Good Witch #MyWritingInspirations
Blog post
As I get closer to releasing Janet’s Yellow Butterflies, I have been reflecting on some of the literature, media and memories that inspired ideas for it.
This week’s inspiration is Good Witch, a TV series I enjoy watching with my daughter. It centres around the current day descendants of Nathan and Meredith Merriwick, who founded the town of Middleton in Illinois in 1794 and built a mansion named Grey House.
Cassie, a Merriwick descendant, now operates Grey House as a bed and breakfast, and has discovered that many family heirlooms, stories and secrets still exist within its walls.
She and her daughter Grace, and her cousins Abigail and Joy, have all inherited a special gift from the Merriwick female line. I wouldn’t quite call it magic in a physical sense, but a very strong intuition and sensitivity. They each have a way of helping things work out for people through timely ‘coincidences’ and the clever intermingling of storylines. Whilst there is no magic in Janet’s Yellow Butterflies, it also has its fair share of timely ‘coincidences’, and a character with ‘second sight’ who assists in the search to uncover Janet’s story.
*Spoiler alert*
One of my favourite aspects of Good Witch is the frequent plotlines about stories and heirlooms which resurface from the past and become an important part of the present.
A lovely example of this is when, shortly after Cassie and her partner Sam become engaged, Grace finds some letters hidden in an old desk in Grey House. One letter, written by their ancestor Elizabeth Merriwick almost 100 years before, reveals that she eloped with a man her parents disapproved of, and gave her wedding dress away to a friend named Fiona.
This sparks a search to find the wedding dress in time for Cassie and Sam’s big day. Cassie and Grace leave no stone unturned as they hunt for the dress, searching through city records to find Fiona’s wedding date, and connecting with her descendants. They learn that the dress had been worn at many weddings in Fiona’s family, but was given away when they fell on hard times. All hope is lost when they discover that the dress was likely destroyed in a house fire.
In a seemingly unrelated storyline, Cassie and Grace visit a dress consignment shop and chance upon the wedding dress, instantly recognising it by Elizabeth’s initials embroidered inside the collar. They are thrilled to have found their family’s long lost treasure in time for Cassie and Sam’s wedding.
Good Witch features many storylines of heirlooms and stories passed down through the generations that shed light on long held Merriwick and Middleton mysteries. Whilst I had written most of Janet’s Yellow Butterflies before I watched the series, I was inspired to revisit some of the family stories and heirlooms I had included and strengthen their significance in the story, and to illustrate the continuing influence they can have on our lives today.
Read more of my writing inspirations here: emmaelizabethauthor.com/blog
