How Music Inspires Claire Zorn

Read a note from Claire Zorn about her latest novel, Better Days.

Claire Zorn writes about how music was a BIG inspiration behind her latest novel, Better Days, a story of love, chaos and the music in-between, perfect for fans of Taylor Jenkins Reid.

All my books have started as character snapshots I’ve imagined while listening to music. Sort of like scenes from a film.

Not so long ago I discovered that I have synaesthesia: the phenomenon of experiencing one sense through another. In my case when I hear music or particular sounds, I involuntarily picture a colour and sometimes moving shapes. A car alarm, for example, is a thin bright yellow horizonal line on a black background. (The music I like often produces very pleasing colours and shapes, conversely, I find it difficult to listen to music that produces colours I don’t like or are too intense. I find Nick Cave’s music difficult because it is a deep murky burgundy colour which can be overwhelming.)

Sometimes music forms colours and movement that I end up collating somehow, producing a vision of a scene as if from a movie.

Better Days began this way.

I heard a song called Tenderness by Laura Gibson and saw a vivid grass green, blush pink and a warm mauve.

Soon it was a woman wearing a pink dress, laying on the grass, staring up at the sky as rain fell on her face. I carried this picture around for a few months, wondering what her story might be.

I then saw a documentary about the record executive David Geffen, who started out as a mailroom clerk at a talent agency. He worked his way up the chain and eventually started his own record company.

It was an interesting character background and I decided that Grace, the woman in the dress, would have a similar career trajectory.

Check out Claires' Better Days playlist above!