Out of the Ordinary

THANK YOU

My dear readers,

(Get comfortable - you know me, this is probs gonna be long)

When I started this story just over two years ago, I was about halfway through writing my first novel (which still isn't published—but I'm working on it. You'll be the first to know if it happens). I was 22 at the time, fresh out of college, and at a point where I knew I wanted to write. But while I told myself I was capable of writing a book (or several), I didn't know for certain.

Cause shit, it was HARD. I had only started it with a few ideas in mind, much like OOTO, and was plugging along trying to string everything together. Then I came on Wattpad. And I read a few stories. And I thought... hey, maybe I should start ANOTHER book, because clearly, I'm not doing enough already (note the sarcasm), but with this one, I can utilize my insane amount of love for Harry Styles.

And then it came to me... the most cliche idea ever... A GIRL IN A COFFEE SHOP WHO RUNS INTO HARRY AND THEY END UP FALLING IN LOVE. 

Except, she wasn't a cliche at all. She had her own mind, and her own heart, and her own way of thinking about things. She wasn't falling over herself as soon as she laid eyes on him (or at least, not completely), and she walked away from him. Even after she'd decided she was attracted to him, even after she'd determined that he was flirting with her. She walked away.

From then on I knew I had to make my cliche storyline as unique as possible. I had to make her as unique as possible. The things she said, the things she did, the way she thought about things, the decisions she made, the way she interacted with him, the way they faced the course of their lives together. And for all those reasons, he fell in love with her. Hopelessly, deeply, and unconditionally in love with her.

But what made her so unique was that she was human. Flawed. Made up of contradictions. She was sure of herself, but also insecure. She was confident, but that confidence only stretched so far. She was independent, but she relied on her family and close friends more than she wanted to admit. She made mistake after mistake and had lots of regrets. She threw herself into her decisions, because Madelyn Freeman didn't do anything halfway. So, she threw herself into loving Harry, because she loved passionately, with all of herself, with all of her flaws. She didn't know how not to, even if it meant losing who she was along the way.

I heard her in my mind—I felt all that she felt. I laughed at all of her quick remarks. I hurt when she hurt. I loved just as much as she did. She's such a huge part of me. All of the characters are, but she helped me make the ordinary extraordinary. Even though I wasn't sure if I could.

But here we are. At the end of the book. 2 years, nearly 300,000 words, and 554 single-spaced pages on Word later. And I feel like I've changed just as much as Maddie - if not more than Maddie. Because not only did I write one book in the last 2 years...

I wrote two. And you all know I've already started a third for Radish.

And all the while, with every chapter published here, I became more and more sure of myself, more and more sure that this is what I'm meant to do, even though it took a while for OOTO to attract any attention. I wrote and posted 10 chapters over the course of a year before anyone but my close circle of friends started reading. But that was okay. It was a nice diversion from the sometimes (most times) frustrating work of writing my original novel. And it was absolutely a labor of love from the very beginning.

And then yellowdress1 was the first person to comment, and I'll never forget it. It was on my sister's birthday. April 9, 2015. She commented on Chapter 5. I've quoted that comment here for you to see: THIS IS SERIOUSLY SO CUTE LIKE HOLY SHIT I'M IN LOVE WITH THIS AND I'M NOT EVEN A HARRY GIRL. YOU'RE CONVERTING ME.