Failure Is the Foundation

I can recall exactly where I was when I came up with the idea for my adult fantasy series, Emily Wilde.

- BY HEATHER FAWCETT

It was Mary's, a particularly cozy coffee shop in my hometown, which has tragically since closed down. I had my coffee and cinnamon bun (because Mary's made the best cinnamon buns), and I was flipping through one of the books I'd brought for research, an encyclopedia of fairy folklore in the British Isles. I began musing about what the experience of writing something like that would have been like, musings that would eventually turn into Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries.

The only thing is, I didn't realize at the time that this was an idea for an adult fantasy novel. Because I was working on a proposal for a children's book.

It was going to be an upper middle-grade novel, set in fairyland.

I was excited about the idea-it was high concept, and the main character was compelling, but I couldn't get the story to work. I went through multiple first chapters and outlines and ultimately set the proposal aside.