I’m going to tell you a story…
I’m the type of person who likes to find poignancy and significance in moments in my life, who associates songs, photos, films, with important things. I’m inspired by other creative endeavours and when something connects with me, it takes a lot for me to forget that link for years to come. It is because of this tendency that I want to share a story with you all today. I hope you will indulge me.
It’s November, 2015. 24 year old me is sat at my desk at work. It’s dark, dreary and wintery outside, as England always is by November. I’m two months away from the trip of a lifetime to LA and busy planning amazing adventures as part of that vacation. One of those exciting adventures will end up being attending the People’s Choice Awards.
Who is performing at the People’s Choice Awards in January 2016? A fairly unknown artist called Shawn Mendes, who’s just released his first album. With little work to do, I decided to give his debut album a listen.
For a while now, I’ve been wanting to write something new. It’s been a few years since I’ve had a writing project to really get my teeth into and I can feel glimpses of ideas floating around the back of my brain. So, with Shawn Mendes’ new album blasting through my headphones, I take a pen and paper (well, an A5 notepad which I still have in 2019) and write down every idea that I can think of for a plot.
I come up with 15 ideas.
During that time, one thing happened that four years later I still remember. One song came on the playlist and changed my life.
Have you ever had those moments? The ones where you have to stop, to pause and take stock of what’s happening. The first time I listened to this song, I should have known everything was about to change.
Never Be Alone, Shawn Mendes, Handwritten. The song that changed my life.
Maybe it sounds extreme to someone on the outside. How can one song have so much impact. How can it matter so much?
This is how.
Four years later, I sit here, playing that song in my home in Toronto, so far from the life I was living at the time. Still working on the novel that song inspired. My two lead characters’ entire love lives in my novel were inspired by lyrics in that one song: “Take a piece of my heart, and when we are apart, you’ll never be alone.”
Hunters Ridge, the novel I have spent almost four years working on, that I put all my spare time and spare energy into, would never have existed without that song. If I hadn’t listened on that cold November day in 2015, I may never have ended up here.
Why tell this story now, at the end of summer in 2019? What is the relevance? I’ll share with you those details. Friday night, after an insane few days of work, I rushed across Toronto the the Rogers Centre (Sky Dome). Why? Because Shawn Mendes was performing his home town show, a show I had waited months to attend. And there, on Friday night, I stood amongst thousands of fans and listened as he performed live the song that had changed my life, inspired me, that had created this entire world in my book. It took my breath away and brought tears to my eyes.
Without Shawn Mendes, the PCAs and my imagination, Hunters Ridge may never have existed. If Hunters Ridge ever gets published, Shawn Mendes will get a thanks.
The moral of my story? Keep searching for that inspiration. And when it strikes, never forget it. Now, if I ever hear that song, I remember that first spark. I feel re-invigorated. Hearing it live was a dream come true. Hearing it amongst such a dedicated, passionate crowd, made me remember that it’s not just me it means something to, but people all over the world.
Maybe one day, Hunters Ridge will mean the same.
