Sincerely, Nova ✓

Postlude

I started writing the first version of Sincerely, Nova (then titled Recipes For Self Love)when I was fifteen years old.

Just to give you an idea of how long ago that is: I was fifteen in 2018. That's five years ago.

Sincerely, Nova started out as somewhat of a diary. It was my struggles, fantasies, insecurities and passion for writing bundled up into one story. This shameless self-insertation made it easier for me to write, but like all my projects before this one, I hit an all too familiar rut. The story was too focused on a childish romance I had no idea how to write, and two years later, in 2020, I felt like I was wasting characters I genuinely loved on a story that I felt I lost control over.

So, I started over.

This time, I was seventeen. I adopted structure and found my footing, and as I was moving towards the very changes Nova was going through in my own life, I felt more equipped and qualified to tell her story.

It's so strange to think that I've spent five whole years with these characters inside of my head, and even stranger that this is an era of my life that's now over. As I wrote these last chapters summarizing the lessons Nova's learned and the relationships she's built, I realized that I have done my own growing with her.

Nova was a reflection of me, but she was also kind of who I wanted to be. When I was fifteen, I was going through my worst year in every way possible, but writing about someone with my struggles and thought patterns and disability succeeding in life actually gave me hope for the future.

Some things that happened to Nova - bizzarely enough - actually happened to me not long after. Like how, right after Hyde invited Nova to her first meeting, I got invited to a hang-out of my university's student association for students with disabilities. The only reason I went is because she did.

It is also strange to look at this process because of the comparison I can make between where this story was born from, and where I am (literally, physically) as I finish it.

When I started writing, I failed a year in high school and had to resit. I'd had a major falling out with a friend-turned-bully. I was made aware of my disability every day, in ways that made me unwilling to spend much longer alive.

As I finished writing, I sat at my desk in my own little room in Bali, Indonesia, a nineteen-hour flight away from home. I'm here because of an internship I'm doing with my best friend, who I met in college and talk to about everything - even my disability. I'm two weeks away from finishing my second year in college and have recieved a cum laude designation. When I get back home after my three months abroad are finished, my girl friends and I are going barbecueing in a public park because they have missed me.

This story has taught me so incredibly much about myself. It has helped me develop and branch out, guided me through the second half of my teenaged years and laid down connections that have strengthened my security within my cerebral palsy. I hope that while reading this story, you have felt each of these energies individually. And I hope that you, too, have found some valuable lessons about yourself between the lines.

In any way, I'm so excited to see what happens next. Maybe in the timespan it took me to write this story, I will have moved out. Or I'll have fallen in love like Nova and Milo. Maybe I'll let go of things not meant for me like Logan, or make a move like Milo.

Check back in 2028 to find out!

I cannot thank you enough for reading this piece of my head and heart. I cannot convey to you just how much that actually means.

Sincerely,

Bri. ♡

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Some facts about the process of Sincerely, Nova throughout the years:

• Nova was supposed to be with Atlas, but when I chose to rewrite, I reflected on what she'd need in a relationship and where she was already getting that from. I'm so happy you guys noticed how comfortable she was with Milo from the beginning and what this meant for her love story.

• Milo was heavily inspired by Pacey Witter from Dawson's Creek.

• A lot of Nova and Milo's scenes were inspired by K-drama romances. I'm a sucker for romances where the main leads are actually friends and have cute moments. Her Private Life, I'm looking at you.

• Flynn and Sofia were based on my real-life siblings, except my brother is single and my sister is more of a linguistics-buff than a science-buff.

• Chapter six and chapter eight were the first chapters that really inspired me to keep writing. I was giggling writing about Milo and smiling writing about the first meeting. Like a crazy person.

• I wrote this story in chronological order because I didn't know I was allowed to write later scenes early... the more you know. (As if someone would punish me for it???)

• Doctor Hyde + his group and Ramona didn't exist in the original story.

• Every chapter is named after the song I listened to while writing it.

• Towards the end of this story, I was doing so well that I struggled writing about Nova's struggles. I count it as a blessing.

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Now I want to know:

Who were your favorite characters?

And what was your favorite part / scene?

I think it's quite obvious who and what mine were ;). Thank you again for being on this journey with me.

Godspeed.