Writing Her Story…
A short story based on the writing prompt about a writer who discovers a new favourite author and whose writing, or even their personality, changes as the protagonist falls under the writer’s influence.
Ella Reid was a writer who loved reading books of many kinds. As the to-be author of a love story entitled ‘The Lover’s Dream’ she loved reading many romance novels by other female authors.
She felt she not only grew as a writer by imitating their writing style, but she also liked the way the characters were developed throughout the story and how they grew stronger as people as the story progressed.
She loved reading books by a particular author called Rita Hayworth. She had only recently taken an interest in her books and found that they were very different from the books by other female authors. She liked both the plotlines, as well as the well-rounded protagonists in Rita’s stories.
One day as Ella was sitting down at her desk and busy typing away on her laptop, she thought of something significant in one of Rita’s previous books. She thought of refining her work in the book ‘Lover’s Dream’ just so the main character sounded a little more like the protagonist in Rita’s book entitled ‘Escapade’.
She typed, typed and typed. She spent long hours into the early dawn while it was still dark. Ella was someone who liked putting in the effort. Her only published book which she was very intent on completing, was going splendidly, thanks to the effort she had put into it.
She got up from her desk and walked to the mirror. She examined her face closely in the mirror and found that she resembled Rita a lot too. The more she read books by this author the more she found herself trying to be like her. Trying to be her doppelganger almost.
Ella tried to identify with the main characters in Rita’s books. She loved them! Apart from that she also tried to understand the way she wrote the story’s narrative, and other things only authors had an eye for.
Ella went up to the mirror and found it a little strange that she also resembled Rita in terms of physical appearance. She had similar facial features, with large eyes, and protruding lips.
Authors had something in common, they had intelligent-if-not-attractive faces. She found Rita’s domineering face to be an attractive advantage and sought to be more like her, even on the personal front.
Ella was not only trying to identify with the characters in Rita H’s books but was trying to understand the way she wrote her fiction stories in general. Ella was impressed with Rita as a person too.
She wondered about her personal life. She wondered if Rita was someone who had quirks or an altogether perfect individual like her writing suggested. Successful Authors indeed were strange people.
Ella looked closely at the precious book she was holding in her hands by Rita. The book was entitled ‘Escapade’ and had a beautiful cover with a picture of a beautiful woman with beautiful blue eyes wearing a flowery wreath and making a peace sign.
Ella looked at the way Rita used vocabulary in her sentences and how clearly she described her character’s motives and climax throughout the story.
Since Ella wanted to model the main character of Lover’s Dream on the protagonist in Escapade, she decided to go about it subtly so as not to be too obvious about it. Ella also personally wanted to add a fantasy element to the main female character’s personality in Lovers Dream. That way both books wouldn’t resemble each other.
Ella was so enthralled with writing the book and she doted over it. She spent many hours awake at night for nearly a month typing the lengthy chapters of Lovers Dream and its carefully crafted content.
She was so very carried away by her new book. She wondered about who the new lover for her protagonist Bella Duponte would be. She decided the name the character Henry Archer. He was a handsome young man who had introvert qualities like a desire to paint and read scripture that made him very attractive to the shy but charming Bella.
Ella wondered if she would ever get a chance to meet the eminent Rita Hayworth. She was almost done with writing Lovers Dream and mentioned Rita’s Name on the book’s dedication page.
Many years later during a book signing event for the already-published Lovers Dream, a young handsome man approached Ella. By now the book was on the New York Times bestseller list. The young man approached Ella asking her to sign a copy of the book.
The young man identified himself as Henry Archer when she asked him who he was. She was a little surprised. She realised he had the same name as the main character of her book.
“Yes, it’s quite a coincidence, isn’t it? My mum Rita Hayworth named me after the main character of your book. Much of it has to do with the fact that she felt the book was the unofficial sequel to her book entitled Escapade. It seemed to answer many of its unanswered questions my mother says.” He said to her in one long sentence without breathing.
“You’d make an excellent lover for Bella Duponte any day. Would love to meet your mother, my dear. Give her my regards.” Ella replied to the good-looking young man.
He thanked her and took her leave politely. Her eyes followed him until his expensive car left the hotel where the book signing was being held.
Ella couldn’t help but wonder about how God worked in mysterious ways. She finally got a chance to meet her favourite author, and she felt she had grown into Rita Hayworth’s image in many ways and as a person as well.
“All’s well that ends well!” she told herself. Ella thanked God above for both, the great success of her book, as well as the chance to meet her favourite author so many years later.
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