One Song by A.J. Betts
(published Pan MacMillan)
Author Interview with A.J. Betts about her YA novel One Song for Joy in Books at PaperbarkWords blog
I think that One Song is original and highly memorable. Why do you think this is so?
One Song is unlike anything I’ve written before, or anything I’ve read. Many young adult novels are coming-of-age stories set over an extended period, but I wanted to create something with a very short timeframe and a pressure-cooker scenario which will ‘make or break’ the characters. As such, it’s a tense, narrative-driven story that progressively reveals characters (and surprises) with each page. Another reason One Song is different is that, rather than exploring societal issues, it tries to grapple with philosophical ideas about creativity and hope—ideas that I was interested in as an idealistic teenager, and continue to be interested in now, in middle-age. How do you live an authentic, creative life?
Please tell us something about each character and about some of their interconnected relationships.
One of the joys of writing One Song was creating five distinctly different personalities and throwing them in a room together. Each of the characters has their own motivation for being in the band, along with their unique style and creative approach. These contrasts served as excellent sources of conflict.
Eva, the 17-year-old protagonist, is most like me. She’s perfectionistic, sensitive, earnest, determined, hopeful, vulnerable, and idealistic. Unfortunately, she suffers from imposter syndrome, causing her to doubt her talent and creative voice. Eva is obsessed with Cooper (popular, naturally talented, charismatic, good-looking) who is oblivious to her devotion. It’s Cooper who suggests starting the band, to give Eva her best chance at winning Triple J Unearthed High, and thereby changing her life forever. The two ring-ins are Ruby the bass player (also at their school: introverted, serious, opinionated) who clashes with Eva, as well as Ant the drummer (easy-going, happy-go-lucky) who’s the only one with experience in real bands. And then there’s an unexpected fifth character, Mim (friendly, helpful), who’s come to film their rehearsal for her Year 11 Media fly-on-the-wall documentary project. Though Eva suspects Mim will be a distraction (it’s assumed she’s keen on Cooper, as many girls are), Mim provides a nice counterpoint to the intensity of the situation, and her presence offers the reader some distance and perspective.
You describe feeling and emotions well e.g. shame, lack of confidence … Please tell us about some of these.
Eva has a lot of great qualities (drive, creative talent, sensitivity) which make her an incredible songwriter, but on the flip side she suffers from debilitating self-doubt and self-criticism. Unlike Cooper, Eva doesn’t have a healthy ego. And yet, she dares to put everything into her work, making her vulnerable.
As a creative person, I know that doing your best and revealing your authentic self means opening yourself up to anxiety, shame and failure. Being honest as a creative person involves risk. It takes real courage, and this is something Eva has to grapple with this throughout the story. To make things worse, the goal (of entering and winning Triple J Unearthed High) is a huge one, and the stakes are high, which adds more pressure to Eva and the band. Emotions run high, and every moment feels heightened. We see Eva at her very best, and her very worst.
The impact of the locked-in setting on the narrative atmosphere and pacing is a fine achievement. Please explain how this worked.
I’ve always loved an enclosed setting—it’s a common thread running through my novels, including Zac & Mia and Hive. I like the tension it can create. The setting in One Song is a granny flat, which was the perfect size for a band to rehearse in. Having three spaces within it (the main room, bedroom and ensuite) provided opportunities for the five characters to break into smaller groups should they need to.
To this enclosed setting, I added the second constraint of a short period of time: one weekend. This was influenced by a couple of other stories I’d seen on screen. First, I’d really enjoyed an episode of Parks and Recreation in which two characters were locked together in an office overnight. Second, I was interested in how the characters in The Breakfast Club (set in schoolroom over a day) morphed and evolved as a result of their experience in detention.
One Song starts at 6:30pm on Friday, and the Triple J Unearthed High deadline is 5pm Sunday, so there’s less than 48 hours to get the song done. This countdown allowed me to create a sense of a ticking clock which underpins everything (with the menace of a ticking time bomb). As Eva is so fixated on counting down the hours, I had fun with manipulating time: for example, slowing it down for some scenes, then quickening it in others. The pacing of the story came from this, and I like the sense of urgency that ripples beneath everything. I wanted the pace to gather momentum in the final third, and so I threw in a series of twists that were really fun to write.
How have you incorporated humour?
One of my goals with One Song was to create a funny book. After the intense experience of writing of Hive and Rogue (a dystopian duology) I really needed some fun. I started writing One Song at the end of 2019, and when Covid happened in 2020, it confirmed my choice: the world certainty needed levity. It seemed there was enough sadness and seriousness. What I craved – when I read, and wrote – was joy and passion, and a reminder that we are the heroes of our own stories. Eva can be quite a serious character, but what happens to her is funny and unpredictable, and she learns to let go of some of her control. In my experience, teenagers have a great sense of humour, and look for ways to make situations funny. My brand of humour isn’t ‘set jokes’ with punchlines. I’m more interested in ironic situations, witty quips and asides, and unexpected observations – plus a bit of slapstick thrown in.
I chose to write about periods in the book because it’s part of the reality of being a female—there’s weirdness and embarrassment and inconvenience and, occasionally, humour. It’s not something teenagers should shy away from talking about. I’m surprised and impressed by the number of young males who’ve read the book and have been totally cool with the period scenes—what a great show of maturity and solidarity! The other reason I wanted to include periods is to give Eva something else she isn’t in control of. She spends much of the story trying to wrestle things under control (the band members, time, the creative process, the competition outcome), so her body becomes one more adversary, in a way. She has to overcome feelings of control and shame before she can move on.
The whole Triple J Unearthed, song writing, jamming, band and music vibe in the book is amazing. What do you think are some highlights?
As someone who’s never been in a rock band, this was my chance to live vicariously through my characters and feel what it’s like. It certainly did feel cool and fun and empowering. Because doesn’t everyone—even non-musical people—have fantasies of being a rockstar?
Though I’ve never played an instrument, I’ve always loved music, and have listened to Triple J most of my adult life. It was on a Friday afternoon back in 2017 that I got the idea for One Song. I was listening to Triple J, and an ad came on reminding teenagers that entries for Unearthed High were about to close … and suddenly I imagined four teenagers with one weekend to create a song. The idea grew from there, and involved a whole lot of research into instruments, songwriting, band dynamics, etc. I went to lots of festivals where young people played, and sat in on rehearsals of a young Perth band named Spici Water. I hung out in music stores, scoured reddit, and watched lots of online tutorials.
There’s a saying: ‘Writing about music is like dancing about architecture.’ And it certainly felt hard to me. But I enjoyed the challenge of bringing music—and the vibe of the rehearsals—to life.
You mention ‘inversions’ in music – what are they?
It’s pretty complicated, but it’s a way of re-positioning the notes of a chord for a certain effect. Ruby mentions them because a) she’s a music snob and frowns on what Eva is playing and b) it’s a power play to let Eva know she has the upper hand.
Eva gets pulled up about her playing ? What should the keys be playing?
I can’t remember! But probably a melody run, and definitely not the same as what Cooper is playing on guitar.
What is the significance of the titles of each part?
As Eva’s overarching goal in the story is to complete a song, I wanted to incorporate song structure into the framework of the story. I wrote the novel in a five-act structure, then assigned each of these acts a segment of a standard rock song structure: Intro, Verse, Pre-chorus, Chorus, Bridge. I also had an epilogue, which I labelled Outro. In this way, I could draw similarities between Eva’s creative process and my own.
How is writing a song like writing a book?
Writing a book is much like writing a song … except 10,000 times longer. As a teenager, I used to write poetry, and sometimes I’d turn these into songs. What I loved about poems/lyrics, was the purity of it. It’s perfect for a perfectionist like me: I could spend months tweaking a 100-word piece. I’ve brought this attention to detail to my novels, which is both satisfying but endlessly exhausting—and probably why it takes me four years to write a novel.
Much of Eva’s process as songwriter in One Song is a commentary and reflection on my own process as a writer. A lot of it is intuitive, organic, and personal. It requires daily work, yet it can’t be forced. As Eva says, ‘It’s countless days of subconscious construction and conscious rearrangement.’ It’s a whole lot of introspection and self-analysis, along with uncertainty, confusion, and self-doubt. It’s scrapping what you’ve done and restarting from scratch. It’s collaborating with others and knowing when to let go. It’s being able to hear the tiny voice inside you that’s guiding the way.
What are your favourite bands/music and why?
I don’t have any favourite artists, as such, but I do like to listen to Aussie indie bands. I’ve made a playlist on Spotify with some of the artists I had on repeat while writing One Song: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1B1VyR6KSPu2tt0eeydpNa?si=c6873ddeee1446b8
How is hope integral to your story?
Ultimately, One Song is a story about two things: courage and hope. I realise now that these are the themes throughout everything I write, not deliberately, but because they’re embedded in what I believe. Despite everything, courage and hope are the greatest qualities we have. They’re the qualities I’m proudest of, and the qualities I wish I could inspire in young people. We teach teenagers a lot of things, but not always how to be brave (and what that looks like) and to hope. They have their lives ahead of them, and there’s a lot to be hopeful for.
A.J., thanks very much for, not only your enlightening answers, but your excellent novel, One Song. Readers will love it!
My interview with A.J.Betts about Rogue at Paperbark Words blog
paperbarkwords.blog 
One thought on “One Song by A.J. Betts”