DIY book trailer of My BFF is an Alien and the song list you didn't know existed for Book 1.
I've been having a bit of fun tinkling with the video-making function in Wix to come up with book trailers for My BFF is an Alien. So here is attempt number one!
I used stock pictures and audio from Wix and a pop-ish audio like this felt just right. If you've read the book, you'd know that Abriana is a fan of Taylor Swift. Well, no coincidence that I am too (I count myself very up to date when it comes to the English music scene - I listen to 987FM every day. Hip right?).
What you might not know is that I wrote the first draft of this book at a time when I was listening to Taylor Swift's Reputation album. Some of the scenes in the book, I wrote them with songs from this album in mind, like the scene when Abri first introduced Octavia to Taylor's songs, the song that played in the background was End Game. When the girls tackled The Goliath challenge during camp, I imagined Ready for It playing, and in a taxi scene near the end of the book, Delicate was playing from the radio. And somehow, I couldn't help feeling that the songs coincidentally paralleled the place the two girls were at emotionally, like how their reputation weren't the best among their classmates.
Up till today, when I hear songs playing from this album, it takes me right back to this story and its scenes.
I don't really have song lists for the rest of the books I'm working on but with Abri, Octavia and me being fans of Taylor Swift, her song Me! does come up at the end of Book 2. As for Book 3, Sam Smith's Fire on Fire played in my mind when I was plotting scenes, which also reflects how the story takes a relatively darker turn in the two last books. Now when I hear a Sam Smith song, I sometimes feel a sudden urge to work on Book 3!
Sometimes I think having a song list helps in getting the mood right in a story and even motivates you when it's one of those days when you just don't feel like you could write.
Do you also have a song list when you write?
©Vivian Teo. All content and photos are copyrighted to Vivian Teo unless otherwise specified.