Author’s note…yay!

Sigh. After two long years, Will and Sophia get their happy ending. FINALLY.

I really appreciate everyone who read, reviewed, shared their comments/opinions, favorited and alerted. It really means a lot especially since this was the first story I ever attempted to write AND I completed it. I’m really proud of this (even though I see sooooo many faults). It’s my baby! I sincerely hope you all enjoyed Will and Sophia and the rest of the characters as well.

If there’s anything to be said about this first draft it’s that it was a learning process. There are a bunch of people in the world who want to be authors and we all have a story idea floating in our heads, but few actually take the time to write them down. Being one of the few who has written down my plot, I’m especially proud of myself. Then, I learned I can’t really write. Well, I can write, but I can’t adequately spin an entertaining tale. Now that I know that I am more determined than ever to go back and try again until I am satisfied with the outcome.

Originally, I had a small idea that panned out to seven pages which was an accomplishment in and of itself since it never occurred to me to write creatively. Then, my seven pages grew to everything you just finished reading. However, at times characters were randomly introduced (the triplets) or characters previously introduced randomly popped up (Mooresville). There’s a reason! *sheepish* At the point the triplets were introduced it was quite random to everyone because I made them up on the spot. But, now I’ve grown to love them and in the rewrite I’m going to develop them a little more and they’ll (hopefully) have a little more air time. Mooresville, on the other hand, was one of my original characters. I wanted Will to have at least one non-spy friend. But, as the story was written, Bromfield and Collingsworth grew on me and I honestly forgot about Mooresville. How horrible is that?? To forget about your own character? So, those times he randomly popped up…that’s when I remembered him. SORRY! (But, I see one of you chose him as your favorite male character on my poll.)

So, like it said, it was a learning process. As I wrote, I discovered new characters with important roles and some that were unnecessary. I also learned that I’m a comma slave driver. I abused my poor comma buddies throughout this entire draft.

Hmmm…there’s more I learned. But, I forget them right now.

I have Collingsworth and Bromfield’s stories floating in the back of my head, as well as The Somerset Children’s stories.

Alas, now that this is done I’m going to take a month long writing break (or try to at least) and then start again. I’ll be moving onto editing/revising! Fun!

For the most part the basic story will be the same, but here I’m going to ask for your help. This way I know what my readers would like to see.

1) I started my chapters with epigraphs (short quotes at the beginning of a chapter). In this draft I used Shakespearean quotes, but I was wondering if you would prefer to see Will’s Rules as the epigraphs.

2) I’m also thinking about redoing the prologue. Rather than having the newspaper article, maybe do a clip of Sophia and her childhood?

3) A few of my friends loved Mooresville even though he didn’t appear often. I’m thinking about nixing his character altogether. To keep or not to keep?

4) I think I’m going to have Bromfield and Collingsworth move into the house with Will and Sophia. Why? Because it’ll be torturous fun and I’ll also be able to develop their characters further which I think would be a nice lead it to their own stories.

5) Is the brother thing to cliché??

These are a few of the ideas rolling around in my head. I definitely need to develop the romance and define the characters more. I need to improve my writing and find a concrete style. I need to make certain parts of the plot clearer and make more references to the Era. There’s a lot I need to do!!

Hopefully, I’ll be able to work on this during the semester and over the Winter break and then start querying eventually.

Again, thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did. If anyone wants to contact me (about anything at all!) leave a review, send a PM or leave a comment on my blog! I always respond ^_^

Keep me on you alerts list if you want updates. When I rewrite, I’ll post a preview and excepts and…pretty much updates!

Stories to check out:

Love Game by All Over You

The Runaway Courtesan by J.E. Wyatt

La Cinq by Call me when you’re rich

Personal Bias by Le Meg (it’s a one-shot but it’s one of my favorite)

Free Fallin’ (even though it’s not done and she seriously needs to come back!)

(There's a lot more, but my computer had a...malfunction this weekend and the hard drive had to be wiped...completely erasing everything, including all the stories I had saved in my favorites/to be read folder :( When I have time I'll go through everything and see if I can find them on the website again. Sigh.)

PS