Story Idea for A Part to Play
by
Jennifer L. Fry
**See
giveaway info below**
In planning A PART TO PLAY, I started with the emotional journey I wanted my main character to experience. I knew immediately I wanted to write a young adult story, and I wanted my story to have a strong message – that is, the importance of believing in oneself. Then, to develop my plot, I thought of my most favorite stories of all time from movies, plays, and books. One of these happens to be The Phantom of the Opera. I didn't want my book to be a retelling of that classic story, but rather I wanted it to draw inspiration from what I considered the most captivating parts. I loved the mystery and the powerful role that music played in the story; I also found the dark side of the Phantom intriguing.
Once I had that basic premise, I needed something at the beginning of the story to make my character lose all self belief, which in this case happens with the death of her beloved sister and the subsequent breakdown of her family. As a writer, I explore big questions that I personally have about life. In A PART TO PLAY, I explore the death of a child in a tight-knit family. As I consider becoming a parent myself, I wonder how I could survive losing my child – it seems like one of the worst possible things that could happen in life. Lucy, the main character of my story, watches as her parents are consumed by grief, and she naturally begins to doubt her worth.
By the time she arrives at the Edmond School for Performing Arts, where our story begins, Lucy doesn't know what to think anymore. She hears music coming from underground, and eventually meets the musician who has helped her find something to focus on besides her grief. I explored the idea of both main characters in my story, Lucy and the musician, having the same flaw – how that brings them together, and how it drives them apart. It was important to me to show Lucy's gradual shift. I wanted the reader to come along on Lucy's journey, to feel what it is to be at the bottom and to experience with her the joy of first love and finally finding a way to cope with the loss of her family.
In later revisions, I felt that Lucy must confront her parents. It was part of the process for her to recover her sense of self. Then my story became something new. It wasn't just about loss, romance, and finding your own way; it was also about recognizing parents as fallible people who we can no more rely on for our self-worth than anyone else in life. Ultimately, no matter the parallels between my novel and the Phantom of the Opera, it is truly about the strength of a young girl who manages to carry on even though everyone around her seems to have given up.
A Part to Play
**GIVEAWAY**
Comment
on any of my posts today and one lucky winner will
be randomly selected to receive a set of original character
illustrations of Lucy, Chris & Isa from A Part to Play. These
illustrations are not available for sell!
1 comment:
believing in yourself is not always easy. I am interested to see how it all works out.
debby236 at gmail dot com
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