The Sound of Gravity: An Insider Look at the Song that Started the Story

I’m not just a writer—I’m also a musician.

Guitar, bass, drums, piano, vocals… if it makes noise, I’ve probably tried to write something with it. I even played percussion in my high school concert band. But I don’t always share this part of myself with my readers, because I tend to compartmentalize different creative outlets. Music is where I started—but writing, especially through Gravity, is where so much of that energy found a new home.

When I started writing Gravity in December 2017 (at age 17), all I had was the chorus of a song. I actually wrote it quietly in the darkness of my room at 3:00 AM—when I was supposed to be asleep—because that’s when the melody first came to me. You never really know when inspiration will strike, but when it does, you have to answer the call.

That small piece became the anchor for the entire story—something I could build around, return to, and eventually grow from. By the time I finished the story in February 2018 (my first experience with weekly updates!), the song had evolved, too.

The original chorus stayed at its core, but I found myself expanding the verses, shaping a bridge, and refining the rhythm and pacing to mirror the emotional arc of the story. It grew into something more dynamic and layered—just like the characters it was written for.

The lyrics to "Gravity" are simple, even a little raw—but that's what makes them honest. For Collin King, the main character in the book, the song is about emotional inertia. It’s about how easy it is to fall into patterns—to orbit around pain—and how hard it is to break free from the pull of things that weigh us down. It reflects the push and pull he feels in his relationships, his identity, and his desire to be understood without having to explain everything.

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For me, writing those lyrics was an act of letting go. At 17, I didn’t have the emotional vocabulary I do now, but I had melodies and metaphors—and that’s how I processed things. Even though I look back now and think, “Wow, that’s dramatic,” it was also real. That song held a lot of the tension I was carrying at the time, and it gave me a way to name it without saying it out loud.

In that way, the song worked for both of us—Collin and me—as a quiet kind of confession.

Only recently, I decided to chart the complete song into sheet music (using a new-to-me program called Noteflight) so that I could finally share it with curious minds.

I’ll be honest—it’s not the cleverest lyrics I’ve ever written, and the sheet music isn’t perfect by any stretch (this was my first time ever trying to plot out sheet music). But for my fellow music nerds: the emotion, the structure, and the soul of the piece are all there. If you know your way around a melody, it’ll tell you what you need to know.

Despite being deeply involved in music for most of my life (I was even touring around midwestern states playing solo shows to raise money for college at this point), “Gravity” never felt like it fit under my real name and the genres that had become part of my brand. It felt softer, more emotional, more narrative—more Mora. That’s why I chose to release it here, within the world of my writing, instead of through my traditional music channels (there I go compartmentalizing again).

The most surprising part? Even though I never wrote anything down at the time—not a single chord or melody—all of it stuck with me. The chorus, the phrasing, the melodic rise and fall… it's lived in my head for seven-and-a-half years, quietly waiting to be transcribed onto (digital) paper.

Creating the sheet music was a kind of closure. It tied the story and the song together, letting them finally exist side by side.

So if you’ve ever wondered what “Gravity” actually sounds like, now you can take a look, take a listen (in your head or out loud), and maybe even bring it to life.

Thanks for sharing this moment with me.

—Mora

Gravity Sheet Music - Mora Mongtomery.pdf

Download PDF • 168KB

🎶 Challenge: Can You Cover It? 🎶

I’d love to hear someone take “Gravity” and make it their own—arrange it, sing it, reinterpret it however you want. Whether it’s a piano ballad, an indie acoustic vibe, or something synthy and ethereal—I’d love to hear your version. Seriously. Send it my way.