How L.M. Montgomery helped my writing
I’m a fan of Anne of Green Gables. But I know very little about the author, Lucy Maud Montgomery. So when I stumbled across a bit of clickbait talking about the dark life of her, I thought, why not?
I had no idea it would impact my writing. It’s just a bit of lunchtime reading, right?
Wrong.
So I scrolled through the posts about her childhood, her marriage, her attempts at education in Canada during the early twentieth century, and came across this post:
L.M. Montgomery was inspired to write Anne of Green Gables after stumbling upon one of her nearly 10-year-old journal entries. She wrote in her journal, “Elderly couple apply to orphan asylum for a boy. By mistake a girl is sent them". That brief, two-sentence note sparked Montgomery’s creativity and put into motion her most famous work.
And that is what did it for me. That exercise, where Montgomery had summed up her story idea, her main plot, into all of two sentences. It’s the precursor to today’s logline, a one sentence captivating summary and elevator pitch of your story plot. It’s what a lot of publishers, agents and writing industry professionals look for. I also suspect it’s kind of like a gatekeeping system, a way for them to quickly see if your story is developed enough. Because if you can’t summarise your main plot in two sentences, I’d say you’ve got work to do.
For me especially, right now. I’ve just turned in a novella, about to edit and turn in a short story for an anthology, and I’ve got a novel due by the end of July… That I haven’t written.
Not one word. Actually, that’s not true. I’ve written more than one word. But the story is at chapter one, and doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. I’m not connected to it at all. So when I came across this post about L.M. Montgomery I thought, blimey. Maybe that’s what I should try and do. Maybe it will help me out of my rut.
So here goes. Book four of the Winter Murders series is…
Medieval cook sent away in disgrace after caught canoodling lover. She is asked to spy on rival court but instead wants to prove her crush’s innocence after he’s accused of murder.
Okay so it’s a bit long. But you get the gist. Thanks for reading, and I challenge you to see if you can summarise your story plot in two sentences. Good luck!
-ELJohnson
