HAVE you ever formed a connection with somebody who only ended up abruptly ending all your communication without any explanation or warning? 

This is what people call ghosting and this is what Therese Villarante-Langit went through when a guy, who was her closest romantic encounter at the age of 23, suddenly disappeared from her life.

It had a profound impact on her. She translated her heartbreak into song lyrics, but Villarante still felt that there was more to tell.

Years later, the multimedia novel Girl With A Broken String was born. 

Girl With A Broken String (GWABS) is not an ordinary physical book. What’s unique about it is that it immerses readers more into the story through the use of various multimedia elements such as songs, animations, and illustrations.

GWABS

Villarante, who is now 31, is a multimedia storyteller who loves weaving together prose, original songs, animation, and artworks to deliver a story in the most eloquent way possible.

She incorporated all these elements in telling the journey of Sam in her latest work Girl With A Broken String.

Set in Cebu City, the multimedia novel revolves around young singer-songwriter Sam who is going through her first big and terrible heartbreak. She copes by writing letters and songs in hopes that J, her first love who ghosted her, would somehow listen and come back to her.

“I imagined Girl with a Broken String as a multimedia novel because Sam is most truthful in her writing, her songs, and her drawings. As she faces overwhelming heartbreak, her thoughts and feelings are portrayed powerfully with the use of these multimedia elements,” Villarante told republicasia.

The multimedia novel took inspiration from Song on a Broken String, a song that Villarante wrote with Cebu-based record producer and musical director Jude Gitamondoc in 2014 for Boholana singer Ivy Gallur.

At that time, an image of a girl playing her guitar despite its broken string came to Villarante’s mind. It’s a character she imagined to be someone who still sings through pain, and eventually triumphs. 

The challenge here for Villarante was how she would bring that kind of character into life.

“How do we sing through pain? How do we still create in the deep center of our profound loneliness? How do we one day wake up closer to healing when today we are unrecognizable in our ache? How do we change, no matter how initially unwilling, and ultimately grow? I had no answers,” she said.

“But as I sat still in the heart of the narrative, Sam, the lead character of Girl with a Broken String, found me,” she added.

Villarante wrote the novel not only for her younger self who struggled with self-worth, but also for others who are going through the same heartbreak.

“It’s inspired by the people who show up. It’s inspired by [the] community. It’s inspired by the brilliant, creative ways we tell our truths,” the author stressed.

How it works

Since Girl With A Broken String is not the typical book, Villarante gave advice on how to best use the multimedia novel, especially for first timers.

The physical novel features prose, illustrations, song lyrics, and QR codes that will lead readers to the lyric videos on YouTube.

The author said that readers should listen to the songs in their given narrative order in the book, so that they can “ride with Sam’s emotional plot and really understand why she’s writing those songs.”

GWABS has a total of nine original songs: Prelude, 10,000 Hours, My Two Left Feet, John Doe, Happy Ever After You, Reprise, A Proper Heartbreak, and No One Is In Love With Me.

This playlist is now available on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and Deezer.

The GWABS Team

Villarante is not only a multimedia storyteller, she is also a lyricist, poet, screenwriter, and an educator who taught literature for almost a decade in Cebu. She is also a former theater actress.

In her years of experience, she has bagged recognitions, such as Vispop 3.0 third place winner and Himig Handog 2019 second runner-up. She also inspired students of the University of San Carlos when she gave a TEDx Talk on Poetry in 2016.

It has been a long writing journey for Villarante, but she had no recollection of when it started. All she can remember is what motivated her to start.

“I write because it’s how I stop running. I sit in my important moments long enough to know that they’re mine to hold. Here, my truth shines. Here is where I celebrate ideas!” she said.

Villarante believes that each person is a creative storyteller, that they can express themselves not only through writing, but also through drawing, filmmaking, singing, dancing, playing instruments, or just through simply decorating their bedrooms and listening to music. 

Joining the author in telling the story of Girl With A Broken String are Gitamondoc, Gallur, Daryl Leong, Maeren Sanoria, and Lee Anthony Pada.

Villarante wrote the narrative, while Gitamondoc worked on the original songs. Gallur and Leong lend their voices for the tracks.

After these were produced, Sanoria worked on illustrations, which were used by Pada for the lyric videos.

“I don’t know if the team initially understood the amount of work Girl with a Broken String entailed but we all did what we were supposed to do without complaint and with the commitment of a person already halfway through a haircut,” Villarante shared.

“The result is an intense and truthful exploration of heartbreak and healing that you can truly see, hear, and feel all at once in the most visceral way,” she added.

Apart from being a songwriter, record producer and musical director, Gitamondoc is also the founder of the successful Vispop Songwriting Campaign and heads the independent label KADASIG that handles top Vispop artists.

Gallur and Leong are both singers and nurses. Gallur is a member of the local theater community and is an international touring theater performer for Siddharta: The Musical. Gallur also shares her knowledge to others by conducting dance workshops and choreography sessions. 

Leong, meanwhile, has won multiple awards locally and internationally, such as Best Interpreter in the Sounds of the Human World Song festival Malaysia in 2008 and in the 32nd Cebu Popular Music Festival in 2012. He also interpreted the best original soundtrack at the 2012 Golden Screen Awards for the film Ligo Na U, Lapit Na Me.

Meanwhile, Sanoria and Pada are both visual artists whom Villarante worked with for her seven-track extended play, My Heart, The Astronaut. Sanoria is an illustrator who recently started publishing her artworks through her Instagram account. Pada, on the other hand, is an animator and lighting director whose notable works include Gugmang Giatay The Musical, Monsters the Musical, and PLUS63 Music Festival.

What to look forward to

Villarante recently held the launch of the physical book of Girl With A Broken String.

Readers can look forward to “a truly unique, reflective, and emotionally-resonant storytelling” expressed through different multimedia elements, she said. 

“I really want readers to come away with what is beautiful, powerful, and intrinsic about themselves. First and foremost, I want the readers of this book to be more kind to themselves and the people around them,” she said. 

The novel, she said, honors individuality, creative expression, courage, and certainly, love.

“Girl with a Broken String hopes to be a safe space for all your big feelings. It can be your friend reminding you that you are not alone. That you are one of a kind, capable, and possible,” she said.

The physical book is not yet available in local bookstores in the country, but readers can purchase it by messaging “order book” to Girl With A Broken String’s Facebook messenger.