Writing, Recording, and Producing a Musical Audiobook

The inspiration for Hannah: The Soldier Diaries was in part drawn from my grandparents—particularly my grandmother who used to tell me stories of what it was like for her to be living and waiting at home with my mother for my grandfather’s safe return from World War II. Weeks and months would pass by without any correspondence from him, leaving her not knowing if he were dead or alive, no “I’m doing ok” text message back then. 

(Finding the Perfect Audiobook Narrator.)

I decided that this sense of not knowing would become a central theme of my story, although Hannah is set relatively modern day in 2012 and technology has significantly moved on, Hannah still had to go through that raw emotion of not knowing whether the person she loved, Jack, was still alive. (Jack was missing in action.)

My relationship with my wife was also a wonderful source of material for the audiobook, in particular the theme of class, with us coming from “different ends of the street” as they say. Although Hannah is classified as fiction, there are many truths in the audiobook which have been drawn on from our many years together. 

I remember when I first started to think about wanting to write, I told a friend of mine it’s what I really wanted to do but I didn’t know what to write. The response I got was, write what you know and what you don’t know, research, and then use your imagination for the rest. Seemed like pretty good advice to me.

So, my grandparents, the theme of not knowing, my relationship with my wife, my own research and imagination, and latterly my house move to the seaside town of Scarborough in the UK, all helped to shape into what has now become Hannah: The Soldier Diaries. I mention my town not only for the amazing inspiration it gave me, but it provided me for the backdrop for Hannah. This is where Hannah was set, and this is where Hannah was born, works and lives.

So, now I’d figured out the story, my next thought was, what do I do now? How do I present this? Do I write this as a novel, have it published in paperback or have it recorded and become a straight full length audiobook or maybe turn it into a stage play or musical or maybe do something a little different?

I’d always loved Jeff Wayne’s The War of the Worlds. Not only for the story but the way he presented it, which for those who are maybe not that familiar is in general a combination of the spoken word, songs, and amazing music. So, this was my starting point. I decided I wanted to do something similar, telling a story using a narrator followed by a song to move the story forward to the next narrated chapter.

Using this format was really exciting for me as it provided the opportunity to creatively do two of the things I loved best: writing stories and writing songs. Before I committed to this format I did some research to see how other authors and writers had approached this but to be honest I didn’t find much else like it out there to compare.

On one hand, it’s kinda cool that there’s not many others doing this kind of format, and it could be something that takes off, but then on the other hand the question is why hasn’t it already? Is there not a market for it? I guess only time will tell! Worst case, I would have 11 brand new original songs which I could release as an album, so if the format fails to launch then Hannah: The Soldier Diaries “the album” is not a bad plan B…

One thing I did come against was that people thought Hannah: The Soldier Diaries – The Audiobook was a recording of the stage version. It’s not—in fact, the stage version followed the audiobook and made its debut on stage in Scarborough in April 2024. In my book, creating a song is a wonderful and often a very rewarding experience which presented me with my next challenge: I don’t play. As in I can’t play any instruments at all, so I needed to find someone who could.

I got lucky; through a friend of a friend, I met a guy called Nick who happened to live just down the road from me and ticked off all the prerequisites I had set, apart from could I get along with him, that was the next test. I booked a half-day session with him and I spent four hours creating a song which I thought turned out pretty well, which was a bonus, but more importantly the question was, did we get along?

Yes, we did, and the rest as they say is confined to history. Nick was a near mind reader, as I said I don’t play but I can do la, la, la which gave him a rough idea of the tunes and style of songs I wanted to create. The first song we wrote together “Still On My Mind” will be a part of Hannah: The Soldier Diaries Volume 2 which is out in December 2024.

At this point I had most of the tools for the proverbial job: I had a story, I had a format, I had a composer, so the creative process began. Over the next year or so, I set about writing 11 relatively short chapters each being around 4-5 minutes long with a similar length song following immediately afterwards.

I mentioned I got lucky when I met Nick, but somehow I got even luckier. We were progressing at a decent pace on the creative front and I knew the next big challenge was hurtling toward me—who would become Hannah? 

“It’s not what you know, it’s who you know” is as old as time but it’s amazing how many times we rely on it to either dig us out of a hole or help us on our way…Nick, the composer, knew a lady who knew a guy at the local theatre who knew the leading lady in a show which had just started a 6-week run. The advice I was given was you best get yourself down to the theatre before the leading lady gets snapped up on a new contract by someone else.

I took the advice and went down to the theatre the very same night. The leading lady was Zoe Wright, she was fantastic and to my amazement she agreed to meet me for coffee later that week. I remember talking very nervously to her for almost two hours solid about all things Hannah, but she must have liked what I said, she agreed to audition for the role two days later. 

We didn’t need to audition anyone else. I once told Zoe after we had finished recording you will always be Hannah until you tell me otherwise. Playing Hannah in this particular format provided its own unique challenges, Zoe had to not only act, interpret the words, portray emotions without having anyone else to bounce off (only the studio walls) and do it in such a way that the listener couldn’t help but being drawn into the story and then of course she had to burst into song!

I guess the simple way to put this is that Zoe had to be a seriously good allrounder to pull this off which we believe she did—oh and of course she has a lovely Yorkshire accent which just worked out perfectly as the voice of Hannah. Between the three of us (me, Zoe, and Nick), a little help from Nick’s son Tyler who provided the rap vocals on three of the tracks, and not forgetting Mr. Ross Kemp (of EastEnders fame), Hannah: The Soldier Diaries Volume 1 was born.

Only time will tell of course whether the audiobook is a success or not but in my book success is relative. Sure I’d like it to earn me a living but in some ways I have already succeeded: I completed an audiobook, it’s on sale, people who have heard it seem to like it, so that’s not a bad start. 

I’m always reluctant to tell anyone what to do or how to do something but all I will say is, it’s good to talk, you never know where that conversation might take you…oh and if you come up across barriers and you truly believe in what you are creating, find a way around those barriers, there will be a way if you look hard enough.

A final word: The late great Jim Steinman said something along these lines—”If you don’t go over the top you will never see what’s on the other side.” I understand he said this in response to those who said his music was OTT. I look at it slightly differently; my take on it is, that sometimes you gotta get over that barrier to achieve what you want to achieve.

Learn more about Steve Wallis’ Hannah: The Soldier Diaries here:

Hannah – The Soldier Diaries