Fic Talk > Featured Story of the Month

FS for January: Something Beautiful by Pengi

<< < (6/7) > >>

Pengi:
Can you let us know what were some of the highlights from this series of chapters for you? Did these particular chapters come fast?
I think the most important parts of these particular chapters are the resolution between Brian and Amanda during the jump (Ch. 35) and the fight when Nick finds out (Ch.42). Nick's anger in Chapter 42 - although it was incredibly hard to write - was really important in order to make Amanda a redeemable character. Nick's words had to punish her, and that was really hard to create because he was so sweet and loving to her all the time that when he exploded it was very hard to create that kind of venom. His anger had to portray the betrayal and hurt he felt in that moment... and we've all heard about the famed Carter Temper...

These chapters came relatively fast, if I recall correctly. Then again most of the story did come pretty fast... I tried not to rush it, but the story just naturally came that way.


Is there anything in the story that you wish you hadn't included or if you had the chance you'd change?
If I had it to do over again, I would have made them take a few more stops along the way to Brian's, and I would've done the scene where Amanda kisses Brian a little bit differently also.


You are someone who is able to write a lot in a very short amount of time. I remember how quickly you churned this story out. Did you have most of it written before you started to post it or did you post it as it came to you?
I was posting as fast as I was writing. I always post as fast as I write. Most of the time I actually write the story in the form on the page to post here on AC. My creative juices flow most rapidly there, as opposed to in a Word document. I don't know why, but it's proven success. Hmm, maybe I should try writing essays on there... Just kidding.
But next time I'm stuck I may just give it a go. ;)


Which of your stories are you the most proud of and why?
This one's storyline has been a long time coming and I'm proud of that. Fix I'm proud of because of the length - I checked it out the other day and it's over 700 type-written pages long! DAMN! And I had a lot of readers for that one also. This one still remains the one I am most proud of though. Something Beautiful - for the win!


You seem to write a lot from personal experience, can you tell us some of your other stories that are from things you have personally gone through?
The unfinished story In The Broken Places is going to have a lot from personal experience included in it from when I spent two weeks in Africa. I have videos and pictures I took that I'm planning to incorporate into the story. Honestly, other than that and the aforementioned similarities between me and the events in Something Beautiful, my other stories are based purely on imagination or speculation.

Well, except for Fear of Flying. Because yes, I did actually get attacked by a rapist sheep-giraffe once...
Am I kidding? (dramatic music) ...Nobody knows. ;)

Chrissy:
Hi, Hannah!  I read your story for the first time for FSotM, and I was really touched by the real-life inspiration for Something Beautiful.  I'm sorry to hear about your mother, but I think it's wonderful that you were able turn your experiences into such a moving story.

I liked the comment you made here in the thread about Amanda "falling" first for Brian and then for Nick.  Her drunken actions in the night club kind of made more sense for me after finding that out.

I'm really curious--have you ever tried sky diving, bungee jumping, white water rafting, hot air ballooning, burro riding, anything that the characters did in the story?  If not, how did you do research for those parts of the story?  Was it hard to get that information?  (If you say that you got all your info first hand, then that's taking research to a whole new level!  :P)

mare:
This is the last week of January already. So now it's time to finish up Something Beautiful by reading chapters 46 to the end.
 
Hannah was it hard to let this story go?
 
Overall what were some of your favorite scenes and why?
 
What was the hardest chapter/scene for you to write?
 
Were the dramatic parts easiest for you or were the funny parts easier?
 
What's the one thing you hope that your readers have taken away from this story?
 
 
And for the readers:
 
Tell Hannah what your favorite chapter/scene was and why
 
Who was your favorite character?
 
Were you able to relate to the characters in the story and which one did you find most similar to yourself?
 
 
Thanks for letting us discuss this story Hannah!
 
 
 
 

Pengi:
Hey! Thanks for reading my story! I'm really glad you enojyed it. :)

I haven't done any of the "extreme" adventures that they did in the story. The way I went about researching the adventures was I originally typed into Google "100 Things to Do Before You Die" and I searched through a couple blog-type websites that came up with lists that people had made, trying to get good ideas. The next thing I did, once I had a list of about 20 ideas of really popular, yet somewhat unique, goals, I weighed them against what were things that didn't seem like stuff Nick and Brian would do unless it really was a last-ditch go at it, you know? Like sky diving. They've outright said they'd never sky dive. Maybe they would if this was the case, you know? Just to say they've done it.

Once I had narrowed it down, I started researching where in the country the best of each of those things were located. The Grand Canyon was obviously a good first step because they were travelling from LA to GA. So the rest had to fall in logical driving patterns across the US from there.

New Mexico is famous for their hot air balloons, and I have been to hot air balloon rallies, etc, to see how they're (basically) run. I researched landing sites and durations of rides, etc, to make sure it sounded factual. Then I used my imagination and pictures that I'd googled to create the ride itself.

FYI: Champagne is a typical thing to have on hot air balloon rides. Who knew?

The White Water Rafting was something that I'd envisioned prior to beginning. I was originally going to do a whole story about the Boys as a group going on a camping trip and experiencing white water rafting together. However, the story never panned out. So I'd done a lot of research on rafting in Colorado - where the original story was set. It just seemed right to send them all northward from there. The research I'd done on the rafting was to find out if they offered bungee jumping/rafting packages anywhere, where they held those sorts of things, and what the itineraries looked like. I watched a couple informational vacation videos to see what the guides were like, and what the rivers sorta seemed like.

The sky diving is something that I personally have always wanted to do and plan to do sometime within the next few years. I wanted some place that had a lot of view, a wide open plains type area. I tapped into Google, "Best places to skydive" and found the answer in -of all places- Nebraska. I'd never even considered sending the Boys to Nebraska, but hey what the hell right? So I started researching Nebraska. I was going to have them do something else in the area, just to add to the duration of the story, but guess what? Nebraska's a pretty boring state, so I couldn't find anything. Hence, the stop was an in-and-out. I attributed that to Brian's desire to visit his family.

I didn't do much work on Kentucky because that was just a matter of imagining Brian's family's house and stuff. That was pure imagination, I have no clue what the Littrell house is like and I certainly don't know if it's anywhere near where Kevin grew up. That's just something I always imagine when they talk about Kentucky. LOL

The stop at the aquarium in Chatanooga was inspired by a scene in the movie The Last Kiss, where the guy brings the girl scuba diving at the aquarium. But let's face it - this is TOTALLY something Nick would make a special stop for!! Again, it was mostly imagined, except I did research to try to find a HUGE aquarium between Kentucky and Atlanta. I almost sent them to the aquarium in Virginia, but it would've been out of step with Nick's plans for heading up the East Coast (before he knew what was going to happen in Atlanta)... So I found Chatanooga and it turns out that aquarium's actually bigger than the Virginia Beach one, which I cannot imagine by the way. LOL

I hope that answers your question? It was just a matter of finding out about the activity, then Google-Google-Google and looking up real places that offered the service, researching like I was going to go visit it. :)

Pengi:
Was it hard to let this story go?
In a way, yes. I mean I'm still working on the accompanying story in Theres's Us, which sort of goes to a couple months later while Nick's in the process of mourning and reviewing the experiences that he and Brian shared. I plan to rework that story a little bit in the next coming months and get it up to par with the rest of Something Beautiful. I want to express the relationship in bytes of pre-story mixed with samples of Brian's "journal" from the trip depicted in this story... So yes, it was very hard to let go of the story. In a way it was a therapy for me to write the story, and coming to the end of it I felt like something was being left behind that I had wanted to cling to. I originally wasn't going to make Brian die before the end of the story... but... in retrospect, I'm glad that I did, because of he hadn't have died it would've left an open ending, it would've kept the story - and therefore my story - active. There would've been no closure. It was really important for the story to end the way it did...but it made it hard to let go. I suppose, like Nick in There's Us, it takes releasing it... letting the memory go.. laying to rest everything past.
 
Overall what were some of your favorite scenes and why?
One of my favorite scenes is Nick and Amanda's kiss in Kentucky in the rain. I just loved the visual it provoked in my mind, and it was a key time for them.
Another of my favorite scenes was Brian and Amanda's fight in the plane just before the jump. Their argument, like the plane, had reached high altitudes and there was only one way for them to go. They went together. It was the seal of a pact. I just like the way the whole thing came out and I enjoyed writing it immensely.
Also the part with Brian trying to cross the bridge over the gorge. That whole sequence makes me laugh and smile because it was based loosely on an experience I had at a gorge in Vermont with my mom (I was definitely Nick, egging her on; she was definitely Brian, refusing to go).
 
What was the hardest chapter/scene for you to write?
Hands down, Nick's fight with Amanda was the hardest to write because I wanted him to forgive her. I wanted it to be a non-issue. I wanted to keep the trio together, to make it all magically okay for them. Like Amanda, I had prayed that he would understand and react differently than he did. But Nick has a temper, he's very hotheaded, and he insisted on reacting like he did. I'm glad he did, right down to his hooker reference, because it had to be done. Amanda's heart had to be broken to redeem her, and he had to be the one to do it. Even though it killed like hell to do it.
Brian's reaction to the fight was hard too. He loved Amanda, also (not romantically obviously, like a sister), and he respected her and he'd already forgiven her. He, too, wanted so bad for Nick to forgive her... Brian, too, knew that Nick needed Amanda. That's how she ended up coming along to begin with, remember? Because Brian knew whoever went on the trip with them had to be there for Nick in the end when he was gone. Seeing Amanda go was like seeing the security he'd worked so hard to create for Nick... but he couldn't side with her, either, couldn't stand up for her. What she'd done was wrong. All he could do was stand by.
The whole scene was damn near impossible. LOL
 
Were the dramatic parts easiest for you or were the funny parts easier?
I've always been better at drama. Look at any of my storylines - well, except the Fear of Flying one - and you'll see at its core a dramatic value. Even when I was a child, my Barbies didn't have tea parties... They were dealing with serial killer teddy bears and earthquakes and accidents where Ken drove down the basement stairs. It's just a part of me. Drama comes naturally. That said the funny parts usually come naturally, too. It's just I write and rewrite the scenes usually in fear that the funny stuff sounds too set up or too forced. The stuff that's hardest for me though? Filler.... mundane events, basic conversations, etc. Most relationships in my stories are already in progress because I just don't write "hey how are you?" type scenes very well. I don't handle those situations well in real life, and I don't know how to make my characters handle them. Consequently, I skip'em. LOL
 
What's the one thing you hope that your readers have taken away from this story?
There's a lot to be learned in Something Beautiful. I hope that in the rush of the story and the drama of the characters and even the identity of the characters the lessons didn't get lost. Death is not something to be afraid of. Death should not make us curl up and wait. Death and the thought of it should spin us into action, send us off to experience, to feel, see, do and LIVE. Like Brian said several times in the story, he didn't want to live dying - he wanted to die living. That's not a philosophy that we need to adhere to only when we get terrible news. I mean just think if Brian and Nick had gone on one of these adventures before he was dying, they could've experienced so much more..... Furthermore, death isn't the end of a person. When we lose someone, they're not gone forever. Their spirit lives on in our hearts. And that's the purpose of the follow up that I'm still working on, There's Us. Just because we cannot see a person, touch a person, hear, feel, etc, they are not gone. Nick's experience dealing with Brian's illness was a journey and an experience as much as Brian's was. Brian was learning bravery and appreciation, while Nick was learning how to let go - as symbolized in the balloon on the banner/"cover" for the story. Never put off saying to a loved one what you could say right now... Never forget to look each person that you cherish in the eyes and tell them how much they mean to you. It is vitally important because every moment - every instance that you spend around them, each moment of contact, each breath passed - could be the moment that you miss the opportunity too see your something beautiful.
 
 

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page