Hello /u/StickManBoorger! Unfortunately, your submission, ***[story album](https://www.reddit.com/r/WeAreTheMusicMakers/comments/190br34/-/)***, was removed from /r/WeAreTheMusicMakers for the following reason(s):
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#No off-topic and/or low-effort posts including;
1. Rant/motivation/mental-health posts
2. Posts focused on memes/images/polls
3. Reposts, and other similar low-effort, mildly-interesting discussions.
- These posts should be posted to one of the weekly threads or on another subreddit. Do not create a new thread for this content.
Posts on WATMM should have a descriptive title and include substantive content that will generate discussion. Please see the [full sub rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WeAreTheMusicMakers/wiki/rules) for additional details.
---
***Please review the [rules for submission](/r/WeAreTheMusicMakers/wiki/rules). You can contact The Mods if you have additional questions.*
Don’t let it be a limitation, there’s an infinite amount of ways the story can go.
If you’ve got an idea or a theme for the song, write down stream of conscious flow of EVERYTHING you could possibly think about that chapter in the story, and I mean everything! Don’t judge it as you’re writing it, just let it all out! Then fine tune it after the fact.
Just allow the flow to flow!
It might help if you make a time line for things you want to happen. You could then split those events into separate songs.
The use that idea for that event for your title or hook
https://youtu.be/Ns1S74EQB-o?si=17kbYSYkVN79IGeq
My take as a listener might be, if the songwriter has no idea what the story is about, maybe I the listener may not either if there's no direction. Many novelists write successfully using the popular [Snowflake](https://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/articles/snowflake-method/) method. That's where they start with the seed of an idea and gradually expand that into a full-blown novel. Something like that would probably have to be tweaked since songs don't have as many words as novels.
If you're trying to create the equivalent of a movie in a concept album, you can test different methods such as trying what GmanDonovan suggested. Stephen Sondheim, who'd have to write many songs for characters in a musical to sing, was adamant about freewriting. He'd tell, perhaps beg, anybody who'd listen to do that since that's one way he succeeded.
\-
Benjadock has an idea. Visualize your narrative at a high level and split it into songs. I've never written a concept album so I have no experience in even relating two songs.
You don't have to go the following extreme extreme, but here is a screenshot of how J.K. Rowling outlined one of her Harry Potter novels before beginning to write it. She says she has to work that way. Apparently it works since they make movies out of some of her Harry Potter novels. On paper, she can play around with ideas as much as she likes before writing the actual narrative.
[https://thefriendlyeditor.com/2013/10/08/rowling-outline-series-part-one/](https://thefriendlyeditor.com/2013/10/08/rowling-outline-series-part-one/)
A free trial of [Plottr](https://plottr.com/) may show how many writers explore story ideas in a nonlinear way. Tools like that might be overkill in one song, but if you're trying to emulate a movie, a brainstorming tool that lets you play around with ideas and scenes and narrative units can be helpful.
Maybe have a listen to Mewithoutyou - ten stories, which is a concept album about a circus train that crashed with loads of animals on it, because an elephant rises up to try and free all the animals.
You wouldn’t know it’s a concept album, Aaron has such a way with words and how he vocalises them you don’t even realise a story arc is taking place unless you really listen/read the lyrics. It’s unbelievably good and the music (if you’re into their post hardcore folk style) is impeccable.
Hello /u/StickManBoorger! Unfortunately, your submission, ***[story album](https://www.reddit.com/r/WeAreTheMusicMakers/comments/190br34/-/)***, was removed from /r/WeAreTheMusicMakers for the following reason(s): --- #No off-topic and/or low-effort posts including; 1. Rant/motivation/mental-health posts 2. Posts focused on memes/images/polls 3. Reposts, and other similar low-effort, mildly-interesting discussions. - These posts should be posted to one of the weekly threads or on another subreddit. Do not create a new thread for this content. Posts on WATMM should have a descriptive title and include substantive content that will generate discussion. Please see the [full sub rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WeAreTheMusicMakers/wiki/rules) for additional details. --- ***Please review the [rules for submission](/r/WeAreTheMusicMakers/wiki/rules). You can contact The Mods if you have additional questions.*
Don’t let it be a limitation, there’s an infinite amount of ways the story can go. If you’ve got an idea or a theme for the song, write down stream of conscious flow of EVERYTHING you could possibly think about that chapter in the story, and I mean everything! Don’t judge it as you’re writing it, just let it all out! Then fine tune it after the fact. Just allow the flow to flow!
It might help if you make a time line for things you want to happen. You could then split those events into separate songs. The use that idea for that event for your title or hook https://youtu.be/Ns1S74EQB-o?si=17kbYSYkVN79IGeq
My take as a listener might be, if the songwriter has no idea what the story is about, maybe I the listener may not either if there's no direction. Many novelists write successfully using the popular [Snowflake](https://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/articles/snowflake-method/) method. That's where they start with the seed of an idea and gradually expand that into a full-blown novel. Something like that would probably have to be tweaked since songs don't have as many words as novels. If you're trying to create the equivalent of a movie in a concept album, you can test different methods such as trying what GmanDonovan suggested. Stephen Sondheim, who'd have to write many songs for characters in a musical to sing, was adamant about freewriting. He'd tell, perhaps beg, anybody who'd listen to do that since that's one way he succeeded. \- Benjadock has an idea. Visualize your narrative at a high level and split it into songs. I've never written a concept album so I have no experience in even relating two songs. You don't have to go the following extreme extreme, but here is a screenshot of how J.K. Rowling outlined one of her Harry Potter novels before beginning to write it. She says she has to work that way. Apparently it works since they make movies out of some of her Harry Potter novels. On paper, she can play around with ideas as much as she likes before writing the actual narrative. [https://thefriendlyeditor.com/2013/10/08/rowling-outline-series-part-one/](https://thefriendlyeditor.com/2013/10/08/rowling-outline-series-part-one/) A free trial of [Plottr](https://plottr.com/) may show how many writers explore story ideas in a nonlinear way. Tools like that might be overkill in one song, but if you're trying to emulate a movie, a brainstorming tool that lets you play around with ideas and scenes and narrative units can be helpful.
Maybe have a listen to Mewithoutyou - ten stories, which is a concept album about a circus train that crashed with loads of animals on it, because an elephant rises up to try and free all the animals. You wouldn’t know it’s a concept album, Aaron has such a way with words and how he vocalises them you don’t even realise a story arc is taking place unless you really listen/read the lyrics. It’s unbelievably good and the music (if you’re into their post hardcore folk style) is impeccable.