When I was a little girl, my grandfather would tell these wonderful little stories about a duck named Herman. Each story was written to highlight a particular holiday or a special event happening in our family.
What I loved about the story, besides the fact that my grandpa made them up, was that they always contained little nuggets of wisdom that applied to the scriptures and they had a moral. The characters didn't just go around being cute.
Over the years I have been writing my own versions of these stories to give to my family for Christmas.
My family keeps telling me that I should try to get them published. Well...publishing a Children's book is no easy task.
I have been taking some creative writing classes here at Elon, where I work and my professor told me that I needed to create a beginning. Something that the regular public could buy into. The stories are always a hit with my family because they love me and they love my grandpa and they are familiar with the characters.
My dilemma has been in creating a believable beginning. I've been struggling with how to present these characters and introduce them to people other than my family and yet stay true to the memories that each of us has of my grandfather and these characters.
So last night as I was driving home from "College" night with my youngest son who is a senior, I was feeling blue and reminiscing about him and his school days. I was reminded of a snow globe that we have in our Christmas decorations. When we were first given the snow globe, Wes was enamored with it. It would shake it up constantly and watch till the last snow flake floated to the bottom. It is also a music box and he would often want to have it playing for him while he went to sleep.
Then it hit me. What if I were to set-up my story about a little girl named "Holley" of course and her special relationship with her grandfather. Each story (I'm envisioning a series) would be a tale about what happens inside the snow globe. So the vehicle would be that Holley's grandfather would be making up a new adventure just for her based on what she saw inside the snow globe. The twist would be that each time Holley looked inside the snow globe it would look different. Maybe it would be winter time and there would be snow. Maybe it would be autumn and there would be falling leaves...you get the idea.
The first story would have Holley's grandfather showing her the snow globe for the very first time and telling her all about who lives inside.
What do you think? Am I on to something perhaps?
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3 comments:
You've got me interested already and I never even knew your grandfather! I think you have a very creative style and your globe with the different scenes sets a wonderful background for what you want to write. Go for it!!!
I can't wait to read the first book! The snow globe sounds like a great way to bring in the wisdom portion. And I think it would be cool if the Holley visited her grandfather after school etc. and when she had something on her mind and then he would tell a Herman the duck story? Would that work? or is that what you were thinking? I'm sure you'll come up with something amazing.
I love that idea! I've always heard about Herman and his stories, but I'd love to see hear the beginning! Terrific!!!
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