How music inspires my novels

(and how it takes a decade to feel like you're even getting started)

Music plays a huge role when it comes to my creative process and yet I hardly ever write about it. I make playlists for each character of my novels. I make playlists per year so I can look back on my moods: 2022’s playlist was sad and pensive (lots of James Blake and Michael Kiwanuka); 2023’s playlist was more hopeful (Moby, Nina Simone, Manu Chao, lots of gentle remixes) and 2024's playlist is vibrant and fun (Stevie Wonder, Chaka Khan and Sugababes etc).

My novel OLIVE started off with a song in mind. All That She Wants by Ace of Base but in my head (or Olive’s head) the lyrics were slightly tweaked: