Writing a Mystery: Chapter Titles/Playlist The Godfather of Dance

When I first started writing The Godfather of Dance, I made each chapter title a ballroom or Latin American dance type: samba, waltz, pasodoble, etc. As the story progressed and the number of chapters grew – I write short, snappy chapters – I ran out of dances, so I switched to song titles. This gave me more freedom as I could choose multiple songs for one dance type, and I could use music genres that weren’t specifically tied to a dance style, such as film music, heavy metal, or punk.

I spent hours trawling the internet to find music that created the right atmosphere and had lyrics pertinent to the content of the chapter. For reference, I’ve listed all the songs I used here, including the genre and artist, so you can hear what I had in mind.

When the books first came out with Wings ePress, I didn’t mention in the book that the chapter titles were song titles, so many readers missed this nuance. In an in conversation at Ink Bookshop, the bookshop owner, Charlotte Lindsay suggested I create a Spotify list and put a QR code to it at the start of the book so readers can listen along. When the books were re-released with Next Chapter, I implemented this idea.

If you’d like to listen on Spotify, this is the link: The Godfather of Dance on Spotify.
To see the playlist for A Killer Among Friends, see A Killer Among Friends on Spotify.
For The Man in the Dam, see The Man in the Dam on Spotify.

Why I chose these songs has proved an interesting discussion point for interviews. It’s one of the topics we have planned for my chat with the fabulous Marg Attley on her show Quiet Please There is a Lady Onstage on Radio Mansfield, July 10, 2024. We’ll also discuss the Mansfield Readers & Writers Festival, living in Mansfield, and so much more. If you’d like to tune in it’s 99.7. You can live-stream it here.

How much attention do you pay to chapter titles? I admit I sometimes gloss over them when I’m reading. Do you notice chapter titles? Is this a detail you find important?

Next time: an interview with Timo Bozsolik-Torres on Improving Manuscripts using AI
Next post about writing: How to Get Your Book into an Australian Library
Next post about writing a mystery: Writing a Mystery: Chapter Titles/Playlist A Killer Among Friends