The story behind THE THREE RULES OF EVERYDAY MAGIC is pretty long and winding. It started out as a book with two grandmas who come back as guardian angels. That was inspired by my children having old ladies for imaginary friends. Creepy, but hey, that works for story inspiration sometimes.
But then I got feedback from my first mentor that pointed out that as it was, the grandma angels were distracting to the heart of the story about a girl and her depressed father. I either needed to give the angels more purpose or find a way to tell the story without them.
I tried at first just to make the grandmas more important, but then I started getting some ideas on how to tell the story without the angels. So I decided to JUST TRY. I sent the first few chapters to my CP and she raved. This was it. All that emotion from the last half of the book? It's now in the first part of the book, too. The part everyone told me was slow before.
But as I got to the first turning point, I knew I needed something. Something slightly magical. It's hard to go from paranormal to straight contemporary! I was on a cross-country car drive when it hit me. Not magic the way we think about it, but this idea of magic, and these three rules. I can still remember that moment of inspiration with absolute clarity. It changed the direction of my story while also deepening the original heart of all of it.
So that's it, really. Imaginary friends, hard feedback, and a cross country trip. That's all you need to write a book! ;)
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Oh neat! The old lady imaginary friends would probably freak me out a bit, but as long as they stay nice... Haha.
ReplyDelete(Don't know why it's listing me as Unknown. This is Kyle from PW. Haha.
DeleteI still think that's the coolest inspiration story! (And my 2yo apparently had a family of imaginary slugs riding her train recently, so yeah. Kids are weird!)
ReplyDelete