Behind the Book: Writing The Wedding Dress Part 2

I got a call from a movie company.

They read a short, very rough synopsis of the book and wanted to know more.

Yeah, me too.

(Read Part 1 here.)

After brainstorming with Debbie and Karen, and conferring with my writing partner, Susan May Warren, I knew a couple of things:

I didn’t want the dress to pass from bride to bride in the same family.

I wanted to show how God is designing our lives even before we are born through the actions and lives of our ancestors.

And that He is with us long before we are conceived in our mother’s womb.

I’d fallen in love with the dual contemporary and historical story lines reading Susan Meissner books, and I felt that style fit this story.

I decided to tell about the first woman who wore the dress and the last, weaving in brides 2 and 3 as the story unfolded.

It was tricky to map out each woman’s date of birth and who they married and when.

With the contemporary protagonist, Charlotte, I had to figure out how she ended up with NO family whatsoever without making her a sad sack.

Looking back now, I think if she had known Emily was her great grandmother but had nothing of hers, it might have really impacted her to find the dress in the trunk.

The purple man came to me well after I was writing the book.

To me, he represented the Lord’s constant presence in our lives. And the fact that He is not constrained to time.

The movie company read the synopsis without the purple man.

The women I’d been talking to loved the story and took it to their team but ultimately turned it down. “Wasn’t over the top enough.”

I kind of thought it was but what do I know?

I remember that writing the book was fun.

A lot of times writing a book is hard. Very.

Once Upon A Prince was hard.

I felt I was writing my “best book yet” while typing away on The Wedding Dress.

About a month into writing I realized the dress was a symbol for the Gospel.

It fit every women who tried it on.

It never wore out.

It didn’t need to be altered.

It’s style was timeless.

This really made some aspects so much easier for me.

I originally was going to have the dress altered for each bride.

But this Gospel revelation helped me see part of the mystery and magic of the dress was that it never changed.

I also so each bride as a kind of “Believer.”

Emily gave the dress with dignity, with heart and as freely as Mary Grace’s father would allow.

Mary Grace left it for a treasure to be discovered.

Hillary locked it away because the dress seemed to wound and disappoint her.

And last of all, Charlotte redeemed it.

I finished the book in February making my March 1, 2011 deadline.

And God began changing our lives.

We moved to a new house.

My husband and I both had new career opportunities.

Seemed I was experiencing a little bit of my own “wedding dress” experience in God’s provision.

What about you? Have you been through a season where God seemed to overtly demonstrate His hand on your life?