I D E N T I T Y

How The Story Came To Be(plus extras)

First, HUGE thank you to everyone who read this story!! Can't thank you enough! I will be writing a second draft of this story to make some improvements and sharpen it up, but I will not be posting it on wattpad probably because it's gonna be a while lol, but we'll see what happens!

If I'm being honest, I don't really remember when I first came up with the idea of this story. I think I was sitting on the couch and thought, "I wonder if someone has lived, like actually lived, while in a coma before". It was weird thought, and a random one, but hey it made this story happen, so who am I to complain? Also, this story was nothing like this when I first came up with it. Like not at all. And I really didn't decide most of what was happening until it came the time to write it. So there's the boring story of how I came up with the idea, now here's all what might've happened if I made some different decisions...enjoy!!

-Scrapped ideas/possibilities throughout the process of writing this:
•Steve and Peyton were originally endgame. Like I was dead set on it for a while.

•There was this crazy Halloween party in which someone revealed to Peyton that Kevin was part of the accident that caused her coma. Kevin then ran away and Steve drove Peyton to find her, realizing that her feelings for Kevin were more than just friendship and stepped back(this plotline was scrapped for the Beauty and The Beast play).

•X, or anything associated, with it never existed.

•The main antagonist went from Steve, Steve's older brother(yeah, he originally had an older brother), Steve's DAD(don't know why I was set on Steve's family), Allie, and the finally it was this organization.

•I thought about ending it with Kevin heartbroken and alone but it made me sad so I didn't.

•Jacklyn might've died instead of Allie.

•Steve was at some point a literal psychopath who wanted to kill Peyton...

•I almost had the story end in a complete circle and have Peyton get hit by the car before Kevin could save her, and then have like "one last meeting" with Olivia, resulting in her finally letting go. But I like dramatic romance. Think of this as an alternate ending.

Here's the process with Steve:
•Steve was originally an all around bad guy when I first thought of this. He was the main villain and no organization existed. His character arc was really dark honestly, like trying to murder Peyton...twice...um yeah lets not get into that. No but really, he was twisted.
•Well then I decided that I didn't want to go that route. I made Steve too likable in my mind, it didn't help that his main inspiration was Steve from Stranger Things lol. So then I planned to make him the ultimate good guy, the caring boyfriend who stepped down to let his girlfriend be with another (though Steve and Peyton were possibly going to be endgame if I went this route because tbh I kinda shipped them after a while). I know, big change from his original role.
•But his character needed some more spice and I felt that his all around nice guy role didn't really fit into the storyline. Plus he was soooo boring. So I made him kind of a gray area character, he did bad things for what he thought were good reasons. His feelings for Peyton were real, but they were pushed to the limit and he fell.

Kevin:
•Yeah this guy almost never existed (shocking right), he kinda just got thrown in there when I decided that Peyton needed a friend to help her through this all. He also wasn't even in the picture as a love interest.
•Not to mention he was terribly boring, not as nearly as complex. His backstory wasn't as dark and he was mainly just a lovable Harry Potter obsessed dork. Changing him to the character he is now was the best decision of this book probably, it fleshed him out more and really helped shape the plot.
•Honestly I have no idea when it went from point A to point B but we got there sooo yay us!

Allie:
•After considering Steve as the main antagonist, I considered having Allie be the one who put Peyton in the coma, driven by grief and revenge. But I decided that it was a little too predictable, especially since it was obvious that Allie didn't like Peyton and it would just be lazy and boring to make her the villain, especially when she's so complex.
•I never intended Allie and Kevin's friendship to happen. It just sorta, you know, felt right. And I wanted her in on the action soooo yeah.
•She wasn't going to die. She was never intended to die. I never even considered her dying until I was writing the chapter. I knew she was going to get injured, but then I realized there was no realistic way she would survive a wound like that for more than a few minutes. Soooo yeah, she died.
•Supposed to have been an annoying character who never developed but oh well, she's not anymore.

Jacklyn:
•Not really much to say about her, she's just wonderful, beautiful Jacklyn. I mainly decided to add her in because I felt that Peyton needed another person in her life that wasn't romantically involved, especially one as frank and supportive as Jacklyn.

Peyton:

•She was supposed to be a lot meaner, or before the coma at least, but I found it hard to do that when she was supposed to well-liked by most people.
•I honestly don't have much to say about her. I've really always known who she would be and what she'd be like. Love her to pieces though <3

-I D E N T I T Y Playlist(if you know any songs that you think would fit feel free to comment!):
•Cherry Bomb -The Runaways
•no body, no crime -Taylor Swift, HAIM
•Smells Like Teen Spirit -Nirvana
•No Time To Die -Billie Eilish
•Burned -Grace Vanderwaal
•Arabella -Arctic Monkeys
•Repeat -Grace Vanderwaal
•Only a Matter of Time -Joshua Basset
•Burning Pile -Hayloft
• i love you -Billie Eilish
• Too Sad To Cry -Sasha Sloan

Love you guys always!! -Vanna