Pan Inspires Me YET AGAIN...

Thumbing through the play of Peter Pan, a little bit of it leapt out at me. Truthfully I am not as familiar with the play as the novel (as I worked with Pan in that medium) so some of the minor details go out of my head from time to time, much like Pan’s own memory skills. Thus, when perusing, sometimes it’s a big adventure all over again.

The bit that “leapt out” hit the part of me which writes. Suddenly a little trickle of story cried out to be written. Sorry, I’m going to keep which part inspired me a secret, but the passage shows up near the beginning. But I will tell you what it inspired.

I had a vision of the “mother” in Peter Pan’s NeverWorld, Amy Alexis Richards. I explored the possibility of her exploring the possibility of the eternal boy. From my novel, we know that she’s a firm believer in Pan and is quite versed in stories about him. But when did she first hear of the Boy Who Never Grew Up? There had to have been a moment when she encountered the “legend.” Fortunately, Barrie provided the answer. (If I had a moment in mind while writing the book, this new idea supersedes it.)

And so, at some point (although I cannot say when) I will be writing a companion piece to NeverWorld, based around Amy, delving further into her backstory and giving us a richer understanding of her character other than her becoming the latest acquisition to playful motherhood of the Lost Boys. I do not expect it to be novel length. Nor do I envision a short story. Besides what I have said in this post, it seems like a shorter piece cannot do justice to the unfolding events in my head. By the same token, a feature-length seems like overkill for the idea. A novella, perhaps?

My current plans are for it to be an online-only text, one that can be accessed for free. The story will (or should) be able to be read with or without having read Peter Pan’s NeverWorld, enriching the text either way.

I’ll update, of course.

In the meantime, when did YOU first hear of Peter Pan?
And aren’t you curious how it happened for Ms. Richards?