How it all began...

The original idea for Safia’s Archaeological Adventures came from a suggestion by Ahmed Al Shoaibi for Michele to write a children’s picture book on the church at Sir Bani Yas. Michele created the characters of Safia and her family and wrote this first version. She sent it to Katia (who usually writes short stories, poetry, and sometimes does some editing) to have a look. We soon realised Safia’s story (and the story of Sir Bani Yas) did not want to be confined to a picture book.

Michele brought Katia on board to help write up an expanded version. Soon Michele had created an extended cast of characters, and the two writers brainstormed a new plot over several weekend Zoom sessions.

Michele chatted with Yasmine at Early Starters, who read an ‘early reader’ version. She suggested we could further expand it into a YA fiction novel. Taking this on board, many weekend Zoom sessions ensued. Michele created additional side characters and a more complex plotline developed that included time-slip and paranormal elements.

Katia started writing up the narrative based on the outlines planned out over Zoom. We continually reviewed these back and forth via email and shared files on Google drive… oh, and more Zoom sessions a chapter at a time.

As we brought the outlines for the different chapters to life, they transformed, and the original 12 chapters expanded to 15, then 17, 20, and finally, after deciding there were too many scene breaks within chapters, 53. There was simply so much story to tell!

We finished the first full draft in late October 2022.

Check out the link to The Editing Process to find out how a first draft turned into a polished novel.