How did I come up with my story idea? Read to find out!
In second grade, I loved to take toys and hand made books to school for show and tell. I used left over copy paper my mom brought home from work for my books. The pages were in an accordion style, so I pretended it was a book and I wrote my stories inside.
I also remember taking in my puppet teddy bear to show to the class. I was shy in school, but I remember when I took in my hand made books and my puppet teddy bear, I had no fear showing them at show and tell. From what I remember, the kids liked my stories and teddy.
When I was in sixth grade, an author visited my elementary school. I had the honor of making a banner to welcome her to the school. I remember coloring a large poster in anticipation of her arrival. There was an assembly where she talked about her books and her journey as an author. I remember thinking that I would love to someday write a children's book.
Around the same time, I remember talking to my mom about my toys. I was concerned what would happen to my toys when I grew up. I figured that I would take my toys with me when I moved out of the house. That made me sad though because my sister and I shared a room, where we had the same kinds of toys. Each toy had an identical toy friend. So if we moved out and took our toys, they would all be separated. My mom told me not to worry because the toys would find each other through The Underground Toy Society.
The Underground Toy Society has always been in my mind since I was little. As I grew older, I wanted to hold onto my toys for when I had my own children. For some reason though, I had not yet put together the two ideas of my desire to write a children's book with The Underground Toy Society. Perhaps because I heard that being an author was a difficult field to get into, and I would not be able to make a lot of money being an author. So I chose a career in Occupational Therapy. As I was about to graduate from college, I met my future husband, Greg, whom I told about The Underground Toy Society. He thought I was cute.
After getting married and having two daughters, the presents poured into our home. It actually came to a point where I had to hide some of the toys from the girls and save the gifts for another year because they were getting so many toys. Perhaps if I had known they would have received so many toys, I would not have saved all of my toys.
As my daughters grew, they would leave their toys all over the house. Clean up time was a disaster. My husband even threatened them with a garbage bag and throwing their toys away if they did not clean them up. It didn't really seem to solve the problem.
Finally, one day it clicked. I told my kids that The Underground Toy Society did not like to see toys on the floor. Toys wanted to be loved and taken care of, not thrown on the floor or forgotten. When the girls still didn't clean up, I'd go over to a toy and say to the toy, "Oh, don't worry, The Underground Toy Society will come to rescue you tonight." Not wanting their toys to leave, the girls would run over to pick up the toy. If they still didn't listen, the toys would leave during the night, if you know what I mean.
I had the final piece of the puzzle and the reason and motivation to begin writing my story about The Underground Toy Society. I sat down to write. Writing was the easiest part. I wrote the entire story in a single day. Once I have an idea, I cannot stop writing until I am done.
Revising and editing are the hardest parts for me. That took me a very long time. Then the next question was, what in the world should I do with my story?
How do I publish my children's book? That is a subject for my next blog post: How I Became a Self Published Author
Jessica is the author of the children's books about The Underground Toy Society. She decided to begin a blog about her experiences and opinions of being an author, as well as a mother and Occupational Therapist. Please note all information on her website and her blog posts are her opinions and her personal experiences. Individual results may vary and her results may not be your results or experiences. This website is meant to be general information, not specific advice. Circumstances and results may vary. The Underground Toy Society children's books aim to teach children to love and appreciate what they have. Hopefully children will want to clean their rooms after learning about The Underground Toy Society. However, all children are different and results may vary. The books are for entertainment purposes only. Thanks for reading!