Gwenda mentioned the soundtracks for the book she is working on the other day and it got me to thinking about things that writers sometimes do to accompany (and further inspire) their work. I'm fascinated by this kind of thing; I really like to know the process behind people's creativity. For me it makes the book (or song or whatever) even more interesting when you know what someone was thinking when they crafted it. Reading what Gwenda was listening to as she works on Aztec Dance Tunes (coolest title ever by the way) just makes me want to read the finished book even more.
When I was working on my AK flying book I did listen to Loretta Lynn's Van Lear Rose a lot. I honestly have no idea why because the two subjects could not have less in common, but I couldn't seem to get enough of that CD. This book was kind of unusual though in that I didn't really need much creative help in writing it - the pictures in my head of the guys I worked with and people I knew were plenty to keep me going. But that book is very different from pretty much everything else I have ever written (or will write) because so much of it comes from a world I already knew so well.
The new book, the YA urban fantasy that sadly has no hint of a title, has not been written to a soundtrack although there are already songs that are jumping into my head. I know that the Blind Boys of Alabama will be present with "Amazing Grace", and I keep hearing "Eli's Coming" from Three Dog Night. (I'm blaming Sports Night for that one.) There's also a Tori Amos song I need to get the title of and a Beth Hart song. So maybe this week I will spend a little time and burn the whole thing just for fun. What I have already been working on for a little while now though is a journal inspired by the book. This includes pictures from different magazines and that kind of thing that either look like how I want the book to feel (if that makes any sense) or they tie directly to one of the characters. One is a photograph that a character would have taken, one is a journal another would have kept and one is, I swear, the perfect picture of what one of the characters looks like. Nothing like turning the page of Vogue (guilty pleasure people!) and having an out of body experience! She's not a model, but someone the magazine was interviewing - someone who looks perfectly normal and nice and I knew right away she was Jules. So in she goes to the journal, along with everything else.
I don't know how many other writers do this kind of thing. Julie Orringer's journals are up over at Random House, but they are more focused on words then pictures. Of course it could be that I do this because I'm so inspired by people like Dan Eldon and Peter Beard and Barbara Hodgson and want to be an artist/photographer as much as a writer. (This might also be why Jules is an artist in the book.) Large Hearted Boy has authors provide soundtracks for their books a lot in his book notes section and I think that is cool, but I wish they could put them in the books themselves. Wouldn't it be neat to know what inspired a writer as they were writing? For me it would enhance the reading experience and give me lots of ideas for artists to look for.
It's just neat that creativity in one area can prompt you to reach out to others as well. I know that whenever I lose direction I just have to look at the book's journal and I get right back on track. It's almost magic how that works - writerly magic.
