Maggie’s Christmas Miracle was based off of my mom’s novel, Maggie’s Miracle by Karen Kingsbury. When Hallmark discussed doing another movie off of one of her books, this one came to the table and I was asked to be a writer on the script as I have been working on adapting several of her titles into screenplays already.
I wrote the first draft solo and then my mom came in and made sure it matched her story and her vision. We had many conference calls back and forth with the network executives at Hallmark, and after a good amount of tweaking to fit their needs, and a LOT of prayer, the script was green-lit! Then a few weeks before shooting, they brought on a writer named Maria Nation, who had worked with them before, to shape it to fit more of their brand and feel. It was different to work with someone but never meet them. I still haven’t had the opportunity to meet her! But God worked it out and the three of us, along with the network, came to an agreement days before shooting!
We got to go to Canada while they shot the movie and had the chance to meet the director and the cast and crew. It was crazy amazing to see my name on the sides for the day listed as a screenwriter! It didn’t feel real! At that point, I was thrilled to just sit back and watch the words come to life. They shot the film in 12 days! Which blows my mind. It required a lot of precision and specificity. No time can be wasted. It’s such a machine!
Throughout the whole process, I learned a lot about collaboration. While it is true that the story needs to be served well, there were a lot of cooks in the kitchen, which made for many opinions, and there were times where elements of the story needed to be taken out or added in.
This can be hard at times, especially when I loved things that didn’t stay, or elements came into the story that I didn’t initially love.
I learned that even if I didn’t agree with some decisions being made, it was what needed to happen to make the movie work for everyone. And it’s such an important lesson and tool to learn to be edited, to receive notes with humility and excitement, and be flexible.
Sometimes (and lets be honest, most of the time) team work really does make the dream work.
The story is about believing in miracles, particularly those miracles that can happen around Christmastime. It’s been my prayer throughout the whole process that people’s hearts would be open to that message. That people would be open to the idea that no matter what you’ve been through, or whatever pain is in your life, God really does care about you. And He wants to breathe new life into those broken parts. All we have to do it believe.
And I do believe that Jesus is healing people through this story. I asked Him to take the lead in every step of this process, and He showed up in incredible ways.
It’s amazing what stories can do in us and through us. There is real power in storytelling, in creating, and in the arts. Especially when we surrender it over to God and let Him use it and guide it.
I feel incredibly blessed to have had this film made this year, and to have been part of the process the whole way. This not only was my first screenplay to be made into a movie, but it also got me membership into the WGA.
Writing and working on this film has been such an unexpected and exciting blessing this year, and I can’t wait to see what’s ahead!
It really is my prayer that anything I have my hand in completely glorifies Jesus and is only ever guided by Him. So I just want to encourage other artists, especially those at Lipscomb, to submit fully to the work of the Holy Spirit. And it starts with their personal lives. And then it should spill over to the things being worked on creatively. It’s so important as Christians to really surrender and let Him guide us in every area. He’s the best agent, casting director, producer, band manager, and CEO ever.
When we get out of our own way, and fully let God lead, amazing things happen. And it’s so much better to do it all His way!! He makes miracles happen. Just ask Maggie!! ;)
