So I stole this tag from McKayla and I'm incredibly grateful to her because I have been wanting to do something like this for my March Week story for ages but I could never quite figure out the right way to do it. I don't know how interesting this is to anyone else, but I had fun with it. Photos are all from Pinterest.
What first sparked the idea for this novel?
Several things actually, there was a Doctor Who episode, trying to remember a movie that I may or may not have made up when I was little that was very bizarre, a music video, orange juice/food, and my intense love of paper/ink/polaroid's that I will find any excuse to incorporate into what I'm doing.
Share a blurb [or just an overall summary if you'd prefer]?
So I did post a blurb-ish thing or Prologue thing ages ago so I'll just link that. March Week Summary
Essentially a small (magical-ish) town is very inconvenienced by a weird freak storm thing and every year the town tries to set off fireworks. However because know one knows when this freak storm will occur, so some of the town takes it upon themselves to use various magical ways to hold off the storm. As no one actually knows what they are doing, this causes havoc for the rest of the town who gets very upset. So for the week of the fireworks, the town is plunged into chaos.
Where does the story take place? What are some of your favorite aspects about the settings?
It takes place in a seaside town that draws heavy inspiration from Stars Hollow in Gilmore Girls, Derry Girls, and Diana Wynne Jones. One of my favourite aspects about the setting is that I can go off talking about salt, cardigans, the wind, orange juice and eggs, poisonous plants and polaroid's.
Tell us about your protagonists?
So my protagonist's name is Ridley Goth, she works at the local apothecary known as 'The Witchery'. She's commonly referred to as 'the Goth girl' when being referenced by others. Simply because I want it to happen really badly.
She's always had red curly hair in my mind, which is incredibly basic in a sort of magical or magical-related character, but I never said I would be original. She's roughly 16 I believe, she's lived in this town for about 10 years since she showed up mysteriously one day and a family took her in, and she has a rather bad memory so she likes to catalogue things a lot.
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| This isn't quite how I picture Ridley but this was a huge inspiration photo for her at the beginning |
I had a snippet about her personality so I'll use that.
Ridley, in general, tended to prefer people that seemed to dislike her. The fact that she had a quality that put people off was endlessly fascinating to her. Of course she did like the genuinely nice ones, but rude people had an audaciousness that she couldn't quite get over and she liked to poke it occasionally.
The ironic thing is that she's also probably one of the ruder ones, at least among her peers.
There's a delivery boy that catches her at something that she's oddly defensive about and so she has a weird sort of vendetta against him. However she also discovers something about him and she takes it upon herself to view him as a pet project.
Who [or what] is the antagonist?
The antagonist is probably the freak storm, and the townspeople who are very adamant that they know exactly what they are doing but they think everyone else is stupid.
What excites you the most about this novel?
Talking about salt in paper sachets. I've been weirdly hyper-fixated on that. It's also very important to me that every room in Ridley's house is a different colour. People's ridiculousness. Also angst, the only true reason to write anything.
Someone also threatens people camping outside of the Witchery with a broom.
Is this going to be a series? Standalone? Something else?
Stand-alone. Or at least it's supposed to be. There's a rather abrupt ending that in a year and a half, I still haven't been able to figure out how to smooth it out. I haven't written it, it's just been sitting there vaguely mocking me.
Are you plotting? Pantsing? Plantsing?
Plantsing. I know my major plotline, but the rest of it is more just a series of events rather than an actual story. I more or less know the ending, but what exactly happens in-between is anyone's guess.
Name a few unique elements about the story?
Currently there's a distinct lack of respect for proper plot progression, annoying people who take made-up jobs too seriously, and there's going to be paper and tea everywhere. I am hoping that it will have a transportive quality to it that feels believable. Not that I could ever be Howl's Moving Castle, but I want to strive for the fact that it is so magical and 'real'.
Share some fun extras of the story
There's mermaids that have been known to kidnap humans in the harbor that seemed very bothered by the freak storm so they leave periodically. This is what prompted the town to believe that the freak storm was possibly linked with magic as mermaids are typically known to enjoy storms.
It's difficult to say what caused the storm, but the residents had taken to calling it after anyone they currently disliked; George's and Elliot's were particularly hated. That is until a traveling circus came through town and the town discovered far worse people than George and Elliot Comings, the local boys that came from the town over to tip cows.
So I found out a couple months ago that the delivery boy is dyslexic but doesn't actually know that. He just thinks he was cursed once and he enlists the help of Ridley who totally thinks she knows what she's doing. And for awhile, her family insists that, while 'March Week' (a reference to the phrase 'mad as a march hare') is going on, they want her to be accompanied by the delivery boy which annoys her because she's at least a year older than him and she refuses to be 'accompanied by a mere child'.
"Why did you take a job as a delivery boy if you can't read properly?"
Ridley read out another address as the delivery boy sorted piles out from the strewn remnants of the broken mailbag on the road.
"I can read fine," he tied the broken strap into a knot, "it just takes me longer than it does other people. Addresses are short at least."
