A few of you might have noticed that some of the scenes in the first chapter of The Willow, came from earlier short stories I’d written. In one of those stories, about a single mother and her two children going camping, the daughter has Down’s syndrome. Right before publishing the first chapter, someone questioned me on whether someone with Down’s syndrome could say a line she had said. Although I knew that I had researched it earlier and that it was indeed possible, I got scared that I would have to research every line that would come out of her mouth. Instead of staying true to the character, I just gave her dyslexia instead and walked away.
Ever since publishing that first chapter I’ve been kicking myself for the change, because that is just not how I write. I don’t try to create, but rather I allow the characters to…
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