My Music Journal 2025: April 10, 2025

 

Thursday, April 10, 2025

Time: 7:25 PM
Song: Thrash Unreal
Artist: Against Me!
Mode of Consumption: Listening to our downloads on Apple Music.

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/3c3XnCPwxGhQEHFxxjQcWe?si=6e1b97fecf384601

For the last seven or eight months, I have basically been running our Write On group. Our former leader, Kay, had been looking to step back from her role, and then sadly she became ill before passing away in March.

One of the things we talked about with the change is how we wanted to structure the meetings. We concluded it would be good to look at different pieces of published writing to try and glean inspiration or intuit writing devices, skills and concepts from them. So, one of our two meetings each month is dedicated to this, and we call it the “Craft Conversation.” 

So, each month I scour my personal library looking for a short story, or nonfiction essay, or poem, or whatever happens to catch my eye. Sometimes it comes easy. Maybe it’s part of a book I am reading. Maybe I remember studying a certain piece way back in college. 

For the first meeting in May, I decided to scan a portion of Stephen King’s “On Writing.” It’s the first two sections of his chapter entitled “Toolbox.” I am scanning the few pages while this song plays. 

I picked this section for a couple reasons. 

• Our last meeting included an article about poetic devices that can be used in prose. So, these devices are all things we can start including in our writer’s toolbox. 
• We are also going to celebrate my birthday during the first meeting in May, so I picked a selection that I remember enjoying and finding helpful. 
• Finally, the entire book does a wonderful job of illustrating the writing ideas and concepts. I think it will be helpful for the members of our group. 

So, I scan a page, and it’s talking about vocabulary, the value of powerful vocabularies and those that write powerful sentences with simple structures and words. 

The song hits its chorus. 

“No mother ever dreams that her daughter’s going to grow up to be a junkie.”