It won’t come as a surprise to anyone to hear that I’m a big music fan, and I’ve mused in the past about the similarities and differences between what I do as a novelist and how musicians are able to express their creativity. One of the main differences comes in the area of performance. The thing that I create, the stories that I tell, are intended to be consumed by others in private. Generally speaking, I don’t get to see someone reacting to what I’ve done, and I don’t get the chance to react back to it in the moment. For a songwriter who performs their own work, the point where others engage with it is much more public, and the inter-reaction between performer and audience is much more fluid. Despite the fact that music can be recorded, there’s still a sense that for musicians the primary engagement between creator and audience is one where both are present.

I stand by that distinction, and while I’m occasionally a little envious of my musician friends who get to see an audience’s immediate response, for the most part I’m happy with my end of the bargain. I love it when people tell me that they’ve enjoyed my work, and as a reader myself I know how much certain books mean to me; the possibility that some people have anything like that reaction, that relationship, with something that I’ve written is hugely rewarding, even if I don’t necessarily get to see it happening. Perhaps there's another blog to be written sometime about the extent to which authors are writing for their readers, or just for their own satisfaction.

This whole area of performance is one that I’ve discussed in the past with my friend Olly Hopper-Pay. Olly, as regular visitors to this blog will probably know, is a talented singer-songwriter-guitarist who also accompanies me when I do my Dead Man Singing Live performances – a rare instance of me being able to get out and share part of my work directly with an audience. Last week we performed the full version of Dead Man Singing Live (readings from the first two chapters of the book – no plot spoiling here! – with breaks for Olly to play five of the songs that add colour and content to the book). The occasion was one of the monthly Author Talks events that another friend of mine, the novelist Alex Stone, organises, and for me it was something of a home gig. I’m a regular attender, and many of the audience were my friends. I also knew that a large proportion of those in attendance had already read the book, and were choosing to come to hear it brought to life, rather than coming to the book as an unknown proposition.

The Dead Man Singing performances are always something of a treat for me, not least because I love to hear Olly’s versions of the songs from the books. All the songs that I included when I was writing are there because they help to move the story on, to reveal something of Dave’s character or to foreshadow things that are going to happen later on. They are also all songs that I have genuine affection for, so it’s great to hear them performed so well. If you’re interested, Olly performed Stagefright by the Band, It Ain’t Me Babe by Bob Dylan, Turning of the Tide by Richard Thompson, Feelin’ Allright by Traffic/Joe Cocker and Feel Like Going Home by Charlie Rich/The Notting Hillbillies.

In the second half of the evening, Alex interviewed us about the forthcoming Imogen Imagine, and Olly performed the song we wrote together that is at the heart of that book. Although I wasn’t performing, it was thrilling for me to witness a room genuinely enjoying the song. Several people said afterwards how much they liked it, and although I wasn’t actually performing (a fact that can only have helped in terms of others’ enjoyment) it was probably the closest I’ll ever get to the experience of someone whose creative output is more performative. We even got further donations to the crowdfunder to record the song as a proper fully-produced pop single rather than Olly’s excellent acoustic version. We’re very close to the target, and I’ll be sure to post something here once we are able to actually go into the studio with the song.

I’m a huge fan of Olly’s, and I’ve seen and enjoyed him performing his own work many times. Even so, I wouldn’t swap what I do for what Olly does (just as I’m sure he wouldn’t want to swap with me). Writing novels is a very different discipline to writing songs, and while I wouldn’t for a moment say one is more valid than the other, I love the process and the challenge of creating memorable stories and engaging characters, of crafting something that invites others to spend hours in my worlds. Even so, it’s nice to occasionally see how the other half lives.