Guest Post by Komal Lewis

One night in August 2012, my husband and I sat down to watch one of my favourite movies, Drive Me Crazy. As we watched the movie, I found my mind wandering. All I could picture were these two characters who were as different from each other as could be. A relationship between them couldn’t happen; it was impossible.

Once the movie was over, I turned to my husband and said, “One day I’m going to write a story like that.” What I didn’t plan on was “one day” becoming the very next day! At that stage I was in the process of revising my Young Adult Paranormal novel, Runaway Mortal. Reluctantly, I put Runaway Mortal aside and started writing Impossible.

Initially, the inspiration for the two main characters, Ashton and Luca, came from Melissa Joan Hart and Adrian Grenier’s characters from Drive Me Crazy, but they are definitely different. Ashton is completely nasty, self-absorbed and downright mean. Luca is reserved, yet confident, and likes to step on Ashton’s toes. I wanted to take away from the experience of the movie and turn it into my own story where the stakes are higher, where the emotions run deeper and where things are a lot more complicated.

It was definitely a lot harder for me to write Ashton than Luca. For Luca, it was simple getting into the mind of a guy because I am “one of the guys” (Whoa. Did I just call myself a guy?). Ashton was definitely more of a concern because I didn’t want to stereotype her as the pretty, mean girl. Also, she comes across as completely horrible in the beginning of the book and I didn’t want readers to feel disconnected from her. I wanted to show that there is a reason for her being the way she was.

I took a huge chance writing Ashton that way and making her so unlikeable. Typically, the mean girl is a side character in the novel, but I wanted to take readers into the mind of a mean girl and see how they reacted to it. I wanted to write characters that were flawed, really flawed, but I wanted them to redeem themselves as the story went on.

That being said, Luca was flawed too. In a way, his actions created the monster that Ashton had become. His growth in the book was to realise what he had done, instead of judging Ashton for what she was. He makes a big mistake towards the end of the book. Two big mistakes, actually. I wanted to show that, hey, teenagers are like that. They make mistakes, they do stupid things, but that doesn’t mean they can’t learn or grow or change.

As a teenager, I made my fair share of mistakes. I am sure you have too. Or maybe someone you knew in high school did something stupid. Did that mistake define them for the rest of their lives? Did they ever change? Did they learn from it?

I think everyone has the ability change; whether they do is a different story. My inspiration for my characters came from that very concept. Making mistakes but being able to learn from them.

Thank you so much for having me on your blog, Monique! I really appreciate it!

You are very welcome:) I loved the post!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Komal Lewis is an author who writes both Young Adult and Adult novels in the Contemporary and Fantasy genres. Her debut novel IMPOSSIBLE is a Young Adult Contemporary Romance about a girl who will do anything to become popular, and the rocker boy-next-door.

Komal lives in Sydney, Australia with her husband and one too many dogs and cats (although she never seems to think they have enough). She is overly enthusiastic about video games, comic books, Batman films, Byronic heroes, baking, reptiles, and pretty shoes.

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