On Aug. 16, 1907, Montgomery writes about her initial fear of actually writing a book.  “All my life it has been my aim to write a book—a ‘real live’ book.  Of late years I have been thinking of it seriously but somehow it seemed such a big task I hadn’t the courage to begin it.  I have always hated beginning a story.  When I get the first paragraph written I feel as though it were half done.  To begin a book therefore seemed a quite enormous undertaking.  Besides, I did not see just how I could get time for it.  I could not afford to take time from my regular work to write it.”

Montgomery also records her process for writing a novel, explaining that she kept a notebook in which she would write down any ideas that came to her at any moment – whether they were plot or character related.

The seed for Anne of Green Gables was planted when Montgomery was looking through her notebook for an idea for a short serial she wanted to write.  It was inspired by an old entry in a Sunday School paper ten years before, which read: “Elderly couple apply to orphanage asylum for a boy.  By mistake a girl is sent to them.”  From there, Montgomery knew she had the makings of a story and began to form chapters and come up with the details and missteps of her protagonist.

“Her personality appealed to me and I thought it rather a shame to waste her on an ephemeral little serial,” Montgomery writes.  “Then the thought came, ‘Write a book about her.  You have the central idea and character.  All you have to do is spread it out over enough chapters to amount to a book.’”

The end result was a novel that Montgomery admits was a labor of love.  “Nothing I have ever written gave me so much please to write.”

Be sure to check back in the future for information on Montgomery’s pursuit of a publisher!

Source:  The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery- Volume 1: 1889 - 1910