Brush Strokes ✓

A few words.

Rant alert!!

Brush Strokes, to start, I'll tell you I changed the title thrice after publishing. It was a funny thing seriously and one of my friends who was reading it almost killed me when I changed it the third time. But I guess, third time is luck. I was able to somehow make the title blend in with the story. It definitely worked much better than Your Eyes Tell as it was before.

The base of the story, the first scene I ever imagined for this book was the prologue. The moment I thought of the main characters' first meeting, I knew I had to write it with Kim Taehyung because he really has beautiful eyes that can tell you everything and nothing all at once. They are as soulful as his voice but for an artist who uses colours, obviously I had to focus more on his eyes throughout the book, which I hope I succeeded in.

If you've read the 'A few words' chapter of After Hours, you would know that when I was planning the series, this book was supposed to be the first. I didn't care for you know, following the age thing, oldest to youngest while writing. I didn't even think about it. I write completely based on the characters and the storyline.

That being said, I even though about exchanging the male leads and books while planning. I won't say who I was going to pair with Aera but it wouldn't have worked out as good as it did with Taehyung. It was a cliche choice, the artist x Taehyung plot which has been used a lot, most of the times Taehyung being the artist. But since, he was going to remain as an idol, obviously Aera became the artist. In the end though, I guess, you can say I have penchant for giving cliche plots and concepts my own touch.

Coming to characters, let's talk about Aera. I knew I wanted her to be the extravagant, social butterfly type of girl who everyone finds cringe and is the 'bitch' in every y/n book. That character really needed some justice.

Aera is like the representation of the line 'brightest smiles hide the most pain', so I really wanted to give her a very traumatic past. Like, from what I've perceived, it's very common for people to tease or bully someone because of what their parents do or did. In her case, though I expressed it through only a few lines, she was looked at as if she would someday become a murderer as well and it's really disheartening. But she turns out pretty good despite her dark past.

She smiled and laughed a lot through the book, she even tried to please everyone around her but still didn't accept rude behaviour, a point you can consider as growing up from all the toxic shiz. But, when she found the right person to confide in, she didn't hold back either.

Through Aera, I've honestly been able to figure out so much about a person. Like, Aera isn't perfect. She must be the most imperfect character you might've read or I might've ever written. She's indecisive, impulsive, but still somehow thinks rationally but at the wrong place. She's also often ignorant and a little self centred when it came to feelings. It was like looking myself in her because somewhere we all are like that. No one is perfect and that's the beauty in it.

Initially, this was going to be a really fluffy romance filled with cheesy shit as you can tell from the first few chapters but as I continued writing and improvising her character I had this sudden realisation, epiphany of sorts and the whole plot changed. At some point, there were so many flaws in Aera that I decided to show them more and show how she matures through it. It was like discovering different sides of her and embracing them all to make her stronger. So, we went from a childish, indecisive person to a mature woman who was finally free of her vices and knew what mistakes shouldn't be repeated.

I can proudly say that, despite the plot holes my decision to explore human nature like that through Aera was a turning point, the best point for me as a writer. If I were to give this book a rating out of 10 I would give it 3 honestly because it's really not that good. But writing this book helped me immensely to look at things differently.