Authors colour the world of their books with many seemingly inconsequential things. Tiny things that usually never have any impact on the story at all but can go on to have huge significance.
For example, red glass vases. In Holding Out For A Hero, I gave the heroine, Ella, a couple of vases that belonged to her estranged mother, the only things Ella had taken from the house after her mother's death. When I first wrote them they were merely a prop to decorate Ella's room. They could have been anything else - a lamp or a painting. But they quickly became a memento from the happier times in Ella's childhood, a connection to her mother. Then as the story evolved further, they became so much more, they were the catalyst for the wedge that is driven between Ella and Jake.
I didn't know any of this when I first wrote the vases into the story. It was just a little detail, not the linchpin of the big black moment. But things like that often aren't planned - well, they're not for me anyway. They evolve as the story evolves and can often take on a life of their own. I like to think that my muse knew all along, laying little breadcrumbs for me, waiting for me to finally make the connection.
It was the same with my rural/small town romance Some Girls Do which, btw, is perma-FREE!!
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| https://au.pinterest.com/pin/446067538074297818/ |
I found this image on Pinterest when I was searching (read procrastinating) another book.
I was really impressed with the handkerchief bustle. I'd not seen something like this before and I liked the gypsy feel of it. But I moved on through the rabbit hole that is Pinterest not really giving it much thought until I was half way through writing Some Girls Do and I knew I needed a handkerchief bustle.
You see, my heroine, Lacey, is a bit of a brat. She's young and reckless and wilful and all the things some reviewers have called her. But I don't apologise for that. She's grieving. Yes, she's making a hash of it but grief's like that sometimes. Messy and erratic. Anyway, all Lacey wants is to go home to Jumbuck Springs and be with her tribe - her brothers and the town she loves. But she knows she has to prove herself when she gets there. She knows she has one chance to show she's all grown up.
I didn't know when I made her a fashion design student that it would be the way Lacey was going to prove herself. It was just a tiny decision I made because I wanted her to be a bit arty and have to leave Jumbuck Springs to pursue it. I didn't know when I threw in an old school friend that was getting married as a secondary character that Lacey was going to save her wedding day. But when the scene came to me - when the skirt of the weddings dress is lying in hacked pieces at Lacey's feet - that handkerchief bustle I'd seen once many months before came back to me.
With less than 24 hours to the wedding, Lacey turns the savaged pieces into a handkerchief bustle, causes an absolute sensation in the district and a flurry of orders from other brides-to-be. A business is born and Lacey's place in Jumbuck Springs is secure.
None of these little decisions I made along the way seemed to be of any consequence until that scene. A little procrastination time on Pinterest seemed of little consequence until that scene. But all along my muse had been laying breadcrumbs because that scene is a turning point in Lacey's character and that damn bustle started it all even though it meant nothing at the time.
So what have I learned? Do not take minutiae for granted because from little things, big things can grow. Always trust that my muse will deliver. And Pinterest is the bomb.
Do you notice the minutiae in a novel only when it becomes significant? Are you a Pinterest tragic like me? If so, what are your favourite boards there?
I love to love: travel. I've just come back from exploring the Mediterranean where I totally confirmed something I've always suspected - I was a Roman goddess in a previous life!
I love to laugh: at myself! I don't think anyone should take themselves too seriously.
I love to learn: other people's stories. If you see me following you around Woolies with my shopping trolley I'm trying to figure out your story!
