Behind The Hoodie

Kool Facts

Hi guys, Haylie here. Wow. Wrote this when I was 14 or 13 and now I'm about to be 16. Well I think this is long overdue but I wanted to share some cool things that were going on in my head while writing this. :)

1. Grayson's Name

Originally I was going to have L.J.'s name be Ethan, and you know, Grayson. Like the famous twin brothers from youtube. (The Dolan Twins). Yeah, I know, corny. I was a bit of a fangirl. But then I finally decided that my book might get ripped apart for using their names so I just went with Grayson.

2. Actually publishing this

My original plan was not to publish this. Just to write it for fun. On a previous account of mine when I was 12 to 13 I had written and never finished 3 books. (They are all taken down now). But the most reads they ever got were my own. So I kinda gave up and figured only adults and popular people got reads. I got really discouraged and quit writing for a while till I came back and forgot my password to my other account and created this one. Then on a whim, I wrote all of this in three months and just started publishing cause why not?

3. The Main Character Was Me All Along

Yeah...I may have sort of put a part of myself into Beth. Like her I have blonde hair, blue eyes and although some people deserve a good punch to the face I never threw one. But I do know how to fight, my dad's ex-military and I took boxing as a kid. Also, I was bullied a LOT as a kid until I got older. That's why I wanted this to focus on bullying. To help bring awareness to it and how many paths people can take from it.

4. The Ending Was Never Planned

Writing this, I never knew where it was going to end up. I figured they would be together, the end. But then, one night, I was talking with my family. A school shooting had just happened and it was really bad and sad. I wanted to convey those feelings and bring more attention to things like that and so I did.

5. Beth Was Originally Going Have A Boyfriend Already

Yeah, Alan was going to be Beth's boyfriend to start out with. Him and Willow and Cherry were all supposed to be out of foster care and going to a different school. He was supposed to know her secret as well. But she needed friends and out of that house and I needed more drama. So I changed it up, but in tribute, I made him her first real, kiss that she consented to. Also the first of the group to find out her secret.

6. Henry Was Supposed to Be A Mentally ill Adult...

Yeah, Henry was going to be her weird school janitor who harassed girls. But I needed her to be targeted and bullied, not just harassed. And I planned for him to just be mentally ill but I wanted you all to truly hate him. And I had no plans for how to make his targeting her seem realistic. I did the best I could...

7. Willow is Based Off a Friend Of Mine, Well Two Friends Of Mine

So a friend of mine who has now read this book was part of my inspiration for the character. Well more like two friends of mine. A toxic relationship and social butterfly was from one friend and outgoing personality, trying to set Beth up with guys (you know who you are), and supportiveness was from the other. 

8. I laughed and Cried At My Own Book

Yeah, that Take A Hint chapter, yikes. That chapter can go jump in a fire. But I laughed while writing the lines. And it was going to be more cringy but I changed it. * Shivers*. I wrote it at 2 in the morning. I also cried writing Beth's death scene. Which was going to be more graphic and sad as I was going to kill Mason instead. Along with her, Alan, Leo and a bunch of innocents but I had to stop. And remind myself to wait for the second book to kill people.

9. I wrote a lot of it On My Dad's Laptop

I didn't have a laptop so I wrote the first 20 to 30 chapters on my dad's laptop before I got my own :)

10. I Knew Nothing About Highschool While Writing this

I literally knew nothing. I just guessed. (*~*) 

11.Strong Language

I wanted my characters to seem more like teenagers by cursing and stuff but I'm not allowed to curse. So I did the whole ^%$#^%$^ till I changed it to (bleep). And at that time my parents were still super strict so I wasn't allowed to say: hate, ugly, jerk, stupid, heck, dang, darn, or dumb. Yeah. And I didn't want them finding out I was saying that stuff so I just never wrote it out. Again, I was 14. But then I went back and did change a few things :p lol

12. I Wrote a lot of The book At 9pm till 4am. 

That's why some chapters seem like a fever dream and why I said (that) three times. And why I said Gay instead of Gray for Grayson's name. Yall can stop commenting about it now. XD

13. I freaked out when I got my first 100 reads

I literally was smiling for a month. Then I got my first comment, I forget the reader's name now but I remember their profile picture and I thanked them up and down. Then when it got big, and people were excited about me responding to them, their comments and messages, I got excited. I was so happy the first time a big name author made time to message me back. For others to feel that way for me is amazing.

14. I Used Babble Baby Names To come Up with Names

15. I used Generators To come Up With School Names

16. I was Scared I Might Use the Same random Name twice

17. I was Running Out of Names And almost Used My Own

18. Beth's Mom Almost Lived

19. Her Real Parents May Or May Not Be Alive

20. The Illuminati Is real

21. The Area 51 Raid Is happening A day Early So they Won't suspect it

22. I smell Like Beef

23. There is Lipstick in my Valentino Bag

24. A potato Flew across My room

25. Welcome To Chillie's

26. I'm running out of Ideas

87. Sub To PewdiePie and Mr. Beast

-4. Not sponsored.

90. Wattpad, please Pay me

11. So we back in the mine, Swinging Our Pickaxe From Side To Side

99. You could have made me drop my croissant

100. This is Chaos, thanks for coming with me on this journey, love you guys<3

oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoooooooooooooooolololololololoololoolololo

That was meant to break up the page, sorry. Anyway, thank you all so much for reading, hope you all enjoyed, and thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.