It’s been some time since I talked about one of my books here.
I know there are a few other books that I could talk about, and I will get to those eventually. For now, let’s discuss my latest book, Three-Part Harmony.
Or as it was known throughout its entire 5-ish years of development: “School Band”
I will try to avoid spoilers, but there may be some hints and clues. If you want to read the book, you can find it in the Novels section of this site or in the section to the right
I will try to avoid spoilers, but there may be some hints and clues. If you want to read the book, you can find it in the Novels section of this site or in the section to the right
Where do I begin?
The original idea for Three-Part Harmony started back in 2021. I had plans to write a few scripts for a TV show. The last time I wrote a script was when I did drama GCSE, so I wasn’t very experienced, but I very, very, very slowly started to complete it.
Kind of.
The truth was that I didn’t start until early 2025. I had the idea but never knew how to execute it. This book has more ideas and random bits thrown about in it that I don’t think I’ll be able to incorporate them all. My document of ideas for this book grew quickly. I wrote down every thought and line I had and didn’t even have the characters planned out yet.
But the idea was always there.
It always had the theme of sadness and love. It never was a true romance, and it still isn’t. It was a story of three very different people who all have their own worries, fears, regrets, and challenges that life is throwing at them.
The characters are all very similar but different. They all get along, but all think in ways each other cannot understand.
I think that’s how I see most people in real life.
I see so many people that I can’t understand how they think. How they go through life the way they do. How do they deal with sadness? What makes them happy? How do they keep going?
It’s easy to say that about any character from any book, but I tried to make the three friends feel unique in the sense that not one of them truly knows how the others are until it’s too late.
Did they come across that way? Maybe they came across differently to you.
Maybe that’s just what I want to think, and I’m not the writer I thought I was.
But oh well.
Next, go back to talking about the scripts. I finished two of them. The first 4 chapters were the entire first episode converted into novel form. I actually find the script super helpful. I followed along with the script and converted it into a novel format. I always felt like the first few chapters were really smooth and flowed well.
Sorry to jump around, but let’s return to the characters one last time.
Park, Patrick, Leo, Rina and Asher. The five main characters.
When I finished an early draft, I sent it off to my friend to read. He told me that he enjoyed Leo’s story more; even though Park is “technically” the MAIN character, he felt like Leo was the main character. Whilst, indeed, a lot of Park’s story isn’t spoken about in this book (his time will come), I feel as if that was positive feedback.
I struggled a lot to write these characters; I didn’t know how to put Leo’s emotions into writing (future real-life events would help with this). I also struggled with Park, Rina, and Asher.
I feel as if all of them are more complex than they seem. (I consider Oscar Pat to be the most complex character I’ve written, but these four were really hard to write)
I couldn’t truly understand what their emotions were at times. Originally, Rina’s story was rushed and felt like filler to me. It felt unnecessary, but removing it meant removing so much. Feedback from a friend did inform me that Rina’s story did feel awkward, so I was fortunate to sort it out. There was a lot of rewriting and moving chapters around towards the end, but thankfully, I feel it turned out really well.
The only reason I didn’t struggle with Patrick was that he hasn’t had his moments yet.
My life has always been an inspiration for my writing, and music was a huge part of my time at school. Ms Rutts, the music teacher, is inspired by my own music teacher at secondary school. A lovely teacher who, even though I never practised, always supported me when I tried to play the piano. My music grades weren’t the best (My fault, I didn’t practise or revise), but I have very fond memories because of the teachers in the music department. All the teachers in this book are based on some teacher who taught me at some point.
Headmistress Palmer was based on the old Headmistress at my secondary school, and Rachel Monroe was based on my old form tutor when I was in Year 13.
I will leave this here for now as it is getting rather long. If you have any other questions you’d like to ask about this book, then please leave a comment, and I’ll try my best to reply.
I’m proud of this book, and I’m already working on the sequel. I think it was one of my best.
It was originally written to be a TV show, and who knows, maybe one day…
(Maybe… Please… It would mean the world to me)
But anyway, sorry for being away for so long. Thank you all for reading and checking out my books.
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Thanks again!