Why I wrote a ghost story
When I started writing The Haunting of Lily Frost it was as a conscious decision to write something that straddled two genres. Usually I write stories that are very real-world, but with this book I wanted to write something half coming-of-age and half ghost story. The first few drafts weren’t scary at all. They were a pathetic attempt at the supernatural. Writing a ghost story is really hard, even if you love reading them and think you know how they work. I knew I wanted to write a ghost story but I didn’t know why. And having a ghost as a character is complicated if they don’t speak, because they still need intentions and desires, and the reader needs to understand them as a character, without ever actually hearing from the ghost itself.
I think my fascination with ghost stories started with séances when I was a kid. Raised in a very agnostic household, spirits and the supernatural were just not on my radar until I went to school and met kids who believed. And then it was like the first time I ever tasted chocolate. I just wanted more. And more. Now I don’t know what I believe in, but I do know that ghosts are fantastic devices to use in storytelling. Ghosts let you do things you can’t do in the real-world. They let you explore themes and ideas and fears that are much harder to access through straight drama. And with The Haunting of Lily Frost, I knew I wanted to explore death without it being a book about death, so a ghost story was the perfect way in.
It was also the perfect way I could look at grief and mourning while staying slightly back from the action. Because the ghost isn’t a living, breathing character, the reader, and me as a writer, don’t really ever come to care about her in any deep way, so it’s easier to deal with. I wanted an arms-length approach because my mum was diagnosed with incurable cancer while I was writing The Haunting of Lily Frost, and so in many ways the book developed as I cared for her. And after mum died, I became totally obsessed with my own mortality. I was convinced I’d die soon too. And I think it was through this obsession that the whole purpose of my ghost story began to make sense.
The ghost is only there because Lily could have been a ghost herself. She starts the book saying, “I nearly died when I was five.” We’ve all had moments in our lives when we’ve seen the possibility of our death. And then someone we love dies and we realise that possibility is just one step closer. Lily Frost is totally open to the possibility. She’s already had a near-miss, been resuscitated by her dad, and lives to meet a ghost who wasn’t quite so lucky. It was exactly how I felt. Mum died. It could have been me. And in a way, she lives on as a sort ghostly spirit around me. Not haunting me - just comforting me. Like I hope Lily understands in the end too.
