Many of the tales in The Story Girl are derived from Montgomery's own family stories and childhood experiences. She relished interweaving these memories into the narrative of The Story Girl and held a great fondness for the work.

In a November 29, 1910 journal entry, Montgomery wrote:

I had just finished my book The Story Girl. I was sorry to finish it. Never, not even when I finished with Anne, had I laid down my pen and taken farewell of my characters with more regret. I consider The Story Girl the best piece of work I have yet done. It may not be popular as Anne--somehow I don't fancy it will. But from a literary point of view it is far ahead of it. It is an idyl of childhood on an old P.E. Island farm during one summer. I have written it from sheer love of it and revised it painstakingly--up there by the window of my dear white room. (SJ 2: 20).