Many people are often amazed at how I can come up with so many fantastical elements to put in my writing. I’m never completely sure how to respond because it’s just how my brain works. I’ve always seen stories in common objects such as trees and ponds, empty country roads and abandoned houses. Everything has a tale to tell, and it all sparks my imagination.
But, yes. I am a bit of an odd duck when it comes to ideas and how I twist them around. I will admit to that.
In February I will be publishing a middle-grade novel that I had so much fun working on. It’s been through many different stages of growth, just like a child. It’s a part of me. And so, before I start getting the comments again about how do these characters and story ideas even begin to formulate in the recesses of my imagination, here’s a glimpse behind the scenes.
I wanted to write about a creature that wasn’t the normal heroine. An unlikely hero who doesn’t have the looks to make her a Disney© Princess. I don’t like cookie cutter characters. AT. ALL.
In that regard, I researched where the fairy tale princesses had come from, because we all know the stories in the beginning were nothing like the scrubbed-clean version in the animated movies, right? In going way back, I found many things I could draw from that had never been introduced before. This is where an idea I had for a character meets inspiration and ended up a story.
Take the name of my book, Woodencloak. It comes from a Norwegian fairy tale about a girl – Katie Woodencloak. Check out the Wikipedia page here. It’s a familiar tale: Widowed father with a daughter marries a widow with her own daughter. Somehow the father goes missing in action somewhere along the way and the stepmother mistreats his daughter (Cinderella, anyone?) The difference in this story is that a bull helps the girl escape her situation, and fearing the stepmother’s wrath, they both flee and have some pretty interesting adventures.
Eventually the girl comes upon a castle, and wishing to blend in, the bull gives the girl a woodencloak and gives her a name – Katie Woodencloak. She’s forced to kill the bull, because of course she is. More adventures happen and the happy ever after is the prince of that castle marrying Katie. Ta-da! Fairy tale with a happy ever after. Just not quite the story to make it into a featured animated film.
The idea of a cloak, however—a woodencloak no less, that could help a girl hide started a storm of imagination in my head. I already had a princess in mind—a troll princess named Horra Fyd, who had to flee from her own castle and hide from an evil magical elf—the Erlking. And now I had the means by which to hide my heroine. A woodencloak.
Unless you love Norwegian fairy tales, this isn’t something you’ve seen before, is it?
The story practically wrote itself in my mind after that. I just had to bring the details to life and give them a dash of unique to set them apart. I hope I did that. And I hope you’ll stay tuned for more of the BEHIND THE SCENES!
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