be sharing with.
You may, or may NOT want to plan it all out this way now, but variation will absolutely make a better, much more interesting concept album.
An oldie but a goodie!
So my Creative Maestros... do not despair. Still plenty of time, but don't fall back too far!
Please drop in your elevator pitch as soon as you can.
OMG! Don't find yourself stuck here!
If you cannot do this small part, it's likely:
1. In a minor creative miracle your project *may* come together as you go
2. You're gonna end up with a loose collection of... something!
As your "tour guide" helping you stay on track to get things done proper, the show must move on.
Remember that last graphic I posted around week 2 With all your sparks beginning to get organized into a somewhat linear story?
That's where we are right now.
The entire universe was created in 7 days, so it is written! You too are now tasked with creating your own small
world which YOU will be the omnipotent ruler of, hopefully not starting from scratch!
And, you get TWO full weeks!
Now, turning a pile of random idea sparks (scenes, characters, images, lines of dialogue, themes, “what-if” questions) into a logical/coherent plot is ABSOLUTELY one of the most common stuck points for creatives. Some of you will find it easy and very natural. Others? Not so much. If you feel you are having trouble, here's various tried and true methods to help you cross that chasm. It may seem like a LOT of work, but I promise you will find it worth it, and propel you forward as you progress along in coming months, and your final product will thank you later.
1. Brain Dump
- Put every single spark on its own sticky note, index card, or line in a Scrivener/Milanote/Notion page.
- No filtering yet. Even “this random image of a red shoe in the rain” goes in.
- Goal: get it out of your head so you can see the raw material.
Spread the cards on a table or use a digital corkboard and ask:
- Which ideas emotionally pull toward each other?
- Which characters/ideas keep showing up in multiple sparks?
- Which images or moments feel like they belong to the same world?
- Which lines of dialogue feel like they’re being said by the same person or in the same scene?
3. Identify the Emotional Core / Central Question.
Among all your sparks, which one gives you the strongest gut punch or that “ OMG I have to write this” feeling?
That’s usually a GREAT place for the very core of your story. Examples:
- “What if a man realized the love of his life was actually his stalker?”
- “A society where memories are currency.”
- “Someone has to kill the child who will grow up to destroy the world.”
Everything else should eventually serve that idea or orbit it in some logical way.
4. Every good story has a "Bad Guy" or "protagonistic/antagonistic" entity/situation. Feel Their Want vs Need.
Look through your sparks for a possible character/creation who:
- Appears most often
- Changes the most in your imagination
- Has the strongest internal contradiction
- What do they desperately want? (external goal)
- What do they actually need? (internal growth/truth)
5. Use a “Story Spine” or Minimal "skeleton" structure to Force Connections between your sparks.
Try this exercise - it's known to work for almost anything!
- Once upon a time… (world + protagonist’s normal)
- And every day…
- Until one day… (inciting incident)
- Because of that… (chain of escalating consequences)
- Because of that…
- Until finally… (climax)
- And ever since then… (new normal/resolution)
No two cards can be connected by “and then.” They must be “but” or “therefore.” This forces cause-and-effect and is a useful way to kill off boring filler.
6. Reverse-Engineer from the End Trick
Pick the spark that feels the most climactic or heartbreaking (often the one you thought of first).
That’s probably your ending or Act III turning point. Now work backwards:
- What had to happen right before this moment to make it inevitable?
- What had to happen before that?Do the same forward from the inciting incident.
Take two random sparks and force them to collide:
Spark A: A priest who lost his faith VS Spark B: A time-travel agency for tourists
→ “Yes, the priest books a trip to witness the Resurrection… but he arrives three days late and sees the empty tomb with no explanation.”
→ “No, he didn’t witness it, and now he’s stuck in 33 AD with no way back.”
Keep smashing ideas together until that friction creates new sparks.
8. Three Practical Tools People Swear By
- The “Snowflake Method” starting from a one-sentence summary and expanding
- Save the Cat beat sheet (very commercial but great for seeing gaps)
- Dan Wells’ 7-Point Story Structure (especially good for discovery writers).
9. When You’re Still Stuck try the “Private Detective” method:
Pretend someone else wrote those crazy sparks and you got hired to figure out what story they were trying to tell!
Writing a neutral case report: (“Subject appears obsessed with lighthouses and betrayal…”) often reveals the hidden thread.
The moment it clicks You’ll feel it physically — a sudden “Ohhh, of course these belong together.”
That’s the signal you’ve found the story that was hiding inside the chaos all along. You’re not inventing the plot from nothing. You’re excavating the plot that was already secretly connecting all your sparks. You just need to dig 'til you see the shape.
One last thing. As if all the above wasn't enough LOL!
Since we are making a collection of music to tell a story, I hope you will see the logic in using light and shade in your creative endeavors.
I suggest it may be a wrong choice to make your concept album ten songs at similar BPMs which are all in a similar say, "heavy rock style."
Variety is the spice of life. I learned this as a TV cameraman years ago. Keep it interesting. Tight shots, wide shots, medium shots. low or high angle power shots. mix it up and keep the viewer guessing. Want a boring TV news story? Shoot it all with the same kind of shot, same talking heads and no natural sound. UGH!
So, try NOT be a ONE TRICK PONY. When you are considering dividing up your plot points, even if YOU only like one type of music, consider telling your story with different types of music. I made this chart for myself. With it I can draw lines from my plot points to different flavours of songs on the left - and of course the are NOT to be taken as some sort of prescribed order. You also may not want to use this many, you may even think of others I've not thought of, but I urge you to use variation in your collection, if not for yourself, for others who you will be sharing with.
You may, or may NOT want to plan it all out this way now, but variation will absolutely make a better, much more interesting concept album.
ibmorjamn
Ambassador of Moar Jammin
“If you cannot do this small part, it's likely:
1. In a minor creative miracle your project *may* come together as you go”
This sums it up, 3 songs, non related.
1 thing established is I will never write lyrics.
Not in the cards.
I did have a devil on my shoulder suggesting I try ChatGPT. That dog gone AI is dummer than the average joe.
Just saying kooky… lyrics but possibly a foundation.
Initially my interest is to write a space exploration fictionally worded.
I would use terms and nostalgics with recognizable terms but it turns out that pesky devil on my shoulder has some discouraging words. lol
Not all is lost yet.
1. In a minor creative miracle your project *may* come together as you go”
This sums it up, 3 songs, non related.
1 thing established is I will never write lyrics.
Not in the cards.
I did have a devil on my shoulder suggesting I try ChatGPT. That dog gone AI is dummer than the average joe.
Just saying kooky… lyrics but possibly a foundation.
Initially my interest is to write a space exploration fictionally worded.
I would use terms and nostalgics with recognizable terms but it turns out that pesky devil on my shoulder has some discouraging words. lol
Not all is lost yet.
OP
TVvoodoo
Ambassador of The Comfortably Slung
I must note after all that prep and planning gobbledy-gook, the hardest stuff, the road gets easier from here. My posts from here on will be way shorter. Pinky swear!
But each minute dedicated to planning now might possibly save you fruitless hour after hour and creative distress in the future.
But each minute dedicated to planning now might possibly save you fruitless hour after hour and creative distress in the future.
ibmorjamn
Ambassador of Moar Jammin
If a pitch is the beginning,
Here goes.
Space has been said to be the final frontier.
Now more than ever. A overlord of epic proportions has gathered all life forms and developed the “Galactic Court system”
These civilizations have rogue travelers and among them they try to keep vigilance.
In the opening episode the Princess of high speed space travel steps up her game in search of justice.
OP
TVvoodoo
Ambassador of The Comfortably Slung
Oh boy! @frostyjr2 THAT is setting tone! Might not sleep tonight. What's your elevator pitch? Don't get ahead of yourself! first song not due until second week in Jan!
frostyjr2
Well-Known Member
The elevator pitch:
My story will be loosely (very loosely) based on the conceptual kernel of The Man Who Sold His Shadow:
a struggling jazz musician meets a mysterious stranger who promises fame and fortune ... but at a price, of course.
Could be seen as a variation on the Crossroads legend, maybe.
Then again, almost every story is some sort of variation on one of the seven main plots lines:
Overcoming The Monster · Rags to Riches · The Quest · Voyage and Return · Comedy · Tragedy · Rebirth
Of course combining a couple of them into one story can make things a bit more interesting.
Apologies for jumping the starting gun; once i get inspired i need to work ... but i will do my best to 'slow my roll' for now.
OP
TVvoodoo
Ambassador of The Comfortably Slung
@frostyjr2 don't you DARE 'poligize for being off-leash creatively. I suffer from it too.
In fact, in the background I've got a second "secret" project going, more a collection of novelty songs along a very specific theme. I was up until 2:30 am LMAO-ing last night much to my wife's chagrin. But with that side project I feel I am gaining writing skills and sensibilities faster than I have ever before in my life. I've "completed" 9 fully shareable songs inside 5 days. Now they're all rather personal and niche but share some "universal truths" us songcrafters are supposed to pursue. I fully admit here that AI is REALLY helping me flesh out and hone lyrical ideas, inspiring me and building my confidence as a writer, helping me find ways leap over idea, word and phrase hurdles.
AI never seems to write a great song lyrically... (what do I know!) but it does have ways of considering new angles I'd never otherwise discover, and when I ask it to approach a song concept in a specific or challenging way, it works hard, never complains and seems very adept at it.
Suno is also teaching me vocal phrasing is something I have sadly been mired down in, in rigid stale ways. I can send a phrase I believe could never be sung in proper meter, and the AI vocalist pulls it off quite effortlessly. Suno also has a slightly distressing way of pointing out how particular phrases I sweated over stand out as clunky and cumbersome.
Empowering and humbling at the same time.
In fact, in the background I've got a second "secret" project going, more a collection of novelty songs along a very specific theme. I was up until 2:30 am LMAO-ing last night much to my wife's chagrin. But with that side project I feel I am gaining writing skills and sensibilities faster than I have ever before in my life. I've "completed" 9 fully shareable songs inside 5 days. Now they're all rather personal and niche but share some "universal truths" us songcrafters are supposed to pursue. I fully admit here that AI is REALLY helping me flesh out and hone lyrical ideas, inspiring me and building my confidence as a writer, helping me find ways leap over idea, word and phrase hurdles.
AI never seems to write a great song lyrically... (what do I know!) but it does have ways of considering new angles I'd never otherwise discover, and when I ask it to approach a song concept in a specific or challenging way, it works hard, never complains and seems very adept at it.
Suno is also teaching me vocal phrasing is something I have sadly been mired down in, in rigid stale ways. I can send a phrase I believe could never be sung in proper meter, and the AI vocalist pulls it off quite effortlessly. Suno also has a slightly distressing way of pointing out how particular phrases I sweated over stand out as clunky and cumbersome.
Empowering and humbling at the same time.
ibmorjamn
Ambassador of Moar Jammin
Secret sauce.lol