Over the past 5 weeks I’ve posted the background story to Leisha, one of the five friends in my upcoming novel series, the first of which has the working title, Because Life. This book is a prequel to a trilogy about a friendship circle and their ambitions.
Leisha had her origins in a short story in the first book I wrote. Writing a whole novel seemed way too hard so I wrote a compendium of short stories called The Butterfly Tales. It’s funny what we forget. When I recently looked at that manuscript, I was surprised to find some differences. I thought Leisha had always been Penny’s friend, but it turned out she was in fact originally Audrey’s friend. And Audrey and Leisha’s characters have a very different life in the new trilogy to the ones they had in the old short story.
Leisha was originally called Leah, but I have family with that name, so I started to think about a new name. She was such an extraordinary woman I felt she needed an extraordinary name, so I played around with letters and created the name Leisha. It wasn’t in my trusty book of baby names (very helpful for getting inspiration about characters’ names) so Leisha was born. I couldn’t believe it when I came across a Leisha in real life, and it turns out Leisha is an actual name! My book of baby names is not so trusty after all. So I’m still figuring out if Leisha will be her final name when the trilogy publishes. Thank goodness for find-and-replace!
In addition, Leisha was initially just a supporting character in a little short story. But she was not having any of that, demanding her rightful place in a larger context. A rebel in every sense of the word, Leisha has an indominable inner compass.
And so it is that she has turned into the central character in the trilogy, the rock around which the group is anchored. A bulldozer setting her own and everyone else’s agenda, Leisha is the one who sends her friends on a quest to take control of their lives. Where the others flounder around wondering how to fix their lives, Leisha is steadfast in her belief in herself and her opinions. This makes her a very loyal friend, but she is also very direct!
Ultimately, as the years have gone by, both Leisha and I have evolved, and I’ve discovered more things about her than I knew when I created her. It’s weird when you’re supposed to be in control of a character, but instead they seem to have wrested control from you, and you realise you’ve written them in ways you weren’t deliberately expecting.
Writing is a very illuminating and sometimes very surprising craft!
Joni Page 