Guest Post: Luisa Plaja on 'Body Swap Stories'

A Bit About Body Swap Stories

By Luisa Plaja (http://www.luisaplaja.com )

But no sooner had Paul met the reflection in the glass than he startedback in incredulous horror - then returned and stared again and again. Surely, surely, this could not be he!Vice Versa by F. Anstey, 1882**

Ah, the body swap story! It’s a classic. From Vice Versa’s father-and-son swap written in 1882, through Freaky Friday’s mother-and-daughter swap written by Mary Rodgers ninety years later and filmed three times***, all the way to recent movies and episodes of television shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Doctor Who and even Scooby Doo – body swaps are here to stay.

There are body swap novels in all genres, and authors include Todd Strasser, H P Lovecraft, Anne Rice, Michael Lawrence, P G Wodehouse, Blake Nelson, R L Stine, and Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle (who you’ll see mentioned in Swapped by a Kiss, where the main setting is a Conan-Doylesque moor!) There are many variations and permutations in recent teenage fiction, too: Fly on the Wall by E. Lockhart (girl in the body of a fly), Inside the Mind of Gideon Rayburn by Sarah Miller (girl in the mind of a boy), the Airhead series by Meg Cabot*, and so many more****.

So how did I end up edging quietly on to the end of this wonderful list?

When I finished writing Split by a Kiss, I knew there was a character who still had a lot to say. Rachel Glassman is unhappy in her skin – she’s swamped by feelings of anger and jealousy, and she feels permanently misunderstood. Rachel also has the last word in Split by a Kiss, so it seemed right that she should have the first word in its sequel. Or most of the words, in fact. And it felt natural to base the plot very loosely on Freaky Friday, one of Jo’s favourite multi-version films. Besides, all good body swap books explore the age-old concept of “walking a mile in someone else’s shoes”, and Rachel wants nothing more than to swap her black Goth boots for Jo’s comfy flats – or, more accurately, to swap her imperfect relationships for the ‘perfection’ of Jo’s. Especially if one of Jo’s relationships is with Rachel’s boyfriend...

Here are some of my favourite ingredients of body swap stories:

- a mystical place, a talisman or a whole-hearted, double-sided wish that sets the whole thing off

- adjustment to the new body and/or new voice

- comedy moments stemming from trying to be someone else

- realisations about the lives of others

- a lesson learnt, a mile walked in another’s shoes, causing a swap back...

- ...just in time to prevent some disaster/gain some wonderful thing/make everything OK again

Did I adopt or adapt any of these for Swapped by a Kiss?

Maybe. Maybe not... Find out in April 2010 when Swapped by a Kiss is released. In the meantime, be careful about wishing you were someone else! But if you leave a comment saying who you might want to swap bodies with for the day, fictional or otherwise, I’ll give a copy of one of my books to a winner chosen by Sasha. (Extreme Kissing and Split by a Kiss available now, Swapped by a Kiss from late April.)

*Oh, and there will be another prize for the first reader to spot the tiny reference in Swapped by a Kiss to Meg Cabot’s Airhead series – write to me via my website (http://www.luisaplaja.com) with the page number and I’ll arrange something! (Clue: it’s not to do with Rachel and/or Hailey calling Tori an ‘airhead’ – that’s a given. Hee. There’s an actual reference in dialogue to the storyline of Airhead. But it’s very small!)

**Vice Versa by F. Anstey is available for free download at Project Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/26853)

***Three movie versions of Freaky Friday: The 1976 original, written by Rodgers and starring Jodie Foster as Annabel Andrews; a Disney version made in 1995 and starring Gaby Hoffman as Annabel; a 2003 remake starring Lindsay Lohan as the renamed Anna Coleman.

****Find full lists of body swap stories in movies, television, literature, manga and more on TV Tropes: Freaky Friday Flip: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FreakyFridayFlip

Thank you very much Luisa for that fascinating post! And that is correct, if you leave a comment with the correct criteria you will be in with a chance of winning one of Luisa's books! In the comment please leave your email address or if you don't feel comfortable doing that, feel free to email me. You'll find all the information by clicking on the 'Contact' button at the top!

On another note, thank you to everyone who alerted me that my Twitter account had been hacked. Unfortunately due to this I've had to delete it but hopefully I'll set one up again soon. Very sorry about that and the obscene messages that my hacker sent you.