Date Posted on FanFiction: Tuesday, July 25th, 1:09 am
Title: Uncovering Wes
Summary: "Who the heck is Wes?" One little ring is about to tell Sam the truth...
Genre: General/Drama/Romance
Point of View: Sam in the Third Person
Pairing(s): One-sided D/S. All from Sam's PoV, and really it's very vague and mild
Rating: G (or K on the FanFiction scale)
Length: One-Shot (3,024 words)
Behind the Scenes:
- Sam cleaning her room was not in my original plan. Originally, Danny had asked to see the ring again, causing her a frantic, question filled search, before finding the little devil. But it seemed a little forced- I wanted Sam to re-discover the ring without any prompting, so instead of messing up her room in a search, I made her find the ring during a cleaning.
- The flashback to the actually episode (from Sam's PoV, of course) was a nessacary evil. It provided me a lot of room to put in the facts (how Sam got the ring, how it was given to her) and put in her feelings about it as well (it easily transitions into a quick overview of how she feels about Danny).
- I didn't add the plot line of Tucker and Danny coming over for a movie until Mrs. Manson came into the story. As I was writing her dialogue, it just came from her mouth to the story. ;)
- I'm not all that sure that Sam does have a bedside table! lol. I can't remember seeing one. But for my story she does!
- Also, I said Mr. Manson is from Yale because...actually...because it was the first Ivy League school that popped into my head! Hopefully they really do get rings, because if not, there goes that!
Deleted Scenes:
- I got about 4 sentences into writing Sam's PoV of Danny giving Valerie the ring in this story before I decided it was too much. I may have to write it on its own if it pops up again though!
- I did have one paragraph written of Danny and Tucker finally arriving at Sam's, and Danny noticing the ring...but again, felt that that does much better on its own.
Making it Work:
First off, I want to say that as you read my stories, you'll see that for me, details are key. I don't write stories that say "She looked at the sky." My stories say "With a feeling of peace she raised her eyes skyward, letting the wind touch her face." I LOVE details- too much really. They'll be the death of me, I just know it.
I mention this because even though I bill this as a one-shot fic, it is a bit on the longer side, chock full of detail, description, and emotion...
The hardest thing about this whole story was trying to settle on Sam's sluething skills. I knew I couldn't keep her confused about the ring for the entire story, because that would get boring and wouldn't lead to any resolution. But I didn't want her to pick up the ring and suddenly know what it really meant. She needed to work it out for herself- not so fast that it became unbelievable, nor too slow to put the reader to sleep. That's why I gave her time to requestion the ring, remember the night she first got it, and more time to think fully on it.
I also needed to find a balance between Sam's emotions. She needed to go through a lot- shock over finding out the truth, anger that Danny had been so clueless about it, and finally a feeling of peace at the end. Too much of anything would have thrown the story off kilter, so hopefully I did it in a way that is both believeable and easy to understand.
Lastly, I had the hardest time picking an ending. Once I trashed the idea of bringing in Danny, I wanted an ending that left Sam in a state of calm resignation to the truth. So what I did was bring it full circle with Sam walking through each part of the ring's history and explaining it in a way that would explain things to her. The five paragraphs before the last two do just that- it justifys not only her feelings, but even eases the pressure off Danny a bit. And it does give us that all to rare glimpse into her true hopes about her and Danny.
But I knew that I wanted Sam to have the final word in the story. I didn't want her to be sad, nor did I want her full of hope. So I decided on that passive-agressive tone of hers as she says something that (I hope!) leaves the reader satisfied. I think I hit it pretty well- I worked on dozens of re-wordings before choosing the one in the story.
Overall: I am pretty pleased with how it turned out. Its not a chapter story, but a long-one-shot (oxymoron!)...and it is way longer than I had originally guessed it would be, which to me is good, I like longer stories. It's a pleasant start to my new writings. On a 1 to 10 scale with 1o being best...I think it earns itself a healthy 7 at least.
Of course it is the reviewers that have the final say... :D
