Behind the Novel: New Magic

Since I recently sent New Magic to beta readers, I thought this would be a great time to talk a little more about my novel and how it's evolved over time. (I considered adding a Pokémon reference here, but since I know nothing of Pokémon, I ditched that idea.) This trilogy has actually been in development for quite a while, but today we're only going to look at book one, New Magic. (If you like the post, let me know and I'll do more of these.)

Inspirations

I don't know what sparked the original idea. Why I decided to write about this Alice descendant going back to Wonderland. But I can list some of my biggest inspirations for the novel.

The Faery Path- This may be where the idea came from, since I basically stole the whole opening to this book. (I didn't even realize that until recently.)

Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland- Where a lot of my aesthetic ideas and Mad Hatter inspiration came from.

The Looking Glass Wars- Another big one. Hatter Madigan may or may not be another part I half stole to make my Mad Hatter.

The Original Idea

I don't remember what sparked the original idea, or what year exactly it was. (Why didn't I label my old stories?) I do remember starting writing on it for the first time in the car on the way to the library. In fact, I even have that original draft, now falling apart and covered in notes.

I have always been a big Alice in Wonderland fan, and I guess that's partially why I decided to try my hand at writing my own retelling. I remember feeling super clever that Celia's name was an anagram of Alice.

My original draft was 162 handwritten pages and the first book in what I considered an epic trilogy (I still hope that it comes out that way). I also made illuminated letters for the first letter of every chapter. (Still pretty proud of those.)

The Original Characters

Celia, my protagonist, has never never changed her name or the fact that she's a gymnast. But in my first draft, she went to public school, was Asian-Latino, and was your pretty basic YA chosen one. Although I'm not sure she had magic powers in my original, but she did create her own form of fighting using gymnastics. They also made her commander of the army (for reasons).

Flynn has been pretty much the same as well, but many of the other characters have changed a lot. The Queen of Diamonds name was Dia (original, I know). There was a dragon named Theo who was bound to Celia by blood oath, I think, and a creature I called the Lemu (because it looked like a lemur) that could see the future. A lot of the characters had basic names like Liam and Alfred.

Draft 2

That original draft sat for a long time. I tried writing the sequel and realized I wasn't sure where the trilogy was going. So I circled back to the first draft and with my now more mature writing skills, decided to re-write it. I don't have the original draft of this one, but the slightly edited version I have comes out at around 70k. I think the original was much shorter, though.

This time I cut a lot of the more weird stuff. Celia was now only half Latino and homeschooled. The Lemu was replaced by the blue caterpillar who I named Farzin. Theo the dragon became Ryu and Queen Dia became Queen Mei. I added a lot of material, including a bully at Celia's gymnastics, more worldbuilding, and a lot more drama.

At this point, it's starting to shape up the novel it is today. A lot of the original scenes are still there, as well as the same basic plot. I've just expanded it and added characters arcs.

Draft 3

After letting my sister read it, and going through it with a critical eye myself, I realized it still needed a lot of work, so back to the editing board we went. One of the saddest but most necessary things I had to do was cut Ryu. He just didn't fit with the story or world I built. I will find a place for him someday.

I also didn't like the character arc and flaw I had given Celia, so I completely changed that. I added more subplots and a POV for the Queen of Hearts, because at this point I had written book two again and decided she needed more page time.

This has become my passion project over the years. I love all of my writing, but this one has special meaning to me. I keep coming back to it and plan on working on book two more this month. In writing this post, it amazes me to see how it's gone from such a small, cliché thing to the over 80k word novel, first book in a trilogy, it is today. I only hope other people love it as much as I do.

How have your novels evolved over time? What sounds most interesting about this novel? Tell me in the comments.

Suggested Posts:

Introducing my 2020 NaNoWriMo Novel!

My Author Tropes