Taming Your Heart {Dreamnotfound}

A/N + Behind the scenes

THANK YOU so much for reading "Taming your Heart!"

I can't believe I made it to the end! It might be one of the biggest achievements in my life, since I've never completed a full story before. And this isn't even one in my first language!

I had so much fun planning and writing this and because of that, I want to share some behind the scenes!

[SPOILER WARNING]
Do not read if you haven't finished the book!

Easter eggs:

- Story idea
The idea to the whole story came from the video "Minecraft, but my friend is a horse."
Plus the fact that I like horses.

- Chapter names
The chapters are all named after Minecraft advancements! (But that idea was stolen hehe)

- Foreshadowing
Dawn often talks about her home, a hint to George's actual task. The horse Destiny is also foreshadowing this.
Texas' name was given to foreshadow his future home in Texas and connection to Sapnap.
Dawn's actions was meant to hint at her true self. The way she was so secretive, understood human terms and even seemed to be able to read. The fact that Paul hunted both George and Dawn suggests that he too knew Dawn was actually human.
Some figured her secret out early, so good work!

- Agnes
In the chapter "This boat has legs", I mentioned the name Agnes. It's a name I want to hide in every one of my stories to tribute my lost best friend <3

Unsolved mysteries and secrets:

- The death system had to involve turning back time, but I tried to make sure it would still make sense. I imagine everything George experienced still happens, just without him "controlling" the horse body he had. So yes, George the horse is an actual horse and no, there are no clones.

- Dawn's task was originally going to be finding her home (Sounds familiar?) and George's would be to learn to trust. (Explaining all the times he tried to jump the water)
But after a while I decided George would be the one with that task. Dawn's new one is forever a secret!

- Texas' injury was only there to keep him in the stable with George in the beginning. It was first later I decided to make it have consequences.

- At first, Dawn and George was meant to go on the adventure alone and leave Texas behind. That's why I made him struggle more with the injury as well as actually leave in the end.

- I don't know myself why Paul wanted the human horses and how he found out about them. The reason I made him do it is because I wanted him to want George (and Dawn) as badly as he did.

- First I was going to have the task include all four elements, and not just water and fire. The air part would likely be a chapter called "Sky's the limit" and include flying. However, I decided to scrap that as it became too magical and unrealistic.

Characters:

Before deciding which characters I wanted in the story, I made a little role list to help myself out!

George - Protagonist
Dream - Love interest
Dawn/Dani - Friend/third wheel
Texas - Friend
Sapnap - Friend
Paul, aka Suit man - Villain
Cassidy - Rival
Henry - Side character
James - Side character
Destiny - Mentor?

I also made little notes for some of them to keep track of their character development.

George
• Finds his true home
• Learns to trust
• Learns to forgive
• Learns to accept help and new friends
• Sees the importance in friendship
• Learns to appreciate what he has

Dream
• Learns to let go and move on
• Learns to appreciate what he has
• Learns to try again
• Learns to not rely on others
• Tries new things
(This is only the Dream version that was with George the horse. The old Dream remains the same, except maybe a few changes after he started dating George.)

Dawn
• Finds her home
• Learns to do things on her own
• Learns that George isn't all her answers

I really do enjoy making sure characters have lots of personality, hence why I did this :)

Pictures

I wanted pictures for the full story. I hope I credited all artworks, and the other pictures were photos taken from google.

I also made/edited a few myself. Can you find all of them? :)

Storyline:

When writing the storyline, I made simple notes for every chapter so the story would have a better layout.

It also helped me make sure every chapter was eventful and the book just overall had a proper  storyline with beginning, build up, moments of hopelessness, final battle and a beautiful ending!

This is my notes roughly translated to english.

1. Postmortal - George dies
2. Sticky situation - George meets Dawn&co
3. Those were the days - Dream POV, sadness
4. Voluntary exile - Escape
5. Hidden in the depths - Shelter, finds others
6. Remote getaway - Escape with boat
7. Suit up - Dream POV, searching hobby
8. This boat has legs - On the boat, meets Paul
9. Adventuring time - Going to "Florida"
10. The next generation - Arrival to ranch
11. How did we get here? - Dream&Gogy meet
12. A seedy place - Dream moves in
13. Sweet Dreams - Dream POV, Cass dumb
14. Country lode - Dream POV, visits Sapnap.
15. Very very frightening- George tortured
16. Best friends forever - Dream&Gogy bestiess
17. Great view from up here - Trail ride
18. We need to go deeper - George finds out the water secret but decides to keep it secret
19. Fishy business - Paul is back, trains George
20. Bring home the beacon - Gogy in rodeo
21. The end? - Goodbye, Texas goes w Sapnap
22. Return to sender - Cass is back with Paul
23. Serious dedication - Dream POV, into the wilderness
24. Two by two - Truth revealed
25. Uneasy alliance - Tries to ally Cass
26. A terrible fortress - Paul catches Gogy and sends him to Golden fields
27. Not today, thank you - Dream POV, Cass and him rescues George
28. Hero of the village - Rescue continue
29. Who is cutting onions? - George runs away
30. The parrots and the bats - Finds Dawn
31. Into fire - Paul burns the ranch, Gogy dies
32. The end... again... - George meets ghost queen and comes back.
33. Free the end - Everything back to normal
Epilogue - Meets Dawn (and Texas) again

Thanks again for reading.

Have a wonderful day or night, because you deserve it!

Much love and see you soon <3