The Hawthorne Effect (BoyXBoy)

FAQs and a Thank You!

A cliché thank you for a cliché book. 

So in the final chapter of THE, I kept the usual mushiness out of the A/N and told y'all I would put it here instead to save y'all the time. So here is the promised mushiness and gratitude. 

In a lot of ways, this book has been therapy for me for reasons that I'll touch on in some of the questions below. And seeing people read and connect with the characters and the storyline made me feel a bit less alone in dealing with the issues I was dealing with whilst writing this book. I cannot begin to thank you enough for reading, commenting, laughing, critiquing, and pointing out spelling mistakes and general lapses in my proofreading skills (I say skills extremely lightly). The comments and kind words and well-wishes kept me sane and motivated throughout this journey, otherwise, I think I would've given up half way. 

Below are some of the questions that popped up in my DM's or were left in the comments, and each one of them made me smile so wide I probably looked creepy as fuck reading them on the bus home. 

If I've not answered a question that you have in mind, please comment or DM it to me and let's have a lil chit chat. 

Lots of love,

SBB ♡

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FAQ//

These are questions that, as the name suggests, came up frequently during the course of this book - either through comments or DMs. It always made me want to cry with happiness when someone showed enough interest to quiz me on the book, so thank you if you have ever spoken to me or commented on something (yes I did just say that in the Thank You, but I can't be tamed so ha).

Q: How come your uploads were all over the place?

Some of y'all frequently and hilariously read me for filth when my uploads were late, which was well deserved but also slapped some motivation in me to get the damn chapter completed. I don't like making excuses because really they do little to make up for the stupid upload times, but I'm gonna do what everyone does when they preface something with "I don't like to make excuses," and follow it with a list of literal excuses. Firstly, I was extremely dumb to think I could write, rewrite, proofread three times and upload sometimes 8000-word chapters in 7 days. It's harder than it sounds I promise, and it's something that I would advise anyone who is thinking of creating their own book on here to bear in mind. I didn't really help myself by always making the chapters unnecessarily long???, but still the struggle was real. Another thing I had to bear in mind is that, at the end of the day, this book recalls back on a time in my life that I don't always have fond memories of (more of that sob story later). So sometimes when it came to writing the darker chapters, it was quite gross going back and writing about stuff that I was still dealing with. But I always knew from the beginning that some parts were going to be upsetting to revisit, so that shouldn't really be an excuse either. Neither of those two excuses I just gave are really excuses, tbh. But still. Next time, if there is one, (more on that later, too), I shall make it my duty to have a better upload schedule. I promise you, bitches. 

Q: Are you Dan?

I don't know why this question always makes me laugh, but it does. Dan is definitely based on me, since he has my mannerisms and goes through a lot of which I went through (again, more on that later). When I came up with his character a couple of years ago, and when younger me wrote the earlier chapters, he definitely wrote Dan as me. But as the book progress and waived more and more away from trying to replicate what happened between Charlie and me exactly, Dan also grew to become less and less like me. He still sort of has my life, my friends, my stupid phrases and my "sense of humour", but he definitely grew with the book to become more independent from me. Oh, and my name isn't Danyl, either. I got his name from my imaginary friend when I was 6 (I wish that was a joke), and his sister's names come from my own sister's middle names - Alys and Jayne. I would also like to point out that I am the only sibling to not have an unnecessary y in their middle name. My middle name is James, but somehow my parents didn't think Jaymes was a real thing. 19 years later and I'm still offended I wasn't special enough to have a y. The disrespect. 

Q: Is the book a true story?

Okay now, this is a big question. In a word, sorta. Charlie is real (unfortunately), so are Jess and Sian - in fact, most of the characters are based on actual people, just with different names. However, the story itself is not a carbon copy of what actually happened. The true story is a lot more toxic than this, and I didn't think anyone would want to read what actually happened lmao. I guess that's why I wrote this book to have a happy ending because I never got one in real life. A lot of what you've read has a foundation of what happened, but it definitely varies for both dramatical and happy-ending aiming purposes. 

Q: Are you and the real Charlie still together?

I literally started nervously/awkwardly laughing writing that question out. Charlie and I are not together, but our drama always seems far from over. There's always something going on somehow, and it's always pathetic lmao. But he and I are not together, so sorry if that's ruined the illusion for you. Who knows, maybe one day he'll work through his issues and I'll work through mine and everything will be all happily ever after. But I doubt it. Maybe I'll tell y'all more about it one day, but I'll wait until shit isn't so gross before doing so. 

Q: Is The Hill real?

Only a couple of you asked this question, but it's one of my favourites so imma include it here because I'm a bad bitch and make my own rules. Yes, The Hill is very real. It's every bit as magical as I hope you've imagined it to be. I still go there a lot, except now I go alone. And it's still as much of a bitch to run up as it always has been. A month or so ago it was covered in snow, and I was standing looking at the view from the peak, and a tree branch fell and nearly crushed me. I was quite offended. 

Q: If the story was set in America, what grade would Dan be in?

The British school system is kind of weird, so I don't blame y'all for being confused haha. Dan's in Year 12 here, which is ages 16-17. So I think that translates to Dan being in Junior year??? If I'm wrong, please correct my dumb ass. Thanks xxxx

Q: Do you have any social media?

OK, lemme reword this question and twist it back to y'all. If I was to make a twitter account or something, would y'all follow it? I used Twitter a lot on my personal accounts, and I'm probably going to make one anyway for when I start publishing fr. But I dunno. I'll prolly make one for people to follow if they want to (which nobody probably will, but y'know). I'll keep you posted on that, either way. 

Q: If you could go back in time and change something in the book, what would you change?

This is a fabulous question. I would change everything about Mason. How he was introduced, how he spoke, how he showed his ass, and how he left. There are a few things I regret about this book, but his character is probably number one on that list. I think when I go back to revisit the story and get it in shape to publish elsewhere, I'll heavily edit his character, if not take him out completely. 

Q: Is there gonna be a second book?

This! This is the question that people have been asking the most. And this is the question I want to hand over to you guys. 

Do you want a second book? 

Honestly. 

When I started coming up with the chapter layout of the book, I created events and wrote in things that would make it very much possible for there to be a sequel - I pretty much wrote the book with the plot of the sequel in mind. But it comes down to if you want one because I really can't decide if I'll write this second instalment. I don't want to create something that nobody wants, and I definitely don't want to overkill Charlie and Dan's story. Another thing to bear in mind, and I've said this to myself from the beginning, if there's a second book, there will be a third to finish off the trilogy. And yes I have also written the plot of this book to support a further two books if necessary. 

There is definitely more to be said with Charlie and Dan's story, so I would be more than happy to continue it, but I'll only do it if people want to hear more. Because I really can't decide what I want to do. But, as I've just said, if there's a second book, there will be a third. And it will probably be a little while before the new book comes to life because there are a couple of things I wanna do before that happens. So please let me know, I would appreciate any and all input. 

So, with that all being said, thank you for reading. Hopefully, I'll be back again soon! x