. . . Creeps Out From Behind Laptop

Music



There are lots of songs I didn't use in UL2 that I wanted to. I may use some of them in other things but, here is one I don't think will make it in so, it will be the music for this post. It is Edwin McCain's I'll Be. It would have been in chapter 8.

United Light 2



I have been purposely messing around with you all by making it seem like chapter 8 was the end of United Light 2. But, to be perfectly honest with you for all intensive purposes it is.



I like the first UL but, it was very plot-rich, very heavy and had a lot of interludes. And that came from the fact that I wrote as went along, not knowing where anything was going to end up. UL2 was a little different, similar to IVB I knew basically how it was going to end and I had an entire outline for the story. I thought it would be nice if I first shared the outline and then explain a little more about the story. I don't have them handwritten and scanned like Rowling does on her site so, I am going to copy and paste.



Outline (it's sloppy)

Outline

DR gets engaged

Jr gets summons

2

Meets tessa’s toddler daughter. Lawyers want her to settle, threatens says goodbyes to go south

3- life in the cult through discovery

3

Evidence is missing, sawyer thrown in jail for charges, Juliana is threatened goes to see Caine. When she sees her father he has note from Rhett.Julianafather losesfaith

Raleghs turn evidence is gone

4

JR arrested

Switches to Rhett&Dr.J. Goes to find DR&T

Tessa bails her out.

R&J Looks for evidence from tl.

Go to commune to find information. See it is the same. She goes to basement and draws on wall. You watched you said nothing.

Finds TL, living out of state

Finds tapes

Reluctant to give them

Get back to court J consideres buring them. Caine could kill her

Prosecuted

Forced into witness protection

4 years

As you can kind of see I did stretch 5 chapters into 8. In the original draft instead of Tessa coming in the middle of the fight between Daniel and Juliana she is the one who bails Juliana out of jail.

Also in the original Juliana goes into witness protection and can't see or contact her Dad or Rhett until Caine is killed 4 years later. When she comes back though she doesn't fit into their lives and she ends up leaving. I was going to go with this ending for such a long time but it felt too sad.

There were also a few more longer parts between Rhett and Dr. Johanseen about ethics. I was also originally going to write the court case but, that would have been repetitive since I showed the discovery. It would have also been crazy inaccurate.

Pictures

In an uncreative twist, Jennifer Caine is based on Jennifer Garner. Jennifer Caine has naturally curly hair like Sawyer but, she straightens it which is why she in her first chapter Juliana notices how perfectly straight her hair is.

Juliana & Hayley were based on these two unrelated pictures I found but, I could never photoshop them together well enough.

Rhett/Juliana

*I'm still loling over the let's get off this ship. That is why I need editors !*

There is a deleted scene (by deleted I mean I can't even find it on the desktop anymore) in about chapter 21, when Juliana runs away from Caine and Rhett follows her. He catches up to her and tackles her and then they start kissing. After I deleted that scene I knew that canonically speaking Rhett and Juliana would never have a romantic/sexual relationship. They have a bother/sister type relationship: more than friends, less than lovers if you will. I've also always known that they would end up having to go seperate ways in the end.

Now, does that mean Juliana couldn't move to Louisana or something ? No, anything could happen.

Another goal, I had when writing this was to remind the readers that Juliana and Rhett are both still teenagers and very young. That's why I included more things about their parents and futures.

I found a really great collection of images that went with the last picture I used and I could not decide which one to use. Anyway here are some more I wanted to go with.

The End

I struggled a lot with making this the end. Once I had it written I considered adding some chapters about Juliana in the halfway house or something but, it would have given the last chapter less of an impact. I never had any intentions of writing about those 4 years to be honest.

I wanted more than anything to give the other characters some space in the story but, I think I may save that for a future epilouge. This was supposed to be a Juliana/Rhett story and kind of turned into another ensemble story with the other cast members along the way.





I do feel a bit accomplished about this because it is over 20,000 words and I am pretty sure I wrote it in less than 30 days, even though I publish it on later dates.



What's Next ?



This would be the part where I show you the prologue for my new web serial but, I already did that so you all have some idea what is next. I am currently in between two titles right now for it, so I can't give the title just yet.



Like UL2 this story was outlined only, it is much more heavily outlined. I have a lot more layers of themes,metaphors,character motivations etc. going on. And it is expanding to a lot more chapters. I am very excited/nervous about it. There is no telling how long I will hold on to it and nurture it until I start posting,TBH. I haven't even created a website or graphics for it.



As a matter of fact, this new story is a lot different than what I usually do that I actually considered writing it under a pen name. I will also admit it is heavily influenced by a lot of things from tv,books,movies,politics,music, history,pop culture and more. I suppose in a way it's a bit of American Realism . . . a bit. I am in love with the songs I have in mind to use !



I realize none of that makes any sense to you all because you haven't read it but, it will.



In the meantime, I will be working for Cobalt, updating all the tags for the blog entries. Cobalt writers have been invited to attend some writing conferences (and speak a little on how our company uses web serials) so hopefully I can get some insights on making my web serials better. It is very different than my book writing/editing because I don't have a year to work on one thing I don't get to take things back or rewrite if I change my mind towards the end.



Anyway, I hope I get to talk to you guys again soon.



Shawna