Foreword
I've wanted to do a comedy for a while now. I love sitcoms and satire, and I thought using other media would be a great way to get my hands dirty in this genre, and thus, I Can't Count the Reasons was born. It's a Heroes of Olympus alternate universe based on the 2009-2014 comedy Community. It's a hilarious show that I would recommend to just about anybody. And who knew? It's also great writing inspiration. I've had such a great time adding my own twists and turns in the Seven's adventures at New Rome Community College.
For those of you who have seen Community, you'll notice these twists and turns right away, especially in that Riordan's characters do not ever directly parallel those in the Greendale Seven. At least three or four different characters play Jeff's role throughout, but I never diverge from canon character traits.
This series doesn't follow one specific storyline, so rather than labeling parts as chapters, I've chosen to frame them as episodes. There are a few elements of continuity (primarily character relationships). While these are meant to be read in order, if there's a subject matter in a chapter you're not vibing with, you can skip it and for the most part, you'll be able to catch up. I'm looking at all of you who skipped Jason's chapters in Heroes of Olympus. Bottom line: these are short stories, not one-shots. They're much longer than my usual chapter length too.
We're going to get to hear a number of hilarious encounters from the perspectives of our favorite characters! I had such a fun time getting to know characters that I wouldn't have gotten the opportunity to write in other stories. I also had a great time getting dragged into an alley and beaten up by Annabeth (I say sarcastically). She and I have a dysfunctional relationship.
Something that I Can't Count the Reasons gave me the opportunity to do was write streams of consciousness, and wow, was I a kid in a candy store! I used elements of stream of consciousness in You're The One Thing, Spider Bites, and Social Sanctions, but I had to tone it down to abide by the tone I set in those stories. Now that I'm writing about a bunch of ADHD kids in a weird college, I can go all out! It's a great exercise to learn to empathize with characters. Jason's in S1E2 in particular was super fun to write. I have to say, a lot of what I write is inspired by Dave Eggers's writing in A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, which is notorious for this style. You say therapy, I say stream of consciousness. Oh, this paragraph is turning into a stream of consciousness. See what I did there?
Now for an important message from the New Rome Community College financial aid office: Pay your tuition! We try to keep an affordable experience here at New Rome, but that's not possible without supporting our faculty! Tuition payments may be accepted in the form of votes. Please leave votes! We have to play to Wattpad's algorithm so that more people read this, and Wattpad likes big numbers. Please share so that more people can join us here at New Rome Community College, and also please comment. That does a little bit for the algorithm, but we mostly just have a fun time in the comments. Plus, knowing what everyone thinks lets me know what readers might like to see in my future projects.
So grab your Diet Cokes and vegan subs, kids, er, students, because it's almost time for your first day at New Rome Community College!
Enjoy, folks!
This story is brought to you by:
- Sea Shanties
- Grande strawberry açaí refreshers with lemonade
- The Bridgerton soundtrack
- My 11:15 bedtime
- Everyone who helped with S1E13 (Unabridged)
- Britta Perry
- The time I called Bernie Sanders "vintage liberal" and all my friends wrote that down
- A bouncy castle and a donkey at the same time
- David Eggers's A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
- A lotta damage!
- And of course, my beta reader, whom this story would not be possible without