Music Challenge 2026 - Official Support Thread

[SugarStorm]

I’ve wanted to write a fantasy story inspired by Nightwish’s cover of Over the Hills and Far Away for so long. Maybe this is finally it!

 

[NaughteeDragon]

I'm looking forward to this, but I'll also need to self-police. I've gone into music in stories heavily recently, particularly with Letting The Sunshine In, which ventured deeply into obsessive territory. I was looking up sheet music ('to Let The Sunshine In / The Flesh Failures', from Hair) trying to work out the composers' intentions and see the original allocation of vocal parts, since there are many different versions recorded. I was researching songs with unusual time signatures to use in the sex scenes, thinking about the harmonic vibrations to use during cunnilingus, trying to find obscure musical terms that helped define the narrative of the story, and so on. I think that my proofreaders did have a hard time restraining me, and there's definitely a potential here for overcommitment.

I don't feel so bad about how deep I went on Ravel's "Bolero" for the story I'm submitting this weekend. The song cycles 8 times over the course of the story, and I tie the increase of intensity and pleasure to the crescendo and addition of instruments. More than one orgasm is tied to the glissandi and final key change.

My plan for this challenge is to use Jon Anderson's "She Just Started Likin' Cheatin' Songs." It's not actually a cheating story. MC's wife is an erotica writer and she starts getting "method" in her research. He starts exploring a bunch of kink and fetish behaviors so she can try and understand the appeal. When he comes home and she's listening to the title track he has to decide if he's going to put his foot down on her behavior.

 

[ChloeTzang]

I’ve wanted to write a fantasy story inspired by Nightwish’s cover of Over the Hills and Far Away for so long. Maybe this is finally it!

Yes!!!!!! Looking forward to reading it!