Take Me Home • h. styles ✔

The Birth and Sequel

     It was a sunny Sunday afternoon while my parents were both asleep when I decided to watch a movie to kill off my boredom. It was my summer vacation last year when it happened, and with nothing else to do because I couldn’t sleep, I looked through my dad’s shelf of DVDs, until my eyes stumbled upon one of my most favorite movies of all time. Craving for some horror and sci-fi action, I decided to watch it again after three years to refresh my memory of the film. When I was watching it, with my hands digging deeper into the can of Pringles, I kept seeing One Direction’s faces in the magazine that I had which was on the TV rack at that time, and from that, I then started to have this crazy idea of putting someone from the lads in the movie I am Legend.

     The idea seemed pretty cool for me because I’ve always wanted to write a story. I’ve been reading different kinds of novels last year, most especially in the dystopian and post-apocalyptic genres. After imagining all five of them to be in Robert Neville’s (Will Smith) character, my mind was torn between Harry and Liam, but I ended up choosing our curly-haired idol. If you’ll ask why, I chose him because he has the most number of fans and I had this thinking that the majority of the readers would want to see Harry being the badass hero whom they’ll see in action, fighting unknown, animalistic creatures throughout the story.

     I mean, it'll be a great chance to imagine Harry's perfection in a zombie apocalypse, right?

     What if Harry was the last living man on Earth? 

     What if I turn him into someone who can fight zombies or vampires or whatever creature despite of being on his own? 

     Will he survive on his journey of searching for his four best friends alone? 

     I’m a horror movie geek. I have a strange enthusiasm for zombie films and other post-apocalyptic stuff. Yeah, those were the questions that I had in mind that time when I was watching the film, and I guess that really marked the birth of this book.

     It was hard to think of the title at first because I wanted to make it simple yet it would leave an impact to the people who will read it. To tell the truth, I’ve never written a story before, and like what I said in the first part of this book, this is my first ever fanfic. Yes, I have no experience in writing stories so my ideas were like all so cheesy and corny and at first, I thought that it wouldn’t work. 

     But I asked myself: Why not give it a try? 

     So when I finally became active on Wattpad last May 2013, I gave it a try and after lying on my bed for two hours thinking of a title, I thought of the lads’ album Take Me Home because of the idea that I wanted to emphasize the essence of what a true home is, as well as to highlight the journeys of ups and downs in life on Harry’s one mission to go back home to Cheshire. Also, I took the chance to impart inspirational messages that I’ve learned from our Church through this book. I wanted to accentuate the message of the virtues of faith, hope and love that along with our journey and everyday battle with life, God will always guide us all throughout. Lastly, the boys’ friendship in real life inspired me, for I wanted to write something that will present the idea of what a true friendship should have.

     Then, the rest was history. Being the first story I’ve ever written, I needed to find inspiration and at least a foundation to make my own tale. Since it’s fan fiction, I took the chance to write something inspired from some of my favorite films of all time. Getting a few ideas from my favorite TV show The Walking Dead, together with the movies I am Legend, 28 Days Later and its sequel 28 Weeks Later (for having a rage virus spreading across London), as well as a little hint of Warm Bodies for the cure of the Plague, I interlinked those ideas into this story, together with my own twists for our beloved lads. Do you know what I do before I would write the next update? I’d let myself lay down on my bed and daydream of the things that I’d like to happen to them, and sometimes, this is real, I even dreamt some of the scenes.

     With that, I just shared how this book was born and being the first ever story I’ve written and finished, I’ll now take the chance to say a huge thank you, yes, you, the one seeing this right now, and all of you who took their time to read, comment and vote for the chapters of Take Me Home. I know that only published writers do this, but hehe, I just want to express my gratitude. I sound so sentimental because I really didn’t expect all the feedback that I’ve read because I fear that no one would have an interest to read this due to the fact that it involves zombies and people tend to get turned off and be afraid to carry on reading when they found out about the genre of this book. It’s just insane because for my first work and with English not being my first language, I’m really thankful to all the constructive and positive feedback. I would like to thank the following people who made this all possible:

     To Patricia (trishstyles) for making the first ever cover, who paved the way of making the first impression of this book to the readers. To Nessie (arietem) for making the amazing current cover that I really love for it really captures the essence of the book. I owe the two of you because if it wasn’t for your covers, my book wouldn’t be considered to be read by the lovely people out there.

     To Reese (fabled_) and Kay (kaythewriter) because they’re two of my first ever readers and I’m thankful to all your wonderful comments.

     To Drie (jailbirds) for posting the most touching review that I’ve ever received for this book.

     To Nike and Andy (crisscrossdirection) for letting me join in their first season of the 1D Watty Awards, where I received my first ever recognition for Best Harry for this book.

     To Sabrina and Abby (xdorkstylesx) for making an Instagram account just for this book (follow @takemehomefanfiction there).

     To Erika (DreamingOutLoud18), @germanfanfictions1D and @vicky_999 for their ongoing translations in Spanish, German and French, respectively.

     Lastly, thank you @XxTurquoisePearlsxX, the lovely lady who gave birth to Hannah Jay Foster with her amazing audition.

      Thank you all for your lovely comments, for sharing your emotions, for the tears you’ve shed for this book, and for making this rank at Science Fiction #36, Adventure #40 and Fan Fiction #592!

     I have a question though, would you want a prequel/ sequel or a spinoff book related to this? Hopefully, if ever I’ll make the sequel Through the Dark you’ll read it as well. I have the plot already in my mind, but I’m not sure if I’ll be able to write it because I’ve been thinking of leaving the ending as it is here on this book and also, I’ll be really busy with my school stuff. I don’t know yet, so I’m asking you guys. :)

      Stay amazing and I hope you’ll read my other books as well:

● Life as a Boy Directioner

● Skins || one direction

● Astriction || narry storan

● carpe diem. || larry stylinson

● My Hero || niall horan

● Love, Daddy || liam payne

     If you liked this book, I hope you share this to your friends and spread the word because I want to grow so much more as a writer. God bless and thank you once again for all of your support! Keep smiling!

~ Patrick J. (tryptopatz)