How The Full Monty Sparked My Imagination

When I was a kid, I LOVED stories. 

My mum read to me from when I was very small, and as soon as I knew how to write, I wrote my own stories. 

The other thing I've always been rather fascinated by is love. 

I can only assume that is because I saw how well my dad treated my mum when I was growing up, but I recall always being drawn to romance. If there was ever a family party - or the absolute best - a wedding - I would watch couples dancing, noting the way people looked at each other in particular. The secret smiles and the way they would light up around each other. 

Even then, I wondered if I would have that with someone one day, and even then, I wrote stories with elements of romance in them, even though I didn't have any understanding of what any of it truly meant. 

When I was a teenager, I watched The Full Monty. NOT a romance by any stretch of the imagination lol. BUT there was Gaz, played by the exceptional Robert Carlyle. He was a directionless adult with a jack-the-lad, cheeky chap aura, even though he also had a bit of temper and a tendency to let people down. Underneath, that was a good guy. And his ex? A woman with a career who knew exactly what she wanted and was sick of him never getting his sh!t together. 

And yet the physical attraction between them, the underlying feelings, screamed out to me. 

I was fascinated by the concept of a relationship between a well-put together woman who had a life plan, and a guy who was almost her complete opposite. 

And Shannen and Cal were born. 

I was 14. I had absolutely no experience with relationships, let alone complicated ones. But I knew somewhere inside me that this was going to be my first novel. 

In the original version of the story, Cal was not a single dad. He was an unemployed cocaine addict. Shannen was always a teacher. 

The dynamic between them, the chemistry, has always been the same, though. There was always this undeniable pull between them - one that overtook logic, common sense, and probably reality lol. But I was 14, and I loved what I was doing. 

The original version of All Of You never got a title, and I still have the file. It also never got finished because there was always something more to write, a new scene to add, or a new twist to keep things going. 

I was 41 when I finally released the story as it is now, and while quite a lot of it has changed from the original version, there are STILL lines in the book I wrote when I was 14, and some when I was 19 when I re-looked at it. 

When I read it back, I can still see the heart of 14-year-old me... the one who was fascinated by relationship dynamics, love, and how, even though two people might LOOK like they make no sense together, it can still work.