Musical Inspiration

Music is a big part of my writing process. I like to use music to help me get in the right emotional state for a certain scene or to help describe relationships between characters. I find that music can help me understand my characters and stories much better than I can on my own. Sometimes I even find the perfect song that sums up the mood of the story I’m trying to write so perfectly that it becomes the theme song for the entire book. I thought it would be fun to share some of the music that helped me to bring Crystal and Flint to life.

I didn’t have an overarching theme song for Crystal and Flint, but rather several songs that described some of the key relationships in the book. Which I guess makes sense since a lot of this book is about establishing those relationships that are going to carry our characters through the rest of the series.

Count On Me by Bruno Mars

First up is maybe my favorite relationship in the entire series and that’s between Crystal and Grady. The fun peppy beat of the song makes me thing of Grady right away. He is the only one that can cheer Crystal up no matter what is going on. And then you have the lyrics which are just perfect for them. These two have been to hell and back together and have a friendship that nothing can break. No matter what happens they know the other one has their back.

One Step Ahead by A Great Big World

Next up we have our romantic relationship, Justin and Crystal. If you listen to this song as if Crystal is signing it, I think it perfectly captures her feelings about Justin. There is her fear of opening up to someone again and the recognition of Justin’s seeing through all of that. The song is both sweet and heartbreaking all at the same time.

i hate u, i love u by Gnash (feat. Olivia O’Brien)

Finally we have Crystal and Ryan. Words cannot explain how much I love this song. The first time I heard it, I had to pull the car over so that I could really listen to the lyrics. It’s like it was written just for these two. There is so much pain and heartbreak there, with just the tiny bit of hope. Especially when you think of the song from Ryan’s point of view. Oh be still my heart.

And now just for fun, here are the theme songs for the rest of The Journey Missions series. I won’t give any details other than to say these songs sum up the overall feeling the book.

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