Family (A Dan Howell Fic)

Thought on this from 1 year later.

Hello! So if you're reading this as the story ends, thank you for standing my writing this far. I would like to add some notes and some thoughts as it's been about a year, give or take, since I finished writing this. If you'd like to learn from my mistakes, please listen.

-I do not like how I would switch from presence and past tense. It makes no sense how I went back and forth.

-Their actions and reactions don't seem real. As in, if I were put in that situation, I wouldn't react as fast, or as emotional/emotionless as I made the characters feel.

-I don't like how I used my alias as the main character's name. If you know me, my name is not Alyssa. I'm not comfortable with my real name being online, especially with my parents on my watch 24/7. But I can never tell in the story of people comment on 'Alyssa's' actions or my writing. Ex: "Alyssa, why did you do that wtf". I can't tell if they mean what's happening in the story or if they're mad at me.

-I posted chapters as soon as I could write them. Which is stupid because if I want to add something in a future chapter that needs an introduction, it's too late to add it in. Now, I'll write 3-4 chapters ahead of posting them, just to make sure there are not any plot holes.

-I mentioned triggering events that were shook of within a few chapters. For example, rape, abuse, pains, fighting, etc. I did not mean to do that. The story was supposed to go in a totally different direction, discussing and dealing with these things, but I couldn't go on with it.

-I based a few of the events in my actual life. I will not say which, but at the time of writing them, they were things that I wrote to get them off my mind. Now going back, these things are triggering and I wish I hadn't posted them.

-It ended all of a sudden. There was supposed to be a big plot to it, but I thought that it would throw off the whole story, and make the first 20 chapters feel like an introduction, so to incorporate the ideas I had planned, I ended the story in the easiest way I could and started my second story, Too Far.

-I tried my hardest, but there were still traces of romanticism of mental illness and it bothers me to this day. It's hard to draw the line between romanticism of depression and telling the reader that no matter what your facing, there are people who will love you. That is a charge that authors like John Green are accused of, and it's difficult to tell the difference.

As I keep re-reading, I will share more thoughts, thank you! Alyssa.