While I was writing ‘I am the Enemy’ I found myself compiling its
soundtrack. Some authors need to write in silence but in order to get into the
heads of characters and feel the mood of the story, I like the idea of working
with a playlist. Some of the songs from back in the Seventies took me back to
my school boy self and enabled me to visualize what a boy of that age would say
and do. There are songs I thought the characters would be listening to or
complimented their personalities, songs that were appropriate for a particular
scene, and songs that just simply fitted the tone and tempo of the book. Music
can add substance and meaning to a scene in a book just as much as it can in a
movie.
Many authors of are now beginning to create a playlist to accompany their
books, especially in Young Adult fiction. Some have their own iMixes on iTunes.
And if the author hasn't done the work already there are usually plenty of
readers ready to step in with suggestions, as author Natasha Desborough pointed
out in a Guardian article recently. ‘The Fault In Our Stars by John Green has
inspired countless songs of the same name to be recorded and put up on
Soundcloud. It's also prompted adolescent readers, so moved by the book to
discuss on forums what should be the 'theme song' for the novel (Coldplay's Fix
You and Temper Trap's Sweet Disposition seem to be favourites). In fact,
creating a book soundtrack has become common place amongst readers on the
internet with suggested playlists for Markus Zusak's The Book Thief, Charlie
Higson's The Enemy and Patrick Ness's Chaos Walking series all being listed on
blogs and in forums.’
It's now possible to take the relationship between music and fiction a
little further. With book trailers proving popular, recording a soundtrack
appears to be a natural progression. Sticking a QR code on the back of the book
that allows readers to access the songs featured in the book from a mobile
device is a logical step. It adds another dimension, enhancing the reading
experience and providing another rich layer that allows readers to immerse
themselves in the text just that little bit more.
There are around 20 songs in my playlist for ‘I am the Enemy’. They are songs
that either evoked a sense of emotion when I was writing the story, or captured
perfectly the mood or setting that ultimately helped shaped scenes. Each time I
hear these tracks I’m transported to a certain point in the novel, no more so
than with Gabrielle Aplin’s evocative cover of ‘The Power of Love’ and the
accompanying music video which beautifully captures the tone of ‘I am the Enemy’
at the beginning of the book, in the middle, and at the end. For me it has become
the ‘theme song’ and I couldn’t imagine the book without it. It’s almost as if
it’s become part of the story. The power of music is a wonderful thing.