College Lover

TEN YEARS: A Decade-Long Struggle

I can say "Ten Years" it's one of my greatest accomplishments. I have written other stories in other genres, and in different lengths, but I've never done anything this emotionally driven, this...shall I say, elaborate.

On the 11th of May this year, I woke up from an MA dream. It was about Zick, it was a scene where he was locked in a room hooked to a machine that absorbed his powers all thanks to Emily; Elena, returning from a 10-year break from their friendship, was the one who found him. I couldn't get the idea out of my head. I had to write about it. Moreover, I had to make it PERFECT. By and by, the story began to form in my head.

They had a major argument a decade ago which led them to go separate ways (Elena moved away to California)--but they never forgot each other. In fact, as the saying goes, "Distance makes the heart grow fonder." I made Elena a scared wife-to-be to some mysterious Other. I made Zick a hypersensitive, lovesick, powerless teenager. Now that they meet again, they have to fight for the collective 'us' against Greta, who was driven to near-insanity due to the Tutors' mean treatment to her family and because she's a mother who cannot prevent her son from being drugged by Lavender Concentrate; against Emily, whose ultimate goal still hasn't changed: to get Zick's powers and claim the monster cities; and against the Tutors, the elder, respectable batch replaced by young, inexperienced Tutors under the direction of the Head Tutor Cranaby Croth, hypnotized by Emily to do her bidding discreetly.

Now that the story's intricate web was complete, I started typing right away. The 11th of May, 3:44 PM was the exact date and time. For using the computer the whole day, I remember getting a four-day computer ban from Mommy, so I downgraded to making a written draft before typing anything. Since then, typing Ten Years has since become my greatest undertaking.

Meanwhile, I found my old and hardly used Fanfiction.net account and revived it again, posting the first part of my historic creation. I was really pleased with the initial reviews I got for the first chapter of Ten Years. So I went on hurrying to finish the second chapter, which was done by the end of July, less than a month after the publication of the first chapter. I even made myself a short video of Elena's monologue ("Have you ever been this alone?...")--it took quite some time as the audio was very low and I had to put subtitles in sync with the words. In the end I had to dub the whole thing. Then it won't even publish right! So I eventually gave that up, and continued the drafting.

The third chapter was a bit more difficult. I just found myself stuck there for a long time, wondering how to progress to the battle. I admit I am disappointed with what came out. I was just typing for the sake of finishing it, and I did without the emotional drive which powered the first and second chapters really well. But after a long struggle , it was finally done. I posted it on Fanfiction with disappointment. I doubted whether or not my readers will ever want to continue reading the story after that long, dragging segment. I just have to have faith.

Because there's only two more chapters to go. They shall have the Lavender War in "While the Future Lies Uncertain" and the conclusion in the final chapter "Just Love". The fourth had progressed better (even if I had no idea how a real war would go). I employ the formalistic style of evaluating any work, and I think just a lot of drama would be suitable for it. But there also has to be some amount of action and the evil factor (some hell of genius planning by Emily, which had me scratching my head). So for the first half of it Zick and Elena had a little (or maybe a lot) of drama around each other. Zick's near-suicide turns out to have saved his and Elena's life more than end it thanks to the Empathy. It ends well, nearly well...and leaves Zick's fate to Chapter 5.

In the fifth chapter I would finally reveal what exactly happened between our two major characters that they've been so apart even if they know they want to be together. Ties so severed will be healed anew, and those 'close' are going to be broken. And a little surprise for Teddy-Zick fans.

The Epilogue would formally conclude the story with an ending that is obvious from the phrases I used in the entire chapter. SO, it's done!!! IT'S FINALLY, SADLY DONE.

My Stats:
Started - May 11, 2008 at 3:44 PM.
Finished - December 13, 2008 at 10:02 AM.
Word Count (excluding notes and disclaimer) - 34, 027
Chapter 1 - uploaded to FF.net on July 1, 2008
Chapter 2 - uploaded to FF.net on July 28, 2008
Chapter 3 - uploaded on September 12, 2008
Chapter 4 - finished typing on October 24, uploaded on November 25, 2008
Chapter 5 - finished typing on November 25, uploaded on
Epilogue - finished drafting on December 2, finished typing/editing on December 13, uploaded on December 17, 2008.

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