Guest post by A Week of Mondays author Jessica Brody
ELLISON “ELLIE” SPARKS: An
idealistic, ambitious sixteen-year-old junior with a lot
on her plate.
Those were the first words I ever wrote
about Ellie Sparks. They were written in a synopsis for my publisher
when I was first trying to sell them on the idea for a book called A
WEEK OF MONDAYS.
Of course, you can’t write an entire
book about a one-sentence character. Just like you can’t live your
entire life as a one-sentence person. But every character has to
begin somewhere. And this is where Ellie began for me.
As an idealistic, ambitious
sixteen-year-old junior with a lot on her plate.
In my mind, this is who she had
to be. I thought, if you’re going to write about a girl who relives
the same horrible Monday over and over again, trying to “get it
right,” these are the adjectives that must describe her. She
has to be idealistic enough to think she can fix everything in
her life. Yet, she also has to be ambitious enough to try it.
And how else are you going to fill seven Mondays with interesting
storylines if the main character doesn’t have a lot on her
plate.
So there was Ellie. And there was me,
ready to write her, thinking I understood her. Thinking I knew
everything I needed to know about her.
This is the writing process for me. I
start with an idea of who someone is. I draw a box around them, like
an identity fence. I stuff them inside and I lock the gate. I tell
them, “This is who you are. Don’t try to change that. Don’t try
to be or do anything else. I don’t have time for detours. I’m on
a deadline.”
I never learn.
