The Chrysalis of an Idea

by Margie Senechal

I love ideas.

Ideas begin as a caterpillar walking across the sidewalk. They’re a bit plain, really. Maybe just a word or a phrase. Just enough to get the cogs turning.

Sometimes the idea has a stripe or two and the more you think on it, the more beautiful the stripes become.

When I was working at Burlington, I loved it when we got new suitcases in. Which is weird, because it had been years since I’d gone anywhere, and I certainly didn’t have the money to travel then. But I’d walk through them, imagining places waiting for me to explore them.

And that was when I thought, “I could collect suitcases like some women collect purses.” And I went to my locker and wrote it down. On my lunch, I fleshed it out to a third person paragraph about collecting suitcases but never going anywhere.

The next day I brainstormed and wondered why I—well, my character, Analise—never went anywhere. Now, I love brainstorming. I use an array of pens in all different colors and textures. I write upside down and sideways on the paper. I add notes along the margins of the paragraphs, insert notes in-between the lines of sentences and draw arrows, flowers, and houses. I’m a writer, not an artist as my doodles will prove.

With Ana, I considered having her be a sleeper spy—because that’s right in my wheelhouse and the mother character was her handler. And there might have been a code word that activated her.

Once I eliminated the sleeper agent storyline, I focused on the mother-daughter angle and began developing my storyline. Which to me is just getting the words on the paper without a map or outline.

I added Danny, the love interest in the second chapter. He'd lost his hand, his wife, and his daughter in a horrific car accident. And because of the accident he's unable to drive or even be in a car. 

 And there's a sweet little open market with a few quirky characters, Hope, a really bad-at-her-job Soul Retrieval agent, long-jumping, softball, a kitten who just appeared this week, and eventually a happy ending. 

And so, I’ve been working on this book without an end in sight for years. And years (just ask my bff Chris, who keeps asking/begging for the end).

Thanks to our writing retreat a few weeks ago, I think I’m finally on the right track and a bright light is leading me toward the end of my very long tunnel.

Then I will send my book out (be watching your email, Chris) and there will be a chrysalis period and then if I'm lucky, it will be a beautiful butterfly floating onto the bookshelves.

 

Until then, stay safe and find your own butterflies to follow.