Man coming up with ideas for blog posts is not easy! Nevertheless, I chose to talk to you about the process of writing I Was A Bitch: where I wrote, how I got the idea, why I chose certain references etc.
So how did I get the idea, you may wonder. It was the first time I found the title of my book first and got the idea from it instead of the opposite. Usually, when I wrote, I would just develop everything, not even cut it in chapters sometimes and when it would be done, I would take care of chapters and finding a title.
For I Was A Bitch, it was different. I remember distinctly getting out of the bus I took every day and stopping in my tracks to open my Notes app and jumble down my ideas starting with that title.
I didn’t exactly follow my original draft of ideas as I wrote and the ideas for the cliffhangers and plot twists came to me along the way, very few of them were planned ahead.
Ever since then, when I take that bus and get off at the same stop (which is pretty much every day), I stop for two seconds to see if an idea will come out of the blue. Yeah, like that place is magical and a fountain of idea. Sure Emily, you make so much sense.
I wrote most of this book at the back of boring classrooms my first year of college. I had chosen a degree I ended up hating and got the idea for I Was A Bitch at the middle of the year when I already knew I was going to change courses the next year. Which means following classes wasn’t exactly my main focus so I’d usually show up to have a clean record but sit at the very back in the corner and drown out everything to write.
I should mention that I did got to change my degree and got awesome grades the next year, I’m a good student normally I swear!
Chapter 6 was originally called “Screaming, crying, perfect storms” after Taylor Swift’s song that is referenced in the chapter. It was actually my favorite title but I had to change it because it turns out you have to pay to quote a song and I’m a cheap ass so I wasn’t about to do that for four words.
I wrote an alternate ending (ONLY READ THIS IF YOU’VE FINISHED THE BOOK – SPOILER) where Lacey decides she needs time to figure out what her new self wants. In that ending, she decided to take a year off and push back NYU to try to understand what she likes now and what she wants to do. That implied her and Finn taking a break and even though it could have made sense, I preferred to choose the happy ending. After all, no one said you couldn’t figure out what you wanted while you were already in college.
END OF SPOILER
Since my Wattpad readers wanted a sequel but I didn’t feel like writing one so I published four bonus chapters on Wattpad instead. In one of them, there is an important event (that I won’t be giving away because, who knows, maybe these bonus chapters could be published too sometimes) that takes place on September 20th. I chose that date because one of my first readers on Wattpad had asked me to include it in the book and I was very happy to do so. I did the same thing with one name.
I also named one character after a Wattpad friend and reader who tried to solve the mystery the whole time I was writing and was very engaged in the story.
The last fact I want to talk about is the references I always include in my stories. I realized, while talking to a fellow author that I had always made it a rule to include at least one Harry Potter reference in my books.
I don’t have any fancy or beautiful explanation for this, I just love Harry Potter.
I also include names of artists I like (Twenty One Pilots or Imagine Dragons for example) or artists I knew my Wattpad readers would like to talk about in the comments (Taylor Swift, One Direction etc), and did the same thing for TV shows and movies. I loved the comments it would bring and the conversations it would start between fellow fans.
Alright that’s it for my first blog post, if you want to send ideas or questions feel free to do so and you might be featured in the next post! I Was A Bitch is officially coming out on Thursday be sure to grab your copy!