I thought I’d do a series of posts on the backstory of Royal Institute of Magic, showing the evolution of the plot throughout its various drafts.

The first one is about Ben’s Grandma. In the book she only features at the beginning and is a rather unpleasant old lady, who doesn’t care for Ben at all.

In the first draft it was completely different – she was a nice character that Ben cared for. However, when Ben comes home from school after the summer holidays, he finds her house a wreck with his grandma gone. She had vanished, and the only clue to her whereabouts was a letter from the Royal Institute of Magic. So begins the adventure.

For those of you who’ve read the book, you know that Ben discovers his first clues about the Institute completely differently. But after some feedback, I was told to ditch the grandma from the bulk of the story on the basis that the less adults involved, the better. Turned out to be good advice as it made things a lot simpler for me.

I hope you enjoyed that little backstory! More to come soon.