Sanders Sides BROTP One-Shots: EXPLAINED

Chapter 4: The Pain of Assignment

This is one of the chapters that I am the most excited to go into!

I assume that if you are here, you have already read the story, but if you haven't SPOILER ALERT AHEAD!!!

Inspiration:

Oh boy let's go with The Pain of Assignment!

This story is by far my most popular (which is why I did a rewrite; I'll elaborate on that when I get to that chapter.) Anyway, the idea behind this story, which when put simply is: What happens to traits when their host passes away? I was AMAZED no one had thought of before me. I actually looked for a story with this idea, and was shocked out of my mind when I couldn't find it so I went...I'LL WRITE IT MYSELF!!!

Okay, enough with the caps lock...anyway; I actually came up with the idea because of a tactic I now use for most of my stories. When I come across a particularly difficult situation that I need to get through, or to help someone else through, I will write those issues into characters, and then apply their solutions to my life. (This works really well, I told it to my therapist, and they asked if they could relay it onto some of their other patients.) That being said, the inspiration for this story was a rather unfortunate event on my end.

About a year or so before the writing and posting of The Pain of Assignment I went through the heart-breaking loss of my father. Long story short, he was someone I really looked up to, and I had to watch him slowly decline over the course of a few months, and that hurt me more than I am willing to say on the internet. Back to the point, that pain and heartache was where the idea and inspiration for this story came from, and what the Sides go through is very similar to what happened to me, that is why in the story Thomas declines slowly over time.

I also tend to project myself onto Virgil for a copious amount of reasons, and so his particular handling of the situation, from initially wanting to distance himself from all memories, to wanting to spend more time with those he still has, to, and I quote, "resorting to something he wasn't proud of," was how I handled the passing of someone so close to me. Actually the whole concept of Elysium (which I pulled straight from Greek Mythology) or Heaven is the only way I could finally put some of my grief behind me. I'm not going to press my beliefs on to you as the reader, but I have found that believing that my father went to Heaven has helped me immensely, so that was exactly what I wanted for the Sides.

Overall Thoughts On The Pain of Assignment:

The Pain of Assignment is probably one of my favorite stories I have ever posted; partially because it has had so much positive feedback (you all are truly awesome!) Other reasons include the passion that went into it because of my own experiences, and I can see a clear improvement in my writing of this story. It was actually a weight off of my chest to write this story, because of how much it helped me, and I felt like through it, I was making my father proud.

Details Most People Missed In The Pain of Assignment:

-Joan and Talyn Soon Join Thomas in Elysium:

· I felt like this was an extremely important thing to add because, I don't think Thomas could really be happy or in Paradise without being with those he cares about so much!

-The Age Switch:

· Now this is one of those places where I pulled a switch from what most people think, or what is canon. Most people know from the Vines and the Sanders Sides videos, that Patton is the eldest, followed by Logan, Roman, and then Virgil is the youngest. For this reason, early on in the story I used the quote, "You either die a hero, or live long enough to watch yourself become the villain." It explains that over time the traits grow more and more disgusted with this same process of Assignment, and over time it wears at them. That is why I made Virgil the eldest, followed by Logan, Roman, and then Patton is the youngest.

-The Council of the Ethereal Plane:

· I might regret saying this, but this is pulled from a much more elaborate Alternate Universe idea that I am writing based on this story. It establishes that there is a government in this world, and that there are more planes than just the Astral Plane and Elysium, the others are Asphodel and Tartarus (also pulled from Greek Mythology.)

-The Symbolic Mark:

· "The tattoo that each of them now bore had been done in an array of colors, but was clearly the YouTube symbol with the outline structured like a molecule. Representing Thomas's sexuality, love for chemistry, and later the talent in which he had shared on the video website." Obviously I explain it in the story, but what I left out is that this is not the only mark these traits bear, they have been assigned to hosts prior to Thomas, and therefore have other marks representing them. (This is a topic I will further explain in the chapter about the rewrite.)

Writing Tips Based On The Pain of Assignment:

- Write issues you may be going through into characters, and then apply their solutions to your life.

· This will not only help you to work through issues in real life, but it will also make for a story that you are more connected to, and because of that, it will feel more emotional for the reader.

-Writing on paper before typing! (I am so excited to finally share this!)

· This is an editing technique I picked up by accident, but it helps SO MUCH!!! When I was writing The Pain of Assignment, I was taking classes and would often want to write before they began, so I kept a notebook on me in which I wrote the story down. Then once it was finished I began typing up the story to post, and I quickly found myself editing as I typed! Now, this works because, if you just type the story and edit it in the same document or type it into another document, you are tempted to just copy and paste, and this means you aren't focusing on the details as much. Since you are essentially rewriting the story when you go from a handwritten copy to a typed copy, you have more chances to flush out mistakes, catch inconsistencies, come up with better way to say things, better ideas overall, etc. This tactic has worked wonders for me, and I think is one of the reasons I saw improvement in my writing in this story. It is a great form of editing that really doesn't feel like editing!