I couldn’t comment on some of the horrific news stories about cruelty and child abuse that have come to light this year, particularly the Fritzl case in Austria and another similar incident also in Europe. I needed a while to process something like that.
But over the past few days my mind has woven together my feelings of horror over the ill-treatment of children and animals, and combined it with a clip I watched on TV of a mother pygmy hippo that had given birth in captivity to a cute baby hippo, and sprinkled on top the location of our latest weekend away. The result is a brand new idea for a (rather uplifting) teen novel.
Here’s more about my insight into my creative process on my Fictional Life Blog…
Tags: creative process, how I come up with story ideas, pygmy hippo, teen novel
I do love little Monifa. She is such a darling. I am going to go and read about your idea now.
Isn’t she just gorgeous? Sadly, neither her nor her mum appear in the final version of the story. My brain just has a funny way of working with themes.