Believe it or not, it all started with a dream. One night I dreamt about this common, peasant girl who was brought to the Palace, doused with cold water for whatever reasons (that part wasn't disclosed in my dream), and was saved by the Prince just before she passed out.
Unlike other dreams that stayed with me and gone a few days later, this dream stayed with me for the course of a week. What made it even more vivid was the fact that I was able, not only to remember it so well, but also to add more to the plot.
And so, one Thursday, it began. I thought I'd better stick with this plot, see where it'd take me. I also knew that if I didn't put it down somewhere, I'd start forgetting about what I'd like to happen. So off I went in search of pen and paper, sat in front of TV with my husband, and started scribbling away.... and by Sunday of that week, I had somehow managed to transfer 15,000 of my scribbles to the word document. It was the birth of 'Eleanor'.
I worked on this religiously for about 8 months. I have a little confession here - I worked on this pretty much twenty-four seven... the work I was doing at that time wasn't generating as much tasks as I would like, with the project 'stalling', and those who knows me well know that there was only so much of 'twiddling my thumbs' I could take before I go stir-crazy. So in a way, I had work to thank for paying me to go to work eight hours a day and write my novel... *ssshhhhh*
Initially, there was only going to be 1 book of Eleanor. When I finished the first draft, I started reading section by section to my husband each night before we sleep. At the end of the book, he casually mentioned to me: "You could make a sequel out of that, you know."
I stared blankly at him, silently asking 'How?' when the villain was already dead. His response: "He could have a son, wanting revenge."
I adamantly refused the concept of a sequel... for about a week! After that, I found myself back where I started 8 months prior - with a pen and paper, writing the beginning of the sequel, where the villain had an illegitimate son trying to weave his way into the close-knit family-like members of Eleanor in hope to avenge his Father's death.
Whilst I begrudgingly pointed out this fact to my husband plenty of times, of robbing me of another... 6-7 months of 'free' time, I also had him to thank for. The birth of Eleanor II: The Queen, also marked the discovery of my writing style. So much so that I have had to go back to Eleanor I to make several adjustments, to make each sentence flows more fluently from the one before, and I still plan to go back and polish it, add a few more 'thrilling' verbs and scenes here and there just to create more of an impact.
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