Rock ‘n’ Roll in Richmond
Posted in Uncategorized on 07/04/2010 03:49 pm by siobhanRock ‘n’ Roll in Richmond
The new Young Adult novel I’m writing has a very ‘rock ‘n’ roll’ feel to it, with countless musical references and its very own playlist.
I’m a great fan of pushing boundaries when it comes to writing and I firmly believe in embracing the new technologies currently revolutionising publishing. So it occured to me that it might be nice to actually compose some original songs for a ‘book score’. Songs that readers could download from this website once the book is out, to play along with the relevant scenes.
As luck would have it one of my best friends is a very talented musician. So yesterday we took ourselves off to possibly the most beautiful part of London – Richmond Park – and wrote ourselves a few songs.
Rock 'n' Roll and Richmond
For those of you who haven’t been to Richmond Park before it is like stepping straight into a Disney movie. Everywhere you look birds, squirrels, rabbits and deer frolic in the sunshine. It is the perfect place to go for inspiration, relaxation and getting back to nature.
It is also as it turns out, the perfect place to write songs. My friend had a cracking, poignant melody which fitted perfectly with the title of the book. So while he played the tune over and over again I came up with some lyrics to fit. And while we played and sang various woodland creatures started gathering around us to watch – see I told you it was like a Disney movie!
Richmond Groupies
Squirrels, blackbirds, pigeons all gathered round like some kind of Disney style chorus.
Do you know the Birdy Song?
It felt really magical – until I realised that they were actually after our picnic and were about to launch an attack!
Coming in for the kill
Thankfully we saw them off with a large bag of cashew nuts and managed to get the title song finished. Now I’ve just got to have a little tweak of the lyrics before Steve records it and then I’ll post it on here as a trailer for the book…
07/06/2010 at 8:20 am
Great idea! I created a piece of music for the band in my book University of Death and put it on MySpace. I got a few messages from people who thought they were a real band, which was nice but odd too.
I included lyrics for other songs in my book too, but liked the fact that people had an idea in their own minds about what the music would sound like. It would be an interesting creative project to mesh music and story together, though, by recording the book’s soundtrack. It’s a great way to promote a book too. There are many more outlets for picking up music fans than readers.
07/06/2010 at 8:26 am
I think it’s really exciting and I hope more writers start to embrace the new technologies available to them. I love the idea that people thought your band were real and you’re right, using music is a great way to pick up new readers…
07/06/2010 at 9:43 am
There’s some great stuff possible with video now too. I’ve been playing with Windows Live Movie Maker this week, and it’s extremely easy to create a great slideshow-based film. You can incorporate film clips too, although I haven’t tried that yet. The software is free to download if you want to give it a go.
12/04/2010 at 3:20 pm
The character of my book is in a band at school, and I’ve been recycling lyrics from some of my own songs (and some of my horrible teenage poetry!). If it ever gets published, I might include a free CD in the jacket.
12/04/2010 at 3:25 pm
ooh – I would pay good money to read some of your teen poetry!