Remind Me Again

The Story: The Making of Remind Me Again

The Story

(The making of Remind Me Again)

Since some people ask me how I came up with this story, here’s the explanation.

So, here I am again. I just got out of bed after reading a few chapters of “Ender’s Game”. I was supposed to make a chapter for “The Purge”, instead I found myself doing this.

Anyways, since I was young and I started making stories of my own, I always wanted to make an amnesiac love story. I’ve watched a lot of love stories and some had the idea of an amnesiac but they were (almost) quite the same. So I wanted to make a different kind of an amnesiac love story. But how?

The idea came to me when my friend @Polly_Maundrelle and I were riding a bus home. I was actually copying some songs from her phone when I came across a song entitled “Memories”. I listened to it and it was sort of melancholy and has the gothic vibe of Evanescence. But it wasn’t the band who sang it. Actually it lacks details. So I asked my friend about it and she said she loved the song when she heard it that’s why she has it on her phone. She says, she likes to imagine a love story out of it. Like a girl loses her memories of a boy she loves. Well, she sounded like she doesn’t make any sense at all, still I copied the song. And since ideas are resilient parasites, the idea of an amnesiac love story gnawed its way again to my head. I had to write something about it.

“Remind Me Again” was inspired by the movies “50 First Dates”, “A Walk to Remember” and “The Notebook”.

I first heard “50 First Dates” from a college friend when we passed by a poster of Adam Sandler in a movie house. She told me that she likes watching Adam Sandler especially “50 First Dates”. I asked her to tell me the story and I got interested. It was months before the idea of RMA pop into my head. That’s why when I started making the plot of my story this movie had tickled my brain. I stormed out of the house and I went to search for a copy of the movie in every video shop in the mall until I miraculously found one!

A plot formulated in my head after watching the film. But then again, there can only be one “50 First Dates”. So how can I make my story any different? That’s when another idea came into place.

 My sister was watching “Finding Nemo” and then I noticed Dory and her short-term memory loss. That had fascinated me and I said: What if Dory’s short-term memory loss happens to a person? BOOM! Remind Me Again was officially born. When I finally had my plot and I had scribbled a few dialogues in my notebook, I confided my idea with my story adviser, Polly Maundrelle. She said it was a great story and the idea is somehow unique. So I pushed through into writing RMA after writing A Teenage Love Affair.

“A Walk to Remember” and “The Notebook” were the inspirations to some scenes like Tam and Ivan’s “To do list” and Ivan’s Daredevil stunts. While some of the scenes were from my college experiences with friends.

If you have liked the emoticons, well I placed them in the story because I wanted the story to have an anime vibe and I wanted it to be unique. I (also) somehow wanted my story to be remembered because of it.

Why I made this story improper? It’s because when you learn to play and bend the rules of Literature that’s when you create something unique and wonderful. Remember that a pen is mightier than a sword.

★ The Characters:

Well, to start with this, Ivan Patricks is now officially my favorite character among those characters I’ve made. Skandar Rones (of Blood Zephyr) was the first but now he comes in second to my heart. Who wouldn’t love the bad boy of Solique town? Ivan was very easy to write. I have no idea why and how. My pen just loves the guy and when I’m writing his chapter, it only takes me hours to finish it. His character was actually born in my fondness of Francisco Lachowski. I wanted Ivan’s character to be the bad boy by definition and not only by title. I don’t want him to be a playboy hiding in the mask of a bad boy. That is why I kept RMA light. No love affairs to worry about and no over threatening antagonists to pull. I just wanted the story to revolve around Tam and Ivan. I hope I did a great job doing it by confusing you readers. Hehehe

Ivan’s name was supposed to be Patrick Patricks because I was so fond of Ezra Miller’s name in “The Perks of Being a Wallflower”. But then I watched a tween movie and the guy’s name was Ivan. I liked how it sounded in my lips.

Ivan’s soliloquy was inspired by Ana’s subconscious in “50 Shades of Grey” that is also why the town is named “Solique” because of Ivan’s soliloquy. (Solique is pronounced as so-li-kee.)

And if you wanna know where I got the term Boy George, I actually watched a Sarah Geronimo film and her name was “George”. That time, I was looking for something to call Ivan and I got the answer right away. It was supposed to be “Brod” for brother and not Boy George. Instead I combined the idea and got Boy George.

When Ivan was the easiest character to write, Tamara was the hardest. Her POV sometimes gives me a day and a half to finish. Believe me; she is that hard to write. When I’m writing her POV it’s like she’s sucking my energy and I go brain dead. I must remember to forget because she’s forgetful. I wanted Tam to be the complete opposite of Ivan but not in a way that their attitude collides. I feel tired of bickering characters. Somehow, I wanted their differences to form an understanding. That’s why I chose Shailene Woodley for Tamara. She has a very angelic face. I discovered her after watching “The Secret Life of an American Teenager” for ATLA.

Tam’s character is an amnesiac in Dory style. And I both wanted her to be naïve and at the same time Einstein smart because that would make a character out of her aside from just being the amnesiac.

So that’s it. I hope you got inspired on how I made RMA. Remember that ideas are just right at every corner. You just have to look.

P.S: If you can’t get enough of RMA. Read the Bonus Materials. Just turn to the next page.

RemindMeAgain©2013

Property of BelleBurns©