AUTHOR'S NOTE
Oh wow, this is exciting, the first time I've ever written one of these. There's a great feeling of accomplishment that goes with this and it's the type of feeling that comes with the first time you try anything.
As most of you know, this was my first go at writing for an online audience. This was an important milestone for me because it was the first time I'd ever received feedback on my work from ordinary people. Apart from you guys, the only people who have read my stuff are a) my family, b) my teachers and c) writing competition judges. I have a friend who is in the midst of writing a One Direction fanfic and she emails the chapters to me every week or so, something I would never do. It's just weird and I would be embarrassed.
Tuff Chaser was originally intended to be a small thing I was working on. It's still a small thing I'm working on (I mean, worked on) but with the addition of an audience. I was not planning on posting it anywhere on the Internet, but around early September I was at a high point in my life. We had just finished a brief study on The Outsiders in English class, and I just felt this unexplainable attraction to it; while struggling with the fact that I was hopelessly in love with Dally hahaha. Around this time, I had all these emotions that surfaced from reading the book that were floating around and I really didn't know what to do with them. So in a way, The Outsiders showed me things I never knew I could feel just as Dallas and Tammy uncovered things they never thought they could feel with each other. I had been reading some Outsiders fics on fanfiction.net and suddenly it hit me that a nice little story would help process all the excess emotions I had floating around bothering me. Hence, the beginning of the story.
I said that I was madly in love with Dallas, and I even wrote an Excellence-level literary response to his character for my end-of-year examinations (my first ever Excellence literary response). So if I was this infatuated with him, it would make sense to put myself in the story and have a happy happy romance, right? But no. Tammy is not me. She is not me in any shape, size or form. She is not even like me and I am not her, although sometimes I wish was! We have different personalities (for example, I am the most patient person you will ever meet ;D ) and she was an interesting character to play as. She's just moved to a new town and doesn't know anything and she meets somebody who changes her life, learning valuable things along the way.
Dally is a different tale. You may have realized that in my story he is a lot different to his original character. He's a lot more Prince Charming here, and this is because of my intense character analysis of him. I don't know if any of you have picked up on Dally's emotional range throughout the course of the book, but he definitely had very violently strong emotions. He had a deeper, caring side which I really wanted to bring out and flaunt (who wants to be in love with a jerk?) and thus he meets someone who really changes him, my ideal future for him. This is why he's so different from the bitter and angry Dallas Winston that we are all familiar with.
To me, Tuff Chaser is about the fact that there is always something out there that can make you feel things that you never thought you could feel, whether it be a person, book, movie, etc. And when we find that thing, it can make us happier than anything on Earth.
When I finally decided to publish my story online, it was because I figured that an audience would motivate me to complete it. I was torn between fanfiction.net - Outsiders fans galore - or Wattpad, where I was sure there were basically no Outsiders fanfictions. Turns out I was wrong. I received some amazing support in my first few weeks that I'm still so grateful for.
This first journey that I've been on has been absolutely incredible, filled with the best people ever. I cannot express just how much I owe each and every single one of you for supporting the story, because you're what makes the show go on. No matter when you discovered it or how, every vote/comment/share has been received with so much appreciation. Thank you, every single one of you for sharing the very first memories of my Wattpad career with me...and here's to many more!
I do not think I will be writing a sequel as there really is nothing to write about. I may write another Outsiders fanfic, so stay tuned and you might even see Tammy again! And as for the actual ending of the story, there is none. I'm leaving it up to your imaginations to decide what happens to Dally. Me, I'm more of a happy endings kind of girl (;
Before you go check out the cool stuff below, I just want you to think about one thing for me. In my book description, it says that there are two possible outcomes. Tammy can either surrender to Dally or he will end up not getting the girl. On first glance it looks as if Dally has won, but remember that he never got to hear Tammy say she loved him and he also had trouble believing she really did like him as much as he liked her. This pretty much equals to Dally feeling like she wasn't his (the proposal was a challenge to Tammy). So who won? Or did they both lose? Leave your comments below!
TRIVIA
- I wrote this entire story on my iPod.
- I really didn't have any inspiration for Tammy's name, so I Googled Top Female Names in the 1960's.
- I tried to make the story as historically accurate as possible. You will have noticed some old-fashioned processes and ways of doing things, and omission of modern technology.
- The story is written with a primarily American vocabulary and spelling. This is not how I usually spell, and I can't think of why I chose to do so in the beginning. Perhaps I wanted to make it more authentic to Tammy's voice.
- Personally, I reckon Dally's character is pretty OOC (hahaha) and the reason for this is explained in my Author's Note. All the other characters' personalities are mostly the same, with the exception of Marcia, but she always annoyed me anyway.
- I didn't really proofread my work so there's probably some typos here and there. I don't worry about spelling though, because that's one of my only fortes haha. The thing is that my iPod is super laggy and a sentence I have typed in doesn't show up for about thirty seconds afterward.
- Sometimes I really feel an urge to write; other days I'm just like, "Screw this."
- Tammy is not based on anyone I know.
- I thought Buck was an underdeveloped character in the original novel so I gave him a bigger part here (:
- I cried buckets writing the final chapter. I cry buckets just seeing/hearing anything sad.
- Music is an integral part of my thinking process.
- There is offensive language throughout the story but I never ever swear. Funny how the language in my head and the language in my mouth are so different.
- I literally spent hours rewriting and rewriting the last sentence.
- Will Rogers and Edison Prep are real schools in Tulsa. WRHS was where SE Hinton went to high school.
PLAYLIST
As I mentioned above, music plays a huge part in my mood which affects the way I write. Here are the songs behind Tuff Chaser, take a look!
Lady Antebellum:
I Run To You
American Honey
Demi Lovato:
Mistake
Lightweight
Together
Fix a Heart
Give Your Heart A Break
Hold Up
Gift of a Friend
It's Not Too Late
Taylor Swift:
Ours
Safe and Sound
Eyes Open
Superman
If This Was A Movie
Haunted
Christina Perri:
Jar of Hearts
A Thousand Years
Katy Perry:
The One That Got Away
Part of Me
One Direction:
One Thing
Moments
Same Mistakes
Everything About You
Gotta Be You
Tell Me A Lie
Save You Tonight
Selena Gomez:
My Dilemma
Middle of Nowhere
Live Like There's No Tomorrow
One-offs:
When I Look At You - Miley Cyrus
Home This Christmas - Justin Bieber
If I Die Young - The Band Perry
The Time of My Life - Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes
What Faith Can Do - Kutless
Drops of Jupiter - Train
Who Am I - Casting Crowns
Liar Liar - Christina Grimmie
Bless The Broken Road - Rascal Flatts
Perfect - P!nk
Domino - Jessie J
Someone Like You - Adele
A Thousand Miles - Vanessa Carlton
Love Song - Sara Bareilles
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That's it from me. Please remember to vote for your favourite chapters and leave your thoughts and comments!!! Thank you and see you soon!