Whenever you write a new book, people inevitably ask what inspired the story. For me, the idea for a novel is usually sparked by something that happens in real life. All my stories are “what if” scenarios. Maybe I hear a snippet of a conversation on the subway, and I think to myself, “What if this happened, then that happened?” and it builds and builds. Characters jump in to subject themselves to the torment of my imaginary worlds. They volunteer for this, silly rabbits.
I have a very clear recollection of what inspired my latest book, “Truth and Other Lies,” which is now available from Evernight Teen. I visited an old friend (we’ll call her Millie, since that’s “her” character’s name in the book). Millie has a life-threatening condition doctors can’t seem to fix or even properly diagnose.
My friend hasn’t been able to work in… two years? I’m trying to remember when this all started. She’s the kind of person who will suck it up and get the job done even when she’s deathbed-sick, but she kept passing out at work so her employer was like, “Seriously, you need to take it easy!”
Millie is good at everything… except for “taking it easy.” So by the time I went to stay with her, she’d written a novel. Of course she had! What else are you going to do when you’re hospitalized and bedridden for weeks at a time?
But wait… there’s more! She hadn’t just written any old novel. She’d written a 200,000-word tome based largely on her life. And, let me tell you, if you bundled up all your worst nightmares, that’s Millie’s life. She’s had an unbelievably rough time. So now she’s written this book and she wants me to give her feedback.
I wasn’t sure how to react. You’re going to think I’m a horrible person, but when you love someone as much as I love Millie, sometimes you don’t want to be exposed to all the details of tragedies and abuses they’ve endured. I couldn’t see beyond my own fears at a time when my only concern should have been my sick friend. It’s terrible, but I’m being honest with you, here. Humanity isn’t always pretty or kind.
Oh, and did I mention Millie is a genius? Yeah, she is. Like, certifiable Mensa material. Couple that with “good at everything” and I knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that her book would be amazing. So why wouldn’t I say, “Yeah, email it to me. I’ll get right on that!”? Was I jealous? Did I think her writing would be better than mine?
Well, yes, absolutely.
But instead of saying any of that, I asked: “Have you revised the book yet?”
“Huh?”
“Have you proofread it? Have you re-read what you wrote?”
“No,” she told me. “I just wrote it. Can you read it and tell me if it’s good?”
A wave of guilty relief came over me. I didn’t tell her this (and I beg your forgiveness for the excessively scatological imagery), but writing a book is a little like… a little like…
Okay, I once heard that if a person has gold fillings, then every time they chew their food, teensy bits of gold comes off. Since our bodies don’t digest gold, it’ll go straight through and come out, well, the end.
I don’t know if any of that is true, but it’s the metaphor I like to use for first drafts. A first draft of a book is like a big collection of crap which may or may not be full of gold dust. Only the author can sort through all that sh*t. Honestly, who else would want to?
Write the book. Leave it alone for a while (Stephen King recommends a minimum of 6 weeks, I believe, in his book “On Writing”) and then come back to it. Whooo-eee! You’ll smell that stink a mile away.
Yes, your book will probably stink. Millie’s probably didn’t because, as I said, she’s a genius, but I told her she needed to go through that waiting period and then the revision process before ever showing her book to another living soul.
By the time she got back to me about her novel, I’d already written “Truth and Other Lies.” She phoned me one day and said, “It’s terrible. This book I wrote is just… terrible! I’m so glad I didn’t send the first draft to you—I’d be so embarrassed. I don’t even know if it’s worth working on. It’s so bad.”
“Bad” is relative, of course, and I’m sure her book is better than anything I’ve ever written, but I’ll have to wait to read it until she’s satisfied with her work. Still, I’m indebted to Millie for not only the many years of friendship we’ve shared, but for the spark that drove me to write “Truth and Other Lies.”
Because what if she’d sent that rough draft to me without ever telling another soul it existed? And what if she died before I’d even looked at it (yes, a morbid thought, I know)? And what if, when I opened that document, I realized that her book was solid gold?
That’s what happens to Kenny…
Have you ever wanted to get noticed? Have you ever felt like no matter how hard you worked or how hard you tried, nobody in the entire world cared what you did? Well, what if someone famous—and we’re talking Oprah-famous, here—noticed you for the one thing you wish you could hide? For your one big secret…
That’s exactly what happens to 18-year-old Kenneth McIntyre when television guru Prahna Mehta hails his self-published novel as the next bestseller. Little do his new fans know Truth and Other Lies wasn’t written by Kenny at all… and it isn’t fiction. Sometimes he feels like he’s lying to everybody he loves.
When Kenny gets swept into stardom, how will he hide the secrets he’s kept for years? And, if his lies are exposed, will anyone stay by his side?
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Evernight Teen
http://www.evernightteen.com/truth-and-other-lies-by-foxglove-lee/
Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00LICLQBG/ref=foxglovelee-20
