HOLY HELL, I FINISHED IT!!!
– Officially finished it on the night of the 10th of Sept 2023, but I decided to draw a final commemorative image of the cast together in adult form, alongside uploading their biodata seen either down below ↓ or on my Instagram account!
Thus, it ended up being... super delayed...
I have so many thoughts, did you know that this book (minus the author's notes "chapters") is 85,603 words long!? I was crunching the numbers for my own curiosity but it blew my mind to find out I wrote so much for this! You mean I wrote an original story for my babies the length of a genuine novel!?
I'll split it up into smaller numbers! The story is split into three "arcs", (meaning different phases of the story) separated by the author's notes!
arc 1 has 20,737 words
arc 2 has 23,951 words
arc 3 has 40,915 words
total word count: 85,603 words
I knew the third arc would be long, but dear lord???
Now, let's discuss certain changes and details of the plot! I have so much to spill that this segment is probably going to be undergoing so much editing to ensure it doesn't get too bloated before it goes live.
For starters, did you know that Kyoya was meant to be a second love interest?
– Things were meant to go similarly, but in the scene where Rika runs away after realising Kyoya might like her (during the preparations for the school festival), Haru was supposed to run up to him and listen to the "thunderous heartbeat" he got from interacting with Rika to "prove her point" that he does like Rika, because he was denying having any feelings for her.
However, his heartbeat which was slow at first started beating faster the more she pressed up against him, which got her super confused and conflicted because she knew what it meant. Their relationship gets complicated because she finally finds someone she could relate to but now he was expecting so much more of her in return.
He was meant to assure her that he knows she feels nothing towards him and is supposed to be the person that proves to Haru that she was capable of being loved. This is because Kyoya isn't a loving person, and he wouldn't sugarcoat stuff like this, so she could be more confident, y'know?
– Yeah, so uh, I scrapped it because it was getting too complicated. I also hate love triangles so I'm not quite sure how a love triangle ended up in my story notes and outline in the first place??? Who did this??? Was it the monster in the mirror again...?
—
Secondly, Kana was supposed to be present in the firey confrontation in "The Lonely Witch and the Cowardly Knight"
– Yep! Her role was to get pissed off at Haru for being an idiot while Haru continually spirals herself deeper into her depression. Yuki's role was extremely minimal, reduced to being a reaction bot bouncing off of the two of their argument. The others were also supposed to arrive midway and convince Haru into not going through with it.
It sounded good at first, until I realised that the scene would've remained the same if I removed everyone else and kept just Kana. Then I was like, wait, who's the love interest again?
Kana was thus removed to give Yuki more agency. The end...
—
Speaking of love interest...
Oh, this was a real doozy. I wasn't concerned about who the love interest should be (since that was decided from the start), but rather...
The closer I was to the ending, the more convinced I became that Haru shouldn't end up with anyone at all. Why do I think that? you may ask.
YOU ARE READING
This Warmth Of Yours
Romance"You unlovable, utterly dreadful child of mine." - Haru wished for a friend, splashes of colour to perfect the imperfect her. Someone that would cover up the gaping hole she felt in herself. Someone that could multiply her self worth measured in dro...
