What Does Your Novel Sound Like?

[image error]Recently, I interviewed Quiara Alegría Hudes for an upcoming magazine article. Quira is a playwright who has had to make room on her already-crowded awards shelf for a Pulitzer Prize, which she won for her play Water By the Spoonful.

I love talking to other writers, both because I can relate to them, and because I can learn from them. In this case, Quiara mentioned that the play she’s working on now is fueled by music. Not just inspired by it–songs and music can midwife ideas–but providing the right backdrop and foundation for what she was writing.

Music has always been a huge part of my life. My first job was at a music magazine, and later I became a music critic. (Terrible title, terrible job– criticizing other people’s creativity. Never again!) But as for its place in writing, I was never sure how music fit in. My friend Sherri Rifkin, author of one of my favorite summer reads, Love Hampton, likes to listen to music while she writes. I can’t do this. I can’t hear my characters’ voices over music.

But I had heard other authors, particularly at the nationals conferences for the Romance Writers of America, talk about the importance of soundtracks for their novels. The soundtracks fell into two categories: the songs that accompanied certain parts of their novels, just the way they would if the book were a movie, or by creating a playlist for a character to help flesh that person out.

I loved both these ideas, and I’d already been employing the first method–putting together a playlist of songs that accompanied scenes from my novel. The inspiration flowed, and sometimes the music even inspired scenes that helped create a fuller, richer story. I tried the second type, creating a soundtrack for a specific character, but I found that kind of limiting. One character liked dance music, but her world didn’t revolve around dancing all the time.

Whether you’re working on a novel or another creative project, do you listen to music while you’re doing it? If you’re writing, do you create a soundtrack to your novel, or has your iPod been hijacked by someone else–your character? If you haven’t tried this yet, forgive me for this heavy-handed but appropriate pun: Music can help make your novel sing.