Welcome to my four part blog series about the things that have inspired The Luke Bright Series. The first blog is about other books that have helped me on my journey to become a writer and have directly impacted my own writing.

First of all, as I have mentioned before, the main book that inspired me when writing Atlantic Split especially was To Kill A Mockingbird. The themes in the book are so powerful that you just can’t ignore them. There’s a reason why it’s one of the greatest books of our time and I am privileged to have studied it at school. A lot of the legal scenes in The Luke Bright Series are influenced by those in To Kill A Mockingbird and by allowing Luke to be in the same position as me, and having read the UK altered version at school, it provides a way for him to draw parallels to the book and his own life. Plus, if a book like that can influence generation after generation but yet our world is still full of prejudice and injustice, then surely there need to be more books like it to encourage people to listen.

A book series which didn’t so much inspire my writing, but inspired me to write was The Harry Potter Book Series. As a child, I grew up reading these and watching the films as I was roughly the same age as the characters as they progressed. When a book series can shape a generation, you know you’ve done a good job. J.K. Rowling was the woman who inspired me to write, probably like many other writers, because of her back story which helped her to become the greatest writer of this generation. It made me realise that yes, you can dream and even the silliest ideas can become real. I will always thank her for helping me realise my true passion.

Another book I read at school was Tess of D’urbervilles. Whilst I didn’t draw specific parallels from this book to The Luke Bright Series, the themes are in fact quite similar. The main character having to deal with one life changing event that sets them off on a completely different course through their life. At school, we had to write an essay about whether we felt Tess’s fate had been inevitable (now I can see this was in fact victim shaming) and I could relate that to Luke. All of his back story influenced him into who he became. If it wasn’t for the culmination of how his family treated him, his lack of friendship, his resentment of bullying he may have never ended up in the situation he did.

Finally, the one main thing that inspired me wasn’t a book in itself, but in fact more like several stories. I owe a lot to fan-fiction. A lot of people may feel that fan-fiction doesn’t have much merit – surely you’re using other people’s characters and settings and just redoing them. In all honestly, a lot of fiction is fan-fiction. Whether you’re inspired by someone else’s characters or someone else’s plot sparks something – nothing is an original. But the unique way you write something is original and the unique ways you change and develop characters beyond the way they were intended is original. Atlantic Split began as a fan-fiction, with one idea becoming the basis of the book but the rest of the plot I built around it myself and certainly all the sequels were my own ideas.

I have read some fantastic fan-fiction which is better than even some original published books. It’s also a great way for young adults to begin writing about something they are passionate about and really get in the head of characters they know and give them new and different dimensions.

Next week, I’ll be discussing in part two how TV and film has inspired me when writing The Luke Bright Series. See you back here then!

Atlantic Split is the first book in The Luke Bright Series and is available to purchase NOW! Please follow me on my blog and my social media links below and use the links on my website to purchase a copy if you have not done so. Don’t forget to leave a review! The second book, At Liberty To Live will be released in AUTUMN 2018. Thank you once again for taking the time to read this blog post.

N.A.K.