Then came the park bench!

In this second retrospective, I consider how The Girl on the Park Bench came to fruition.
Bizarrely, this was the easiest of the three stories to start, but the hardest (by a mile) to finally get to grips with. I wanted to tell a story about what it felt like to be a Dad. As with Your Faith.., it started off from one perspective. From the eyes of one twelve, nearly thirteen-year-old. It was always the intention to aim this at a younger audience, but to tackle more mature issues in a more lifelike (not fantasy world) situation. And that was what became the hardest struggle, but more of that later.

The first thing that I finished was the final chapter, and built out the characters from that point, backwards in time. This worked relatively well, and was pretty much complete in no time. The story is, on the surface of it, about the friendship between Laura and Isabella. The subtext however focuses on another aspect. The relationship that each had with their father. Something they’ve both had to adapt to based on their particular circumstances.

Unfortunately, this is the bit that spoils the intent of encapsulating the whole story in a realistic, and believable world. One that you or I could live in. But, I realised that I could live with that, if I got the father-daughter relationship right. I decided to strengthen this in the form of “flashback” chapters to provide context to the reader.

So then to the hard bit. The story covers death, mental illness and depression, and also a scene of peril at the climax of the story. These were rewritten many times, as I grappled with the mindset of the target audience. But I came to the conclusion that young people are more mature than you might imagine.

This was a story that I really enjoyed writing.

It is available on Amazon, both for purchase and through the Lending Library / Kindle Unlimited, as are my other efforts.