Bryant Delafosse's Blog - Posts Tagged "character-development"
Soundtracks for Books?
I think books should have soundtracks like movies do.
When I recall a few of my favorite books, a specific song comes to mind. For instance, when I first read King’s The Stand the song I kept hearing on the radio playing in the background of my room was Yes’ “Owner of the Lonely Heart.” Now when I hear that song on the radio I think of Stu, Frannie and Nick. It seemed at the time I was reading the book that the lyrics seemed to mirror the emotions of the characters in the story. (I even mistook the lyric “The Eagle in the Sky,” for the line “The Evil in the Sky.”)
Here’s another example: Bruce Hornsby’s “The Way It Is” was one of the popular songs at the time a friend of mine read Asimov’s sci-fi classic Foundation. That song now is indelibly marked in his mind as part of the soundtrack of that book.
Stephen King used to say that he wrote his novels to the rock of AC/DC.
While I was writing my novel The Mall, I had an eighties soundtrack in my head, as the story takes place in 1985 (though a noticeably different version of the year we remember).
When Lara loses her ten year old son in the city-sized Mall of the Nation shopping center, I could hear Edge's characteristic guitar accompanying Bono's much more youthful 1980's-era voice singing U2’s “I Will Follow.”
Til Tuesday’s “Voices Carry” accompanied little Owen while he hunkered down in JC Penney's hiding from the murderous Albert Lynch.
I heard Starship’s “No Way Out,” when Lara discovered from Simon that the Mall of the Nation had been locked down and for better or worse, she was trapped inside with her family.
Even Jesse and Chance had their own theme: Tears of Fears “Shout.”
And the one song that seemed to encompass the entire concept from start to finish in my mind was Petula Clark’s “Downtown.” (Granted it’s not from the eighties, but for the purposes of this article it fits in perfectly with my thesis that books have soundtracks—so, let’s not get picky, okay?)
One of the habits I got into as a student of screenwriting was sketching out a brief background for each of my main characters. What’s her history and what events have shaped her into the person that she is at the time we meet her in the story? In this context, music has always helped me flesh out a character and the world in which he lives. What’s the time period? What style of music would the characters listen to?
Music can add an aural dimension to a story that a reader cannot get unless he’s listening to the audio book version (or at a book signing and listening to the author read an excerpt).
By the way, this is the soundtrack I used to write my novel, The Mall:
I Will Follow, U2 (80)
No Way Out, Starship (84)
Voices Carry, Til Tuesday (85)
Eyes Without a Face, Billy Idol (84)
Whip It, Devo (80)
IGY, Donald Fagen (82)
When the World’s Running Down, You Make the Best of What’s Still Around, The Police (81)
Save a Prayer, Duran Duran (82)
Blasphemous Rumors, Depeche Mode (84)
Shout, Tears for Fears (85)
Owner of the Lonely Heart, Yes (83)
Destination Unknown, Missing Persons (82)
Free Will, Rush (80)
There's No Way Out of Here, David Gilmour (78)
Downtown, Petula Clark (64)
(Bryant Delafosse's The Mall is currently available on Amazon for Kindle devices.)
When I recall a few of my favorite books, a specific song comes to mind. For instance, when I first read King’s The Stand the song I kept hearing on the radio playing in the background of my room was Yes’ “Owner of the Lonely Heart.” Now when I hear that song on the radio I think of Stu, Frannie and Nick. It seemed at the time I was reading the book that the lyrics seemed to mirror the emotions of the characters in the story. (I even mistook the lyric “The Eagle in the Sky,” for the line “The Evil in the Sky.”)
Here’s another example: Bruce Hornsby’s “The Way It Is” was one of the popular songs at the time a friend of mine read Asimov’s sci-fi classic Foundation. That song now is indelibly marked in his mind as part of the soundtrack of that book.
Stephen King used to say that he wrote his novels to the rock of AC/DC.
While I was writing my novel The Mall, I had an eighties soundtrack in my head, as the story takes place in 1985 (though a noticeably different version of the year we remember).
When Lara loses her ten year old son in the city-sized Mall of the Nation shopping center, I could hear Edge's characteristic guitar accompanying Bono's much more youthful 1980's-era voice singing U2’s “I Will Follow.”
Til Tuesday’s “Voices Carry” accompanied little Owen while he hunkered down in JC Penney's hiding from the murderous Albert Lynch.
I heard Starship’s “No Way Out,” when Lara discovered from Simon that the Mall of the Nation had been locked down and for better or worse, she was trapped inside with her family.
Even Jesse and Chance had their own theme: Tears of Fears “Shout.”
And the one song that seemed to encompass the entire concept from start to finish in my mind was Petula Clark’s “Downtown.” (Granted it’s not from the eighties, but for the purposes of this article it fits in perfectly with my thesis that books have soundtracks—so, let’s not get picky, okay?)
One of the habits I got into as a student of screenwriting was sketching out a brief background for each of my main characters. What’s her history and what events have shaped her into the person that she is at the time we meet her in the story? In this context, music has always helped me flesh out a character and the world in which he lives. What’s the time period? What style of music would the characters listen to?
Music can add an aural dimension to a story that a reader cannot get unless he’s listening to the audio book version (or at a book signing and listening to the author read an excerpt).
By the way, this is the soundtrack I used to write my novel, The Mall:
I Will Follow, U2 (80)
No Way Out, Starship (84)
Voices Carry, Til Tuesday (85)
Eyes Without a Face, Billy Idol (84)
Whip It, Devo (80)
IGY, Donald Fagen (82)
When the World’s Running Down, You Make the Best of What’s Still Around, The Police (81)
Save a Prayer, Duran Duran (82)
Blasphemous Rumors, Depeche Mode (84)
Shout, Tears for Fears (85)
Owner of the Lonely Heart, Yes (83)
Destination Unknown, Missing Persons (82)
Free Will, Rush (80)
There's No Way Out of Here, David Gilmour (78)
Downtown, Petula Clark (64)
(Bryant Delafosse's The Mall is currently available on Amazon for Kindle devices.)
