heart//beats: music, sex, and emotion -- 2023 Authors' Challenge official support thread

[EarlyMorningLight]

heart//beats: music, sex, and emotion

Open challenge

Challenge date: 22 June 2023

Submissions: 1 - 17 June 2023

Description:

Songs for sex and love.

Musicians exploring passion.

Intimate moments defined by sound.

heart//beats invites writers to explore the relationships between music, sex, and emotion, the intrinsic sensuality of rhythm and melody, and the ways in which the art of organised sound interacts with meaning and memory.

If that sounds open-ended, that’s intentional. As long as your story involves music and interpersonal relations, it has a place here, regardless of category. Be bold. Be experimental. Be funny. Be dirty. Be heartfelt. Just do it with a killer soundtrack.

 

[EarlyMorningLight]

As discussed in this thread

 

[Thefireflies]

Great! Plenty of time too.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

There's a draft on my list which fits that - just need to extrapolate from one sentence into a whole story...

May manage it by then. Who knows.

 

[ElectricBlue]

A year away deadline? That's just another one I'll probably miss, but I should at least try.

 

[EarlyMorningLight]

A year away deadline? That's just another one I'll probably miss, but I should at least try.

I looked at this year’s calendar and tried to work out which challenges would likely recur. I didn’t want to stomp all over territory that might have an existing claim.

 

[Duleigh]

I'll put this one on my calendar, I have a unique angle on the idea

 

[lovecraft68]

I've had an off and on plot bunny based around the Stones Paint it Black, obviously not an uplifting song, but I can keep it short of erotic horror and maybe just have it be a bit of a dark romance.

 

[shakna]

Only a year? I expect I won't make it to the deadline, even though I've got two things in progress at the moment that would probably fit... Everyone loves tragedies about singing faeries, right?

 

[EarlyMorningLight]

Finding dates is hard. I referenced this year’s calendar and tried to steer clear of any challenges that might be back next year.

 

[Thefireflies]

Ideas have come to me already. And the start of a potential soundtrack too. I was thinking about how music is used in film or other story telling media such as video games, and I think the biggest challenge here is to integrate music into story writing, where even if readers are unfamiliar with the piece, they get some idea of the sensations through description, and/or cadence. My suggestion is to listen to the music you write about while you write. Over and over and over, and write to the beat of the music. It might work, at least for you, the writer!

 

[Jackie.Hikaru]

Great idea for a challenge. Music is always an important aspect of my writing, directly or indirectly. I'll try to work on one.

 

[Norway_1705]

Thank you EarlyMorningLight.
I understand that limiting yourself to "striptease music" (as in my first post) was too specific.
Your description also includes "musicians who love each other" as in "Some Like It Hot" (Monroe with a cross-dressed Tony Curtis), right?

 

[EarlyMorningLight]

Thank you EarlyMorningLight.
I understand that limiting yourself to "striptease music" (as in my first post) was too specific.
Your description also includes "musicians who love each other" as in "Some Like It Hot" (Monroe with a cross-dressed Tony Curtis), right?

Yeah, from a plot perspective that could work, as long as music, or their connection as musicians, is central to the story (rather than just a backdrop).

 

[pink_silk_glove]

I've written many musical characters in the past and even written whole songs for them. I'll have to keep this one in mind.

 

[mildcolonialboy]

Music, sex , emotion. Sounds like opera. Music and emotion are central to opera, and sex is often a theme. E.G Carmen, the classic femme fatale, La Traviata, the tragic story of a courtesan who falls in love, Cosi fan tutte where two soldiers bet that the other can not seduce their fiancesooo

 

[mildcolonialboy]

Music, sex , emotion. Sounds like an opera. Music and emotion are central to opera, and sex is often a theme. E.G Carmen, the classic femme fatale; La Traviata, the tragic story of a courtesan who falls in love; Cosi fan tutte where two soldiers bet that the other can not seduce their fiancee;s; Don Giovanni, the fate of an arch seducer. There are many others. A story based on opera could meet the criteria well.

 

[mildcolonialboy]

Sorry about the double post, I don’t know why my I pad sent my message before I had finished it.

 

[Omenainen]

At first I thought no, but now I have a song, so now I’m thinking maybe.

 

[Voboy]

hmmmm.

I shall ponder. I've written a few pieces that featured music prominently; I'll see if I can come up with another.

 

[Thefireflies]

I just lay down the opening paragraph to a story for this event and though there’s no guarantees I’ll finish the story, because life is busy, I’ll give it a shot. I’ve bumped the thread because I like EarlyMorningLight’s idea, so if the event hasn't been on your radar it may be now.

 

[alohadave]

I got an idea for this.

I had ChatGPT make up a chant for the theme (two tribes joining together).

I'm going to try to weave the story around the verses and chorus. We'll see how well it goes.

 

[EarlyMorningLight]

Hey folks, life circumstances have pulled me away from writing for the time being. Does anyone want to take over this challenge? Otherwise I’ll cancel it.

 

[Duleigh]

I would like to, but I'm currently doing 750 Word, and April Fools, plus I'm helping Bettyzxy with AI Era. If you can hold on until the end of March I'll do what I can

 

[Thefireflies]

Is this still happening? All good if not, I can take my time to write, otherwise I'd better get my write on.