Every Lyric Has a Story Behind It

Each week when writing a blog, I face writers block. I know it may seem ridiculous to some of you because you can literally write about anything, but this only makes it harder for me to come up with an interesting idea.

So, like any normal person facing writers block, I turn to music. That's where I got the idea for my next post(s). I decided to put my iPod on shuffle and for whatever song comes up, I'll take a random lyric from it and base a story upon those words...

"...doc says you're fine or dyin'..." - From the song "Breathe" by U2.


* * *


"Paging Dr. Micheals," the speakers echoed against the silent clinic walls. In one of the examination rooms a young man sat idly waiting upon the crinkling bed paper. He had been impatiently waiting for over an hour, when finally Dr. Michaels entered into the small room.


"What seems to be the problem?" She said while glancing down at his charts.


"I'm really concerned about my health," the young man said with a wobbly voice. He hated going to the doctors, they always made him nervous. "I keep getting this horrible pain in my chest. It flares up sometimes, without warning. Often, this causes a shortness of breath, and results in my gasping for air. And recently I've started going into coughing fits. Just yesterday I started to cough up blood." He glanced up at the doctor anxiously. She was nodding absent-mindedly as she scribbled down what he said. She had no signs of worry on her face, this both relaxed and confused him. He continued, "And I keep getting dizzy." Still no reaction. "And on top of all this, I keep getting really bad migraines," he looked up at Dr. Michaels expectantly. When she did not look up he simply asked, "So what's wrong with me?"


"Don't worry, you're fine," she said smiling softly at the man's obvious fear, "you just need to get some sleep."


The young man looked at her calm expression, quizzically. Confused, he responded, "I'm fine? There's nothing to be concerned about?"


"Just get some rest, eat healthy meals and exercise regularly and you'll be back to your normal self in no time. You're fine."


"Paging Doctor Michaels," the speakers suddenly demanded again.


"You're free to go," Dr. Michaels said as she hustled toward the door. She flung the door open, and hastily walked toward her next call.


"I'm getting a second opinion!" The man yelled after her.


* * *


"And what seems to be the problem today?" Dr. Michaels asked as she entered the room. An elderly man sat calmly in the chair next to the door. As she walked into the room, he headed over to sit on the bed.


"Well, I noticed recently that I have a slight ringing in my left ear. And, every time I turn my head like this," he angled his head awkwardly to the right, "the ringing stops. And - "


Dr. Michaels pen stopped abruptly on the paper, as she looked up worriedly. "Omigosh!" She gasped, cutting off the old man from symptoms he was about to produce."I have some terrible news sir, but you're terribly ill. It may be fatal."





So this post was sort of fun, but its not one of my favourite posts. It was definitely a challenge trying to base a story off of a single random song lyric. There's really no theme to it, I was just ranting like I do in the free writing we do in class. It was really just an ironic (is that the word I'm looking for?) way of using the lyric to make the story more interesting. It was primarily a way for me to experiment with dialogue. So, I would like some advice on writing dialogue, because it has always been my weakness when writing. And, I encourage everyone else to select a lyric and base a story off of it, because it would be interesting to see what everyone else comes up with! Just a thought. So let me know what you think!