Tuff Chaser (The Outsiders FF)

AUTHOR'S NOTE + BONUS CONTENT - PLEASE READ(:

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Oh wow, this is exciting, the first time I've ever written one of these. There's a great feeling of accomplishment that goes with this and it's the type of feeling that comes with the first time you try anything.

As most of you know, this was my first go at writing for an online audience. This was an important milestone for me because it was the first time I'd ever received feedback on my work from ordinary people. Apart from you guys, the only people who have read my stuff are a) my family, b) my teachers and c) writing competition judges. I have a friend who is in the midst of writing a One Direction fanfic and she emails the chapters to me every week or so, something I would never do. It's just weird and I would be embarrassed.

Tuff Chaser was originally intended to be a small thing I was working on. It's still a small thing I'm working on (I mean, worked on) but with the addition of an audience. I was not planning on posting it anywhere on the Internet, but around early September I was at a high point in my life. We had just finished a brief study on The Outsiders in English class, and I just felt this unexplainable attraction to it; while struggling with the fact that I was hopelessly in love with Dally hahaha. Around this time, I had all these emotions that surfaced from reading the book that were floating around and I really didn't know what to do with them. So in a way, The Outsiders showed me things I never knew I could feel just as Dallas and Tammy uncovered things they never thought they could feel with each other. I had been reading some Outsiders fics on fanfiction.net and suddenly it hit me that a nice little story would help process all the excess emotions I had floating around bothering me. Hence, the beginning of the story.

I said that I was madly in love with Dallas, and I even wrote an Excellence-level literary response to his character for my end-of-year examinations (my first ever Excellence literary response). So if I was this infatuated with him, it would make sense to put myself in the story and have a happy happy romance, right? But no. Tammy is not me. She is not me in any shape, size or form. She is not even like me and I am not her, although sometimes I wish was! We have different personalities (for example, I am the most patient person you will ever meet ;D ) and she was an interesting character to play as. She's just moved to a new town and doesn't know anything and she meets somebody who changes her life, learning valuable things along the way.

Dally is a different tale. You may have realized that in my story he is a lot different to his original character. He's a lot more Prince Charming here, and this is because of my intense character analysis of him. I don't know if any of you have picked up on Dally's emotional range throughout the course of the book, but he definitely had very violently strong emotions. He had a deeper, caring side which I really wanted to bring out and flaunt (who wants to be in love with a jerk?) and thus he meets someone who really changes him, my ideal future for him. This is why he's so different from the bitter and angry Dallas Winston that we are all familiar with.

To me, Tuff Chaser is about the fact that there is always something out there that can make you feel things that you never thought you could feel, whether it be a person, book, movie, etc. And when we find that thing, it can make us happier than anything on Earth.

When I finally decided to publish my story online, it was because I figured that an audience would motivate me to complete it. I was torn between fanfiction.net - Outsiders fans galore - or Wattpad, where I was sure there were basically no Outsiders fanfictions. Turns out I was wrong. I received some amazing support in my first few weeks that I'm still so grateful for.

This first journey that I've been on has been absolutely incredible, filled with the best people ever. I cannot express just how much I owe each and every single one of you for supporting the story, because you're what makes the show go on. No matter when you discovered it or how, every vote/comment/share has been received with so much appreciation. Thank you, every single one of you for sharing the very first memories of my Wattpad career with me...and here's to many more!