November Girls seems to have come with a soundtrack. Sometimes stories do, sometimes they really, really don’t. Chris Bachelder, my undergrad fiction teacher, used to advise us to “enfold ourselves in silence” in order to write. A lot of time that works best for me. Sometimes music comes of its own accord.
I’d spend a lot of time last November when I drafted this sucker listening to Steeleye Span and related bands on Pandora: Fairport Convention, Pentangle, other British folk. I was looking for bands that sung Childs’ Ballad-based songs. I found out that The White Stripes did a rad cover of “Black Jack Davey”.
At some point, while Pandora-ing, I wandering into the land of sixties Brit-rock. The Beatles. The Zombies. Turns out my novel’s soundtrack goes from the mid-sixties to the mid-seventies.
Every writer is composed of three parts: The writer, the editor, and the looney. My inner madwoman says “Hey, since it has a 1970ish soundtrack, let’s set it in the 70s!” My editor points all the plot holes that would happen: cell phones, the look and feel of Colorado Springs, etc. My writer says, “Damn it, Anne, you already changed the TENSE and PERSON of a bunch of scenes, don’t change the dang time period!” Sigh. Turns out editing novels is hard. 
I’ve decided that a good anthem for my novel, aside from “Seagull” as mentioned previously, is “She’s Not There” by the Zombies. Who’s the “she”? Could be either sister.
5 comments
Kevin, Son of Nog
September 29, 2010 at 9:13 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
I heartily approve of this soundtrack as the Zombies are an under appreciated but awesome band.
Jen
September 30, 2010 at 4:13 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
What other time and location is more accepting of another time period than CO Springs currently? This music fits great! =)
Anne Bean
September 30, 2010 at 9:10 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Yeah…the madwoman may be right on this one. I’ll have to play with it.
Cole
October 3, 2010 at 6:10 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
The video of this performance is so fantastic. The boys are so visibly restrained it’s ridiculous. Knowing the norms of performance at the times, the suits and ties and the outright conservatism of their decade are wild. He’s so unsure of what to do with his hands and that mic stand. Stephen Tyler didn’t invent wacky microphone dancing, but I’m sure glad somebody did.
Anne Bean
October 5, 2010 at 6:10 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
He does look like he’s casting some kind of spell about 14 seconds in.