The classic question after reading anything is “How did the author come up with this?” I think this question comes from an urge to understand the muses. As artists, we want to understand how we came to create this piece of art. If we can trace where an idea came from, perhaps we can make a similar journey back again when we need a new idea. As consumers of art, we want insight into the artist’s mind, to know that everything was planned and intentional.
The interesting thing about stories is that sometimes ideas fester in your memory, lying in wait until the perfect storm of events in your life cause the ideas to erupt into a full-fledged plot and story. When that happens, there’s no telling where and how it all started. And sometimes, stories have very clear starting points, fixed memories of where and when and how.
So here are the origin stories for my work. Some of these will satisfy, some will not. Regardless, I hope you enjoy and perhaps these stories will inspire as well.
Sing in me, Muse, and through me tell the story…
Rilla-his-Rilla
Submittable is the platform many publications use for submissions and I somehow got on Submittable’s weekly emails. I learned of Eastern Iowa Review’s Anne of Green Gables themed publication from one of those emails. Once I read the guidelines, I thought about who I would want to write about, having read all eight novels. The helpless romantic that I am, I always wanted more of Rilla and Ken.
Sing, muse!
(October 2019)
Alive: A Fairy Tale for Our Time
Right around the beginning of the COVID pandemic in 2020, I gained access to Disney+ (thank you, brother!) and watched Frozen II. As with any song sung by the incomparable Idina Menzel, I proceeded to listen to ‘Into the Unknown’ on repeat in the days and weeks that followed. During one of these listenings, it struck me how all fairy tales involve the hero/heroine leaving home to have his or her adventure. I studied folklore & mythology as a minor in college and I couldn’t think of any Aarne-Thompson-Uther types that had the protagonist staying at home to have their story. There are many logical reasons for this, but with a pandemic locking the world down in isolation and quarantine, I thought perhaps it was time for a story, a fairy tale in particular, where our heroine would need to stay home and isolated in order to save the day.
Sing, muse!
(December 2020)
There is nothing quite like family stories to inspire fiction. We are told the tales of our relatives so often, we know them just as well as our own personal stories. My great-grandmother was an incredible woman, fierce and feisty. The stories from her life are likewise incredible. This is one of them.
Sing, muse!
(December 2020)
Just Bleed
I went to see Celine Song’s Endlings at the American Repertory Theater (ART) in Cambridge, MA in early 2019. The play presented the issues and struggles of artists “selling [their] skin for art.” The play got me thinking about what parts of themselves artists would be willing to sell in order to make art. What started out as an essay discussing this and where I personally fit in (white skin, Jewish blood) became a work of fiction.
Sing, muse!
(February 2021)
I visited Ireland in summer 2015 for a writing program and in winter 2016 to volunteer at the National Folklore Collection. While I was there, I attended shul at the Dublin Hebrew Congregation. This piece was inspired by my time there.
And We Lived Happily Ever After: 2022 National Flash Fiction Day Anthology can be purchased at the link.
Sing, muse!
(June 2022)
The Winners
I had submitted flash fictions to The Roadrunner Review previously and received polite rejections. However, the most recent rejection had included encouragement to submit again, especially with a different one-sentence story. I had found publications that specifically published one-sentence stories a while back and appreciated the challenge it presented. Thus encouraged by the editors at Roadrunner Review to write more of them, I needed to decide what to write about.
This story was inspired by a conversation with someone about the winners and losers in a former relationship.
Sing, muse!
(June 2022)
Men of Memory
In my sophomore year of college, I took my first Creative Writing Workshop. Part of the assignment for the story each student would workshop was to include some kind of research. All the best writing involved research, my professor asserted. The same semester, I took the Introduction to Folklore & Mythology class, required for majors and minors. One day, my Folklore professor made a small, offhand comment about the ‘men of memory.’ The phrase stuck with me as a possibility for a story. I researched the minnunga mæn for my workshop story. The other aspects of the piece followed around that time.
Sing, muse!
(March 2023)
Warrior Candle
In 2020, NPR had a Hanukkah Lights Fiction Contest. I thought about what I would want to say about Chanukkah and how the holiday is celebrated and wrote a story about that. Since the story did not win the competition, I was able to easily edit the story to include it in my MFA Fiction thesis, a collection of short stories. The edit involved changing the perspective from 3rd person to 1st and including other characters from the world of my collection.
Sing, muse!
(October 2023)
Bring Your Own Shovel
This is a personal essay. Life was the only inspiration.
Sing, muse!
(November 2023)
Hold Tight
This story has gone through many versions over the years. It began in eleventh grade, when a teacher of mine told me that the YA Modern Orthodox Jewish story had yet to be written. It got me thinking and the one scene that came to mind backwas a teenage girl expressing how all she wanted to do was hold her shomer negiah boyfriend’s hand. This scene stayed with me when I went to college and joined the ballroom dance team.
I wrote the first version of this story in college. That version had the young woman complaining to her dance partner about how she wanted to have the physical touch with her boyfriend that she got to have with her dance partner. I then turned the story into a short play for a class. In each version, some things were working and some things were not.
When I decided to start working on a collection of short stories about young Modern Orthodox Jews in New York City, I decided to revisit this idea and make one my characters the dancing woman and another character her boyfriend.
Initially I decided to send my characters to a pole dancing class for the hilarity of seeing Modern Orthodox Jewish ladies dancing on poles—it was such a stark and funny juxtaposition that there was bound to be something interesting to say. When I told a writing friend about this idea, she was so incredibly supportive that she came with me to the intro pole dancing class that started out as research but has ultimately led to an amazing outlet and activity in my life.
Sing, muse!
(September 2024)
As previously mentioned here, my great-grandmother was an incredible woman, fierce and feisty. The stories from her life are likewise incredible. This is one of them.
Otherwise Magazine interviewed me about my process for their Meet the Author series.
Sing, muse!
(October 2024)
A Taste of Home, Lips So Close, Heart So Far
Candles For Twenty-Five Celebrating Sixteen
Picking Up the Jewish Blond on Fifth Avenue
I came across the BAM 42 anthology project in 2019—a challenge to write a 42-word story, with a 42-character title, within a possible 42 categories of genre. Initially, the project hoped to have one story per author, but the editor later allowed authors to submit up to four stories, each under a different author name. The story inspirations with their pseudonyms are listed below.
A TASTE OF HOME, LIPS SO CLOSE, HEART SO FAR (by Hannah Saal)
This piece was inspired by a conversation with a cousin-in-law, about her experiences during a study abroad.
CANDLES FOR TWENTY-FIVE CELEBRATING SIXTEEN (by Margaret Rose)
My eldest brother once forgot how old I was on my birthday, believing I was turning sixteen. It has been a running joke in my family ever since.
PICKING UP THE JEWISH BLOND ON FIFTH AVENUE (by HL Felix)
This is the fictionalized account of how my great-great aunt met her husband.
42 Stories Anthology Presents: Book of 42² can be purchased at the link.
Sing, muse!
(November 2024)
When Disney’s Beauty and the Beast live-action remake was released in theaters, my sister asked if I could write an actually feminist version of the fairytale. Perhaps one that didn’t include a Stockholm Syndrome romance.
Sing, muse!
(July 2025)
My mother was watching Vår tid är nu (English title: The Restaurant) during COVID and I saw a few episodes with her. When I learned about an open call for one-sentence stories at a literary magazine, one particular scene from the Swedish drama stuck out to me.
Sing, muse!
(November 2025)
hannahsaal.com 