How I Came up with the Idea for: Unperfected

Last Tuesday, I told you guys all about the strange yet humorous moment I came up with the idea for my WIP, Storm Rider. (If you missed that awesome little tale, you can read it here). Anyway, today I want to continue with this topic and tell you about how I came up with the idea for my first novel, Unperfected. Ready?

I have no idea.
No, seriously. I cannot actually pinpoint the moment I came up with the plot for this book! It started out as something cool, and after many months of hard work and a lot of pinteresting, the story was completely different. But thankfully for me, it was a story that was much better than I ever thought it would be.
It all started in eleventh grade when my creative writing teacher assigned us to write a short science fiction story.
I panicked a little bit. I had never written science fiction before, and I had absolutely no idea what to write about! I thought I was going to hate writing sci-fi with a burning passion--but I didn't. About a week before the assignment was due, I went to see a movie with some friends. Afterwards we went to Arby's for lunch, and (though I have no idea how the topic arose) we started talking about my assignment. That discussion suddenly became a brainstorming session, and soon enough I had my idea!
It was a pretty basic dystopian story. The world is destroyed by war, everything seems hopeless, but the teenage female protagonist will save everything with the help of her best friend who will then become her boyfriend. Yeah.
But my class liked it, and so did my teacher. In fact, she expressed that she wished to read more, which is what inspired me to turn my short story into a book (you rock, Mrs. Falk).
So that is what I did. I started brainstorming, I made a pinterest board for inspiration, and I started thinking about characters. In the original story, my main character's name was "Evie," but I didn't really like that. I changed the name to "Avalon" during a study hall one day.
I had chapter one written by the end of the school year, but it was really, really bad. It was all description and internal monologue and just...no. And then of course all through summer I struggled with writing my first chapter over and over again without moving forward.
But once I got past that, the story began to change. Avalon turned out to be completely different than I thought, and so did her world.
The biggest change that occurred when I was working on this story happened one day when I was working at my desk. I was pretty stuck on the whole worldbuilding process, and it was stressing me out. I had my writing playlist blasting in my room when "Paradise" by Coldplay came on.
And everything changed.
"She ran away in her sleep, and dreamed of paradise." The moment I heard those lyrics, my mind exploded with ideas.
Sleep. Dreams. Paradise. Perfect world.
Suddenly my villain didn't want power, he/they wanted Perfection. The process my character was avoiding wasn't called Recording, it was Perfecting. And she wasn't avoiding it, she was a victim of it!
I remember the feeling of my fingers flying over the keys as I scrambled to type up the ideas in my head. I was so excited I could hardly stand it!
So yeah. My first novel began as a simple story, and changed into something beautiful and creative by the time it was complete.
And that is just another reason why I love writing. You can start out with an idea, and at first it seems daunting and intimidating because it's an idea you love and you don't want to mess it up. And then, as you start writing, things begin to change. The characters take on voices and personalities of their own, and before you know it you aren't telling the story anymore; the characters are telling it for you, and you're just copying down what they say. I love that!
So if you ever feel stressed because you don't know where your story is going, just keep writing. Soon enough the ideas will come and your story will become something incredible. You just have to keep writing!


“God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.” Psalms 46:1