The summer I finished my first book was incredibly busy for me. There was so much going on for me during those few months. I got my first job cutting my neighbors lawn - which I guess wasn't a real job but it sure paid better than most for kids with a job my age. I got a my first car, went to a number of exciting places, and managed to lose some more weight (something I've been at for a number of years prior too). With all of this, I knew I was incredibly lucky to experience all that in one summer. However, among my biggest accomplishments was that I finished my first book. There was something better than finishing my book though: starting something new and that was my second book.
After I posted the author's note for Island Rush, I said I was going back to my first story I came up with on here - Handcuffed Love - and finishing that like I had intended this whole time. I told my readers that I could get back to writing within a few weeks or next month sometime. I said this because I knew I should try to get organized with this since I knew it would be more complicated than Island Rush. Not to mention, I was starting fresh despite already having about seven chapters up for nearly a year until I could get back to it.
However, even though I said it would be a while until I get going on Handcuffed Love, I found that I couldn't stay away that long. Sure, I wanted to get organized. I tried making an outline and it worked for the most part. But there was only so much I could take without actually writing the book. So I started posting it no more than two weeks after I finished Island Rush just because I couldn't help but not to. It was then that my true addiction to writing started to show like it had in the past. It made me feel like with the need to write like that, I could maybe make it far in writing.
Restarting Handcuffed Love wasn't too much of a challenge. I made a list of all the things I realized I did wrong in Island Rush and was determined not to repeat those things in this book. I needed this story to be so much more better - with a better plot, characters, and a better way to write. I knew it could happen; the story itself was compelling enough. I just needed to express it in the right way.
I started by going back through the seven chapters already up and adding to it, putting in much more detail, and changing a lot too. It got to the point where I actually would just rewrite everything and for some things I wanted to keep, I pasted it back in. I didn't want to keep what was already up though for the most part because what was posted were some of the first chapters I put up on Wattpad, over a year prior. And those first chapters ever up... they were messy in comparison to where I was then after a year of experience through Island Rush. So I rewrote it for the most part but it was the same plot, some scenes as before. Just better, more detailed. Not to mention, after a year of quietly pondering over this story in the back of my head, I had new ideas. I was excited to express them and add them in.
The plot of the story was something very unique and I knew it was much better than the last. That's why I was happy I did Island Rush first. It didn't have as much potential as Handcuffed Love and that's what I needed, especially when just starting out writing and doing it in a sloppy manner. I wouldn't do the same for a story I knew was too good for me to mess up on.
I tried keeping with the outline - I really did. I tried hard but it just wasn't working. My mind went in too many directions for me to keep up with it in the guide so I just put it aside, knowing I was doing fine without it for a while. The only risky part was me not knowing where this was leading at first. I had ideas, knowing the directions some concepts of the story would take but it was too broad. I was just lucky it all hit me later on where it all needed to go. Because at first, Handcuffed Love was just going to be one book and not a series.
I noticed something quick when starting this story. And that was how much more fun it was to write through Albany's point of view. I knew I wanted her to be a strong character. But once getting back and focusing on this after a year, I knew I needed to do better than that. In Island Rush, one of my mistakes I think was the lack of development Janice and Casey's characters received. There was nothing unique about them, nothing that made them stand out, and they just seemed average, even if they were down to Earth. It wasn't realistic enough for the fact that people are very very complex. And because of that, it's suppose to be a complex process of creating characters. So I jumped in by getting inside of what I wanted to be the character of Albany more specifically.
I've read many different books in the past that all seem to have the same character. The characters in a lot of stories that I have read are not developed enough to be realistic. And if I did find a character that was developed in a story, that character always seemed to be irritating or too perfect to relate to. There was always an issue I had with the main character of a story and I didn't want that to be the case for my story.
I wanted my main character to be someone that most people would raise their eyebrows at because she was too different, too much of an individual. A character that would grab your attention immediately. The key was to include characteristics that would make you want to hold on, stay interested.... and things like humor, a character's past, personality could do that. So I needed to approach those things in a different manner to where it would be different and appealing at the same time.
Albany Higgins was someone everybody could relate to in my eyes. Everyone has problems, specific and ugly issues and she had plenty of those. What made her special was how strong she was, how she dealt with it all... and it made it enjoyable for me to write in the point of view of someone so strong. Her past was what made her that way and I knew that the idea of her having nobody, of having everyone hate her over something so stupid would make people automatically be on Albany's side as well as myself. It also made the entire story so that worked hand in hand.
Everything that happened to her is something never heard of... it's not like some people grow up being blamed for being insane by a mother who abused her that way. And with a past that strange and unique, though still realistic enough, it called for a similar personality. Everything that happened to her made her who she is and that included her humor, which was one of the greater things that made her appealing in my opinion.
I don't involve myself personally unless it's good for the story and is necessary. And humor was. My best friend Destiny can take some credit for Albany's humor. She has her same humor and though I share that humor as well, I had to tone some of it down for Albany and put a few more sexually suggestive comments to make Albany's humor a little more unique and I found it to be something so enjoyable, her humor, to write through because she expressed it so openly and in a way most people would avoid.
Albany is a very real person who speaks up, says what she thinks, is strong and with humor like that, it went in hand with her love for food. I came up with that on the spot really because to me, she seems like the type that would have no manners but be okay with that. For some reason, I demonstrated that through her strange love for eating, in a joking manner of course, which I brought up occasionally. It gave her a certain element that most girls don't have. She's real to herself so why act polite over something when guys sure don't? She sees herself as equal, as she should, and even acts better in some cases, and that was a must when most characters that are teenagers are either brats, wimpy girls, or negative over nothing.
I didn't want that. I wanted Albany to have a certain air to her. One that wasn't negative but one that wasn't screaming with smiles and rainbows. She is a person that is or can be very dark but if I showed her complaining, being nasty about it, that would ruin the whole point. She has her demons but she doesn't bitch about it and that's what is so amazing about her - her strength. Same went with being emotional. Unlike Janice, I wanted her to come across with a really tough shell at first and sarcastic. Not like she had no heart but in a way where she was happy being numb and felt relieved with that sarcasm as her friend. And throughout the book, I planned she would slowly start to feel again, have emotions, but not to the extent where she is being a cry baby every other chapter. That was the point in avoiding emotions at first and slowly let it come to her in a way that we wouldn't be annoyed with.
The fact that I enjoyed writing in Albany's point of view so much might also be because I am nothing like her. She was someone I would enjoy to know and who I think my readers would like to look at to as someone they would admire. I didn't want to try to make a character because I wanted to be like them though. I made a strong character like her for me to escape through, for my readers to escape through, as a way to find a new way of looking at ourselves through Albany. We all have weaknesses and a lot of that time, it's that we can't afford to have the guts she has, the strength, the sassy mouth... and its almost like a relief to see what it's like to be that way.
I don't have her strength or her guts. I mean, it's actually funny because I feel so embarrassed all the time about small things where as Albany just doesn't seem to care about that stuff. Sure, I have what it takes to be an individual, to stand up for myself, but not to the extent Albany does. Not to mention, she's not afraid to be aggressive either when she has to and isn't afraid to talk back like she has every right. That's almost the complete opposite of me. Not to mention, though I do share the same type of humor, I don't express it the way she does. I don't openly joke about the stuff that she would happily yell out over just the fact that it would amuse her. The same went for smaller aspects too for where her and I differ... she likes pop music, I can't stand pop. She is stubborn and I am not. I need to often think things over extensively where she is spontaneous about certain things.
So we are very different but understandable and that's what I think often can make or break a story. I think it's fine if your main character is similar to the writer. But too often, I think that affects the whole story and the quality of it because the writer wouldn't be as interested in a story about a character staring themselves. It's much more fun experiencing a story through someone else's eyes who look at the world differently is how I see it. In this case, since we were so different, it made it even more intriguing for me to write through her, because it was just so interesting and more enjoyable; it made the world I created expand even more until it seemed limitless, no matter how weird that sounds.
Albany was someone I found to be very complex. Naturally, for someone like Luke to capture her interest, he needed to be interesting as well.
I didn't spend as much time in developing his character as much as hers just for the fact that I didn't want him to come across as someone that you could easily read at first (though I later did develop him as planned better). Albany already has a hard time expressing her feelings so it would be hard for her to respect what she finds in others. That's part of her reason she wanted to try to upset him in the first couple chapters or get some reaction out of him - because she couldn't even find a response to her like she could with others. He refused to break under her wise cracks, her comments that would stress anyone else, and for him not to show anything over it made her feel her first point of vulnerability. She liked to have control over people's reactions - she would purposefully piss someone off, just to see them get mad and have the illusion of control because it was something she didn't have before. But when she tried to get something out of him and he wouldn't respond, she started to feel not as big and tough.
This was a small piece of what their relationship would hold later. I wanted both of their characters to complement each other by being alike and opposite at the same time. So her trying to get reactions out of him and failing, that was part of their effect on each other. It was the first time in a long time Albany felt powerless in a situation like that that she set up for herself. Another way to show they complemented each other was enjoying their weaknesses and thriving in them. They both don't want to be perfect even if they strive to be, in different ways. They like the feeling of misery in their lives and no matter how depressing that sounds, it makes sense. They both wanted to suffer a little because they liked how it felt at thinking they deserved it. It also was a relief to them as was the fact that they both enjoyed the occasional risk factor. They didn't like things to be stagnant for long and even if that meant a little risk, it made them feel alive.
They understand each other in that way, showing a deeper connection they had even though they are both different at the same time. So really, Luke's character was kind of influenced on Albany's and some of her characteristics were based on Luke's - depending on whether it fit or not of course.
Clare however was someone I didn't want people to understand until much later. She obviously had a story and a past that we didn't know about if she did these horrible things to her daughter. What most people have a hard time seeing I think is that Clare is human though. Though she seems like she is just this terrible person and that's the end, she is actually more complex, even in the early stages of this story. Obviously, she was damaged and sick for what she did. It was interesting though in what situations I involved her getting emotional over and what ones I didn't. I didn't do it often but I wanted to show her weaknesses when it came to Luke. She really does care for him and after Albany came home, things started to crumble slightly for her. She was trapped with no way of hiding the truth anymore from Luke that she had the town's 'nutcase' as a daughter. This shows her selfishness, her greed, and her odd way of showing the love she is able to possess. Her love comes out for him when she is often threatened or vulnerable and though that's not the strongest characteristic one can have, it's something people understand and relate to because it's similar to some aspect in them in a way. Clare also has times where she can be very smart yet at the same time, quite dumb. For example, the fact that she killed Emily was the dumbest thing she could have done when there were so many other options. A dumb mistake - but she did her best to cover it up, hide it through the smartest way she could have by removing all traces of evidence.
At the beginning of this book with the characters like this I was able to form, I felt pretty confident with this story. The plot and the characters in it depend on each other more than people think. If you think about it, there would be no plot without the characters guiding it by the way each character is. And the plot was something I was happy to start expanding and exploring with having discovered the most complex of characters I think I could have managed at the time. It was the best start I could have had. All I needed to do was let the story guide me to where I needed to take it. I was excited to let that happen.