Lisa Manterfield

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March 6, 2017 - Lisa Manterfield 1 Comment

How Stories Evolve

How Stories Evolve by Lisa Manterfield -lisamanterfield.com

When people ask me, “What are you working on?” they’ll often get a blank stare in return. It’s not that I don’t know what I’m writing about, but in the early stages of a project, so much can change. Plots evolve, characters take over, and themes emerge. What might have started off as “a book about the war” will undoubtedly evolve into a book about something completely different, such as a story about how people deal with grief.

My novel, The Smallest Thing, (coming out later this year) was inspired by the plague village of Eyam. I had envisioned retelling a 400-year-old story of love and self-sacrifice, but once I started writing it, I couldn’t find a way to make it contemporary.

I started writing anyway, beginning with two real-life characters, Emmott Syddall and Roland Torre, and wrote a few scenes in present day. I liked the scenes, but the story wasn’t compelling. Frankly, it was a bit too sappy for my tastes. Undeterred, I kept on writing. I wrote about the village, about Emmott’s fictional family. I wrote a scene where the quarantine is imposed (I kind of loved that scene), and I sketched out a story idea. But it still wasn’t gripping me (not to mention my plot was full of holes!)

And then, in a writer’s workshop, I was given a first-line prompt, “He hides in the marrow of my bones.” I wrote what amounted to an internal monologue, with no idea where it would lead. All of a sudden, a new character walked onto the page and hijacked my story.

Suddenly, my dear, sweet Emmott wasn’t carrying on a chaste affair across the river with a boy from the next village; she was falling in love with an untouchable man. Suddenly the story wasn’t about how a village is ravaged by a plague; it was about one young woman and her journey of self-discovery. And suddenly, I loved this new story.

The story continued to evolve once my mystery man sidled onto my page and, even as I got closer to a finished draft, I kept discovering new details. It’s one of the things I love most about the creative process!

I’m noodling ideas for my next novel project now. So, if you happen to ask me what I’m working on and what it’s about, and all you get from me is a blank stare, know that something is going on in my head, and my story is just waiting to evolve.

Filed Under: The Writing Life Tagged With: book, Emmott Syddall, Eyam, fiction, love, relationships, revision, Roland Torre, The Smallest Thing, virus, writing 1 Comment

November 28, 2016 - Lisa Manterfield 3 Comments

The Many Ways We Deal with Grief

The Many Ways We Deal with Grief by Lisa Manterfield - lisamanterfield.com

I never intended to write a book about grief. A Strange Companion was supposed to be a story about soulmates and eternal love, but as I dug deeper into the writing, it soon became apparent that, at its heart, this was a story about grief.

Grief is a funny thing. It affects people in so many different ways. Some people seem to shut down and forge on as if everything is fine, only to have a meltdown months later. Others are so overcome they can barely get out of bed. Some are pragmatic about death as a fact of life and some struggle for years to make sense of it all.

In this story, Kat is struggling to deal with losing Gabe and, even though she knows she has to move on with her life, the memories of him keep pulling her backward. Because of the way she’s learned to deal with grief (i.e. to stuff it in a box and sit on the lid, as we’ll learn later) she’s never been able to fully let go and get over Gabe’s death. She wants to have a relationship with Owen, but she’s stuck in her guilt about Gabe and her inability to let him go. She believes that if she falls in love with Owen, it means she never really loved Gabe in the first place, and so she’s trapped between her desire for Owen and her guilt about Gabe’s death.

I’ll admit that I was raised among the “grin-and-bear-it” crowd and learned that grief was something private that happened behind closed doors. Because I never saw grief in action, it left me woefully unprepared to deal with the loss of my dad as a teenager. Like Kat, I didn’t find a good outlet for my grief and it stuck with me and found ways to creep out for a lot longer than it should.

Through other experiences in my life, I’ve learned that you can’t ignore grief and, at some point, you have to face your losses. Ultimately, this will have to be Kat’s journey, too.

How have you dealt with loss in your life? How do you wish our culture dealt with grief?

Filed Under: Love, Loss, and Grief Tagged With: A Strange Companion, culture, death, grief, letting go, loss, love, serial novel 3 Comments

March 16, 2015 - Lisa Manterfield 2 Comments

Eyam: The Plague Village That Inspired My New Novel

P1170012Imagine you live in an idyllic English village. Suddenly your friends and neighbors begin falling ill and dying of a deadly infectious disease. In order to stop the spread of this virus to the surrounding villages and beyond, you and your neighbors make a monumental decision. You quarantine your village; no one comes in, no one goes out. For months you isolate yourselves, relying on the kindness of surrounding neighbors to provide food and supplies. You wait and watch, while the disease rips through families, sparing some lives and taking others. When it’s all over, 260 people—more than two thirds of the village—are dead, but the contagion has been stopped, potentially saving the lives of thousands of people—and your village will be remembered for centuries to come for its courage and self-sacrifice.

Sounds like a great premise for a novel, doesn’t it? In fact, it’s a true story. This is the story of the plague village of Eyam, a small village in the north of England, not far from where I grew up.

P1170006In the mid-1600s The Great Plague ravaged London, killing more than 100,000 people. Thanks to a stowaway flea in a bolt of cloth, the disease made its way to Eyam, some 150 miles to the north. Lead by the local vicar, Reverend Mompesson, the villagers made the horrific decision to isolate themselves and prevent the plague from spreading further.

P1170014I’ve always been fascinated by this part of history and the personal stories that have endured. There’s the story of Emmott Syddall, engaged to a boy in the next village. The two lovers continued their affair across the quarantine boundary from opposing riverbanks. Their story is commemorated in a stained glass window in the church. There’s the story of villagers leaving money in a pot of vinegar (to disinfect it) in exchange for supplies from surrounding villages. And there are the tragic stories, such as Elizabeth Hancock, who buried her husband and six children, and yet never became infected.

I first heard these stories as young girl visiting Eyam and they’ve stuck with me ever since. They’re an important part of my local history and I’ve always wanted to find a way to share them with a wider audience. I didn’t want to write historical fiction (plus Geraldine Brooks already did it, and undoubtedly better than I could have, in her 2002 novel Year of Wonders), and writing a contemporary version of the story was fraught with roadblocks, thanks to the wonders of modern medicine and technology.

But I really wanted to tell this story, so I started writing. I started with the characters of Emmott Syddall and Roland Torre, and wrote some scenes with them. And I kept writing, until a new story started to emerge.

I won’t ruin the whole thing here, but I will write more about how the story evolved in another post. I’ll also be sharing some excerpts from the book soon. Please consider signing up for my newsletter for updates on all this.

For now, I’ll leave you with a few more snaps of Eyam, taken from my research trip last year.

P1170016You can still see the Plague Cottages, where George Viccars, the first victim lived. The cottages are still inhabited. You can also see the church and churchyard where some of the victims were buried.

P1170017One of my favorite spots is Cucklett Delf, where Emmott and Roland allegedly met, where outdoor services were held during the quarantine, and where a memorial service is held each year to commemorate the incredible sacrifice.

P1170033You can learn more about Eyam at their excellent new museum.

Filed Under: The Writing Life Tagged With: death, Eyam, fiction, love, plague, YA 2 Comments

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