Inspiration for a story about a little girl traveling to Paris

Photo by Joe deSousa on Unsplash

A couple of years ago, my youngest daughter was getting ready to take a trip with her mom to Paris, arriving on New Year’s Eve. We had spent the evening talking about her trip, and as it got close to bedtime, she asked for a story about a little girl like her traveling to Paris.

Growing up, my dad could put together wonderful bedtime stories at the drop of a hat, given the right motivation from us possibly offering up some ideas. So we got to work talking about what kind of adventure this little girl might have. Once she fell asleep, I started putting together the first chapter of what would become Separated on the Paris Metro. After all, what is a story without a little problem to solve?

In the of weeks ahead of her trip, I was able to write a first draft of the beginning of the story (up until the characters board the plane), creating and defining characters, adding in a trouble-making cousin, creating awkward situations the kids would have to figure their way out of.

The story has evolved over time. An early version of the story had Zoe and Thibault drinking their mistaken mimosas and passing out, which didn’t teach a good lesson, almost making it acceptable for kids to sneak booze. Margaux did find it pretty funny though, and it did catch her by surprise. We had a long talk afterward about alcohol and the story evolved. I like how the story evolved into Zoe cartoonishly spitting out the mimosa onto her in-flight magazine.

The story somehow became centered on the older sister character, Anna Dahlia. Once we finished the story, Margaux asked if I could read the story again. This took me by surprise. She said that her teacher had been asking them to read books at school twice to increase reading comprehension. This idea had never crossed my mind, but I could see it working. If a story was good, I often enjoyed revisiting it months or years later. Rereading it right away had never crossed my mind. “Isn’t that a little boring?” I asked. She said it was a little, but it did work and she had been progressing through her reading groups at school really well.

She also asked about more chapters from Zoe’s perspective. So, instead of going back and editing in Zoe chapters, I thought it might be interesting to read the whole story from Zoe’s perspective, and began writing a second story with a new viewpoint. This allowed me to offer in other details, and some varying storylines to keep things interesting.

Eventually, we got to talking about aspects of the story, which lead me to create the supplemental section at the end. This seemed like a nice added bonus for the reader if they enjoyed the story. I also threw in some story summaries and reader questions to support caregivers who might not have time to read the entire story, yet allowing them to engage their young readers with questions to get their thoughts about what they read.