"Because, Reader, I was There"

Today I've been contemplative. I've come so far with Robin Hood...and it feels like it has all happened very recently. Which it has, actually. I began writing Lucy's Legend-A Robin Hood story in September of 2013! And oh how it has changed in the time since then.

I pulled out my very first manuscript of Lucy's Legend. Handwritten on notebook paper. Scribbles and notes in the margins...it's beautiful. :) I sometimes forget that the original version of the story was told so differently than the way the final product was. Did you know (no, probably not, but I'm going to tell you) that I originally wrote Lucy's Legend as one big long letter from Lucy to the reader. She was defending her claim to correct history books because, reader, she was there.

"It was many years ago, but my memory serves me well. Who could ever forget Robin?"

Whenever anyone doubts Lucy she feels the need to remind them she was there. And for the parts she wasn't there she was told the stories by many different people. Dusty, Will, Little John, Much, Allen, Ida, even Sir Guy of Gisbourne. And of course she has Robin's own word that she relies on.

It's amazing how different that first manuscript is. And yet, it also  amazes me how the same it is. Seriously! So many aspects...the phrases, the characters, the dialogue...it hasn't changed one bit! There are so many scenes that are precisely the same from the first manuscript to the last.

To borrow a phrase from C.S. Lewis, I believe I have been writing the Robin Hood series in a "white heat of inspiration."

Here's to the rest of the adventure!