Jen Carter's Blog - Posts Tagged "shakespeare"
Coming up with Chasing Paris
Recently, I’ve been asked a lot about how I came up with the storyline for Chasing Paris, and it’s been such fun remembering and sharing. I thought I would go ahead and share it here, too.
Thirteen years ago, I was a junior in college. One beautiful spring day, I was sitting in a lecture on Elizabethan Literature, half listening to the professor and half staring out the window. I loved being in this professor’s class. She was passionate and inspiring, and most of the time I hung on her every word. But on this particular day I was staring out the window because of my used textbook. The notes that the previous owner had written next to one poem in particular didn’t make any sense to me; I couldn’t figure out what they possibly could have meant. I found myself wondering about the person who had taken those notes. Who was she? How had the professor in her class explained that poem differently than my professor?
I started to think about how the margin notes in a used textbook could become a snapshot of the book owner’s life. Underlined passages, little smiling faces, stars, question marks—they all tell us something about the owner. We can begin to see what a person likes, dislikes, or doesn’t understand. We might even begin to see what that person values.
Then the idea hit me.
After class, I ran home, sat at my computer, closed my eyes, and started typing. It was just bits and pieces of characters and scenes that appeared in my head. An old man. An old book. A woman with long dark hair. Paris. Heartbreak. Sisters. Thoughts about the classes I had taken that week crept in. Shakespeare—love him. Milton—hate him. Themes began emerging, and I kept writing. Before I knew it, the story was about so much more than a used textbook.
A couple weeks later, I went home for the summer and announced to my parents that I was going to write a book. I had the storyline all set, and I just needed to write it. My parents weren’t surprised. They had been encouraging me to write practically since I could pick up a pencil, and they had watched my attachment to stories and storytelling grow for years. So I began the project with them cheering me on.
I wrote Chasing Paris on and off for a number of years, loving it, loathing it, and loving it again. I put it aside many times to work on other projects, but I always found myself coming back to it.
A lot happened from the time I began this book to the time I finished it. I graduated college and got a job. I hated being away from a classroom, so I went to grad school. I began teaching. I met and married my husband. We had two beautiful girls. Every step of the way, my ideas for the book changed. It evolved as my life evolved, and I’m glad I had the time to watch the characters develop. The process has been so very exciting for me.
The best part is that I have something to give my little girls when they grow up.
And that’s it—that’s how Chasing Paris came to be!
Thirteen years ago, I was a junior in college. One beautiful spring day, I was sitting in a lecture on Elizabethan Literature, half listening to the professor and half staring out the window. I loved being in this professor’s class. She was passionate and inspiring, and most of the time I hung on her every word. But on this particular day I was staring out the window because of my used textbook. The notes that the previous owner had written next to one poem in particular didn’t make any sense to me; I couldn’t figure out what they possibly could have meant. I found myself wondering about the person who had taken those notes. Who was she? How had the professor in her class explained that poem differently than my professor?
I started to think about how the margin notes in a used textbook could become a snapshot of the book owner’s life. Underlined passages, little smiling faces, stars, question marks—they all tell us something about the owner. We can begin to see what a person likes, dislikes, or doesn’t understand. We might even begin to see what that person values.
Then the idea hit me.
After class, I ran home, sat at my computer, closed my eyes, and started typing. It was just bits and pieces of characters and scenes that appeared in my head. An old man. An old book. A woman with long dark hair. Paris. Heartbreak. Sisters. Thoughts about the classes I had taken that week crept in. Shakespeare—love him. Milton—hate him. Themes began emerging, and I kept writing. Before I knew it, the story was about so much more than a used textbook.
A couple weeks later, I went home for the summer and announced to my parents that I was going to write a book. I had the storyline all set, and I just needed to write it. My parents weren’t surprised. They had been encouraging me to write practically since I could pick up a pencil, and they had watched my attachment to stories and storytelling grow for years. So I began the project with them cheering me on.
I wrote Chasing Paris on and off for a number of years, loving it, loathing it, and loving it again. I put it aside many times to work on other projects, but I always found myself coming back to it.
A lot happened from the time I began this book to the time I finished it. I graduated college and got a job. I hated being away from a classroom, so I went to grad school. I began teaching. I met and married my husband. We had two beautiful girls. Every step of the way, my ideas for the book changed. It evolved as my life evolved, and I’m glad I had the time to watch the characters develop. The process has been so very exciting for me.
The best part is that I have something to give my little girls when they grow up.
And that’s it—that’s how Chasing Paris came to be!
