Taking Another Chance

I thought perhaps by aquiring a vehicle it would make my life easier and less stressful but turns out living in this area is really what is difficult and frustrating. Tomorrow I go get my car looked at and hopefully fixed up enough to pass a MD safety inspection (since it hadn't previously).

Let's try to forget about that now and think about something else - like, perhaps if I had a fairy godmother, maybe my problems would disappear and I could achieve my happy ending!

Chance the Fairy Godmother is an original character I created sometime back in late college or right after, I don't remember, so, a few years ago. I have never really gotten around to actually writing about her or illustrating her endeavors and stories, but I still have lots of ideas and I know it could be really fun and really big if I do it right. Mostly though, I want to do right by her. She's adorable, feisty, and not overly confident, and all she wants to do is make sure she and her mother live a peaceful life without too much commotion.

Here are some of the excuses that have been preventing me from seriously pursuing her story:

• I don't know what age the audience is for her. She looks like 8 or 9 year old, but in my mind she's actually a bit older than that since she's a fairy and she ages differently. This of course could change, she could ACTUALLY be an 8-year-old, BUT in my original story her first assignment is a stuck-up 15-year-old. This determined for me perhaps this could be between 4th-6th grade reading age group, so some sort of chapter book series of a kind, but again, unsure. The age group of the reading audience seems to be a reoccuring problem for me.
• What is the book? a picture book? a chapter book? a graphic novel? a comic strip? How is Chance's story meant to be told?
• What voice? Originally I thought 3rd person would be best, to have an actual narrator, but in the past writing in 1st person has always been my comfort zone, I had a lot of trouble narrating Chance's story in the 3rd person. 
• I thought I wrote an outline for the initial story/book, but it seems to have gotten lost. I still have it in my head MOSTLY but not quite.

I have a lot of background and world-building created (mostly in my head) and the basic plot that can be repeated multiple times for a series (and also plenty of room for character growth of COURSE) so I would really love to get started, but little things keep holding me back. I don't want that anymore! So yesterday and today I illustrated a little beginning to Chance's story. It may not be what it ends up in the end, but at least it gets me drawing and focused on her again.

Here's a quick summary of what adventures with Chance would entail: 

Chance is a new fairy godmother. She has her own mother for guidance in her new job, but she doesn't always get taken seriously because she is so young (with a hardship license and everything!). Her first assignment (Lileth) seems impossible at first because she doesn't want a fairy godmother BUT Chance isn't going away until she has wished enough of the right wishes that gets her onto the path of her happy ending. The rules are this: The closer the wish is to the happy ending, the higher her paycheck ends up being. If Lileth wishes pointless wishes, Chance isn't doing her job right. It's a heavy burden on a first-time fairy godmother, but that's the way it goes. Once they are on the right path, Chance will leave her assignment and eventually they forget that they ever had a fairy godmother (that's a part of the magic). However, in this rare case, the key to Lileth's happy ending is a friendship with Chance. Eventually they discover this together along with another friend/classmate (Jonathan) of Lileth's and at the end Chance receives her new assignment's information in the mail. Future stories tell of Chance's adventures of being a fairy godmother and Lileth and Jonathan helping her complete her assignments with plenty of creative problem-solving.

World notes:

Chance's mother is a retired fairy godmother due to her medical condition / reaction to using magic. It is similar to fibromyalgia. Her father is not in the picture and in the back of my mind, is a human, but that's up for changing. Chance gets her fairy godmother hardship license so she can provide for herself and her mother. 

They live in the human world (as all fairies do) but they happen to be in a more human-populated area where fairies are an unknown minority. They also age much slower, but this is also up for changing. Maybe they could lead a more mortal life, who knows.

Magic isn't as straightforward as one would typically imagine. Chance uses her wand to channel magic, and she has a magical purse that can provide helpful items, but she can't teleport necessarily, she doesn't have wings, she can't simply make someone disappear. Magic is found in the little things which is why it is often not visible to the human eye. Well, it is, but humans tend to not notice the little things. Basically, when Chance grants a wish, it is not always instantaneous. She has to think creatively how to grant the wish as discreetly as possible, as gently as possible, as to not disrupt the world. 

Basically, the way I want magic to work in this world is to make the reader believe that magic could exist in their world too .

Chance's story is about helping others and giving people second chances. Humans that are assigned fairy godmothers are often not the ones who deserve fairy godmothers! The people who are assigned fairy godmothers are people who are currently on track leading away from their happiness, and the fairy godmothers are there to guide them back to the right path. 

A fairy godmother's job: To be a good influence on their assignment. To grant wishes that help their client find their happy ending. By helping one human, they help an entire human community. To help them realize, eventually, they don't need magic to solve their problems. They also have a uniform: sparkly leotard and tutu. I have no idea what male fairy godfathers look like, I suppose the male ballet dancer look as well?

Things I need to consider:

Whether Chance is 8 or 15 or whatever, does she go to school? What makes them different, physically, from humans? Is she homeschooled? That would make more sense to fit in this story, but are all fairies homeschooled? Do some go to human school? Will Chance ever meet another fairy her age? Can other fairies be assigned fairy godmothers? What other jobs do fairies have? Do some have human jobs? 

Things to think about!