100 word story: Music

/ Claire Fuller

After only two months in the cabin I had filled all the blank spaces on the sheet music we had brought with us. The paper was clogged with black circles and lines as if someone had splattered ink across the pages. But still the music filled my head and demanded to be released.

Using a knife I scored staff lines, in bands of five, along the planks of pine that insulated the inside of the cabin. And that winter, my fingers black from the sticks of charcoal taken from the ashes of the fire, I let the music out.

I’m sure you’ll have noticed that the picture is a stone house, but I happen to be writing about a wooden cabin, so used the picture for inspiration only. This piece of writing was for the 100 word (or so) prompt for Madison Woods’ #Fridayfictioneers. I’d be very happy to receive comments and constructive feedback.

30 thoughts on “100 word story: Music”

  4. Sometimes you just have to go with whatever comes to you, a picture can evoke any kind of writing. This was really lovely and so inspirational. I read it twice and both times it made me smile.

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  6. This is my first visit to your site, so I clicked on the tabs and enjoyed the lights and drawings. I never had formal training in music, but play in rock & blues bands for years and have written many songs. I can relate to the line “demanded to be released.” Now, I rely on writing as my creative outlet, but find there are more similarities and differences.

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    • Hi Russell,
      Thanks for looking around. I’m pleased I got the feeling of the music needing to come out correct – I’m not a musician. But I do agree – it is similar to writing.
      Claire

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    • This is part of a much longer story – the isolation is forced upon the character, and perhaps, because it is all still in her head she does carry it home. Thanks for reading – I’ll go and have a read of yours.

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  9. Hi Claire,
    Very interesting and creative response to the photo. Your story flows like a sweet melody. I can relate to the drive to create, no matter how harsh the circumstances. Thanks for reading and commenting on my story.
    Ron

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  13. Hi, Claire. Nice use of inspiration. I presume you have a musical bone somewhere in your body (the descriptions were very detailed). The second paragraph was beautiful — a very haunting image of letting the music out.

    You can work with the first paragraph to make it stronger. It’s odd that (s)he would go from sheet music to pine boards. If they had brought any other form of paper with them, surely (s)he would have used that first? If the paper is clogged with black circles and lines, were these not made with ink? If it’s a different medium, you should mention it (or use a different item (not ink) to be splattered across the page).

    As a non-musical person I had trouble figuring out “sheet music” — are blank pages with musical lines on them called sheet music as well? Or is it just the paper with already printed notes that’s called sheet music? (I went back and forth between thinking (s)he had started fresh and thinking (s)he had been making notes on somebody else’s work either to alter it or because (s)he had nothing else to write on.)

    Hope that helps. 🙂

    Thanks again for stopping in on mine!

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    • This is really helpful feedback. Sometimes the image is so clear in my head I forget that it might not be so clear on ‘paper’. They hadn’t brought any other paper with them, and she was writing over sheet music which already had printed music on it. But you’re absolutely right if she writes over that in ink, the idea of the page being splattered in ink is redundant, and I need to make things clearer. Thanks very much for your comments.

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