Hour Before Dawn

Capping It Off

Hi everyone!

Before anything else, let me say I'm sorry if you thought this was somehow an update about the story. It's not. 😅

If you were already a reader prior to 'Hour Before Dawn,' this last part isn't new to you anymore. To those of you who might be wondering what this is, I'd like to welcome you to my personal thoughts haha! No, but really, I like ending my work with a personal chapter where I let you in on the journey behind the story because you let me take you on this roller coaster ride. I call it capping it off because this wraps up the whole journey for me. This is more personal and laid back, and sometimes I just end up blabbering hahaha, so feel free to drop your thoughts in as you read as well. Or you can skip this completely haha!

To start it off, Hour Before Dawn was completely unexpected, in the same way that CLOY and BinJin woke up the fangirl in me without a warning or whatsoever haha. I didn't think I would be writing and finishing another story, at least not for a long long while, so I was pleasantly surprised when I started having images and scenes in my mind.

When I write a story, I turn scenarios and images in my mind into words. That's what works for me. Unless I can picture the characters acting out scenarios in my head, I don't write. Before this, I had two ongoing fics that were left unfinished. I had to unpublish them because I just didn't have it in me to write. I couldn't get the right words out no matter how hard I tried. So I stopped writing.

That's why I was really reluctant on starting Hour Before Dawn. I was worried that it might just be another story that I can't finish and I'd hate to regret starting it. I shrugged it off for a while but I kept getting scenarios in my head.

The way I create a plot begins with one scene. It can be in the beginning, the middle, or the end of the story. It can be a confrontation, a revelation, or anything significant. Sometimes, they're inspired by a real life event or another scene from a movie or tv show, and sometimes they're just random scenes that come out of nowhere.

Once I got that one scene for this, it all came pouring in until I finally gave in and decided I was gonna give writing another try. I dove into research so that I can support that one scene, so that I know that the direction I wanted to take was possible and realistic. That's how I came up with the plot. I may have mentioned this on twitter before, but research takes up a lot, a whole lot of time. Sometimes, it takes up more than half the time than writing itself hahaha.

One of the reasons why I'm always overwhelmed with the response from readers is because I know that the plot is really simple in comparison to what is out there. The story itself is simple and straightforward, the vocabulary is simple, the storytelling is simple, and yet I receive the feedback that I get from all of you. I can't thank you enough for appreciating the story for what it is and for taking the time to read and finish it. I hope it was all worth your time reading and getting emotional with Yejie and Beanie and their situation.

To all of you who took the time to vote, comment and read in silence, thank you. I do read every single comment that you make and I really appreciate you taking the time to write those. I try to reply to them as much as I can but there are chapters where I hold back from doing so to not spoil the rest of the story. You have no idea how much it boosts me reading your comments and seeing your votes. I am really really grateful for every one of you who joined and stayed with me throughout this ride.

It was definitely a roller coaster for me in terms of emotions, as well as the journey of writing itself. There were chapters where words just came right out of my mind and straight on the screen and there were chapters where I had nothing, so I apologize for the irregular updates. There was a chapter that was about to be published but I just wasn't satisfied with because it felt as though I forced myself to write it. So I deleted it hahaha. I deleted an entire chapter I spent days working on and wrote it from the beginning. I finished the second version of that chapter in a couple of hours because it came out naturally and so I ended up publishing that instead. There were times when research drove me nuts because some medical journals wouldn't let me read the entire publication and others just had too much words when I only needed a sentence or a paragraph to confirm that a scene I had in mind was realistic hahaha!

Damn. I talk too much. 😅 Anyway, if you're still reading this, thank you for bearing with me. I told you I end up blabbering somewhere in these personal chapters hahaha! Before I close this story, I'm going to share a couple of trivias about it.

My inspiration for racer Yejie was seeing SYJ in Yoon Se-ri's athletic gear when she went paragliding in CLOY. I could just imagine SYJ in a racing gear with her long hair falling out of the helmet and face shield after she steps out of the race car. 😍🔥 And also because I love driving and I love speed haha!

The one scene that really started this whole thing was inspired by a real life experience of mine. If you're wondering which one, it's there somewhere hahaha!

Hour Before Dawn was created in my mind with a tragic ending. The concept of the title was as Yejie closes her eyes at the end of her battle with her illness, darkness takes over before she finds light in the after life. Although I was leaning towards a tragic ending throughout the story, I know in my mind that there's always an open possibility for an alternate ending. I just needed to make sure that as the story progressed, either option was still realistic especially because it focuses a quite a bit on the medical side of things. As you already know, I opted for their happy ending.

Having said that, I was worried about keeping it realistic because I know some readers are medical professionals. 😅 I felt a bit of pressure while writing to make sure that I wasn't overdoing stuff or lacking in some way when it comes to the medical explanations. Although my experience helps a whole lot, research is the key! Research all day, errday. Haha!

Another one is the crash. It came out of nowhere hahaha. When I came up with the plot, the only medical aspect of it was her heart condition, but when I was writing the early chapters, the crash just popped out in my head. Even though it complicated research even more, I decided to go with it because it gave me the scenario of their confession and revelation of her condition. I wouldn't have those scenes in any other way.

This was supposed to be a maximum of 10 chapters but once again, I went beyond my original target for the length of the story haha! As much as I wanted to keep going, I was worried that I was gonna bore you out if I dragged this on longer and I didn't want that, so I set myself to wrap it up in 20 chapters.

I hope it was worth all the time and emotions you invested in Beanie and Yejie. I really appreciate all the support and feedback I've been getting from all of you. Aside from HB and SYJ, and their fictional characters Beanie and Yejie, it was you who made this possible.

Thank you for giving this story a chance, for sticking to it until the end, for loving Beanie and Yejie, for appreciating the message of their story, and for simply reading. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

I don't know what the next step is for me here on Wattpad but I think I'm gonna take a short break from writing full length fics. I'm not closing my doors on it though. I will continue to write in some way and when I do, I'll make sure to share it with all of you.

This genre is my comfort zone, but I would really like to challenge myself in a different kind of story. I'm not sure what or when, but it's something that has crossed my mind. I might start with a really really short story, or maybe a one shot. One of these days, I might be asking for prompts to challenge myself, so if you have one, drop it here or tag me on twitter. 😁

Wow, did I really just finish a story? 😅 If you made it this far in this personal chapter, I hope I didn't bore you to death. 😅 I'm gonna wrap this up now and I just want to express again how thankful I am for all of you.

Thank you to everyone who read in silence, who voted and who commented on Hour Before Dawn. Like I said, it really is a simple story told in a simple way but you still powered through it. You've made my heart full with all of your comments and support, so really, thank you. This means a whole lot to me. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

If you have any questions or thoughts you wanted to talk to me about, feel free to send me a message here or on twitter and I'd be more than happy to talk to you. 😊

For now, thank you again for being with Beanie, Yejie and I on this journey.

Remember, stay hopeful! Wait for the light. Don't give up. God bless all of you!

With much love and appreciation,
150rewind/LampPost150 ❤️