The lines between music and other forms have art have always been thin, whether it’s adding new emotion and weight to a poignant scene or highlighting the depth within a great piece of work. For author and entrepreneur Nadia Shafika, she has taken the interplay between music and writing to a new space, weaving an impressive playlist into her new novel, ‘Collided’.
Since a very young age, Nadia had a habit of observing the controversial phenomena and challenging issues around her resulting in a wealth of experience and knowledge from various avenues of life. An entrepreneur and private editor, Nadia is looking to spread a greater and deeper meaning through her art forms. Her debut novel. ‘Collided’ centres around Gabriella ‘Gabi’ Heralie, a seventeen-year-old secretive girl who is faced with numerous repeated visions, episodes, and past memories in her head.
An immersive story that will have you gripped until the very end, ‘Collided’ is created in step with a gorgeous new playlist, featuring six tracks from artists like The Neighbourhood, Halsey, Taylor Swift, and Ariana Grande. To celebrate the release of the book, we set down with Nadia to find out a little more about the story, and importantly, the music that helped inspired it.
Wonderful to meet you, Nadia. Thank you for taking the time to answer our questions. Let’s start at the beginning; what made you want to write the book and where did the idea come from?
“Well… to begin with, I adore the changes and waves from life. I want to bring a difference to literature. More specifically the novel ‘Collided’, really captures the real and raw emotions of life changes. The idea itself came from a lot of my experiences, wrapped by the vision of what it could be? I really want to push the narrative and tell people that ‘there are so many things that happen in this world—truly bizarre and wild things and people are suffering by so many different things.’”
Can you tell us a little about the book in your own words?
“Note this: Wild, Mystical, Heartbreaking, and Ground-breaking.”
The playlist you created plays such a big part in the book. How important was it to include the music and get that just right?
“Oh, it’s very important. I can’t imagine anything without the flow of music. I think there is a certain emotion and melody of the music I put in the novel that really captures the exact emotion and feels of the scene. Like for example ‘Bad at Love’ by Halsey, I put it on a scene where the main character just had enough and began to confess to herself that this is who I am and I’m really bad at this love matter. I just think that it’s impossible to capture anything without any music involved.”
Were there any particular influences or inspirations you took from when putting the project together?
“That’s for sure. I witnessed enough stories that hasn’t been told - more than that, people can’t even imagine these things exist to begin with. So, my vocal point of writing itself is to bring variations.”
Is there a running theme throughout each song that particularly resonates with you?
“You know what… actually there is! I think I put ‘Breathing’ by Ariana Grande in Chapter 14 along with the scenes that I wrote coming exactly from what I did in the past.”
Finally, the big question is, what’s next after this book?
“Oh, man! There’re so many things I have in mind. First things first is that I’m currently beginning to write the sequel of ‘Collided’ - so there’s that. On the other hand, I’m struggling to finish my masters along with finalizing my business plan that will be launched around this Fall. I will definitely share the journey on social media.”
Released in December, and currently available on Amazon, ‘Collided’ has been featured by publications such as Vents Magazine, and has been receiving positive feedback from readers and critics alike. For more from Nadia, including updates on the sequel and her other entrepreneurial endeavours, be sure to follow her on Instagram below.
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