Dear Diary

Author's note

Hi everyone, and welcome to the end of Dear Diary.

I can safely say that I was finally able to edit this book while not crying my eyes out while doing so, even though I still needed tissues on standby. For those of you who don't know, I originally wrote on Quotev (shout-out to all those lovely readers who supported me there because if it wasn't for you guys, I never would've had the guts to move to Wattpad).

I would just like to give you all a big thanks for your support.

I wrote Dear Diary a few years ago actually, before I wrote Jenny's Heart. So I did feel like in this book there were a few scenes that I didn't like, hence why I edited it when I brought it to Wattpad. Actually there was quite a bit of editing because this was the first book that really set my tone for how I write - almost a test-monkey in a way. 

But back to the point is that I had a few goals in mind with this book. In everything I write, I like to address a social issue and for me this book was a lot about how parental relationships affect their kids.

I'll be honest, I never expected Cole to be as extreme in his withdrawn ways with Sophia as he did, and I'm not sure if I managed to redeem him enough for you guys, but I tried my best by making Lizzy's death as tragic as possible. I could've gone into more detail, but this isn't a 16 violence-rated book so I had to keep it simple. The thing is that this story was supposed to be much shorter because it wasn't supposed to be a mystery.

Yup, you guys were supposed to know within the first ten chapters that Cole was Sophia's dad.

The reason I didn't was because I wanted to introduce Cole and Richard properly before giving it away who her dad was. Then someone commented wondering who her dad was. That made me start thinking and I just decided to roll with the mystery of it. But because of that, many characters weren't in my initial plotline eg Mindy, Susan, Rachel, and Ashley to name a few.

Also how Lizzy died was supposed to be just a usual birth-gone-wrong story, but then I felt that wasn't an extreme enough action for Cole to turn out like he did.

Also I had originally planned a massive fall out between Sophia and her dad which makes her want to run away instead of commit suicide. But as I was writing I felt that the latter was a more realistic decision for her and a problem that I wanted to address.

And I know how people might not like how I brought Christianity into this book because they don't want to be preached to, however one of my goals with this book was to at least try and get people to see Christians a little differently. People often assume we live perfect lives with no problems which is certainly not the case. I wanted to make it realistic through both Lizzy and Sophia's eyes.

Lizzie because she was already a Christian who seemed to have the perfect life, and Soph who has all these hardships and grows in her faith gradually.

Aslo I wanted to show that you may expect something to happen in the way that you want it to but God answers in a way you wouldn't imagine. I know this from experience because I was really close to someone and things just went sour so quickly, and although I never wanted to lose the friendship, I later realised it was for the best - just like Soph who asked for her life to change but never expected it to come from her being in a coma for two months.

And in some ways, I feel that writing this did help my faith as well. I was really battling with what to write about when Sophia tried to commit suicide. I went to church the one day and the minister spoke about the story of Hannah and it was just like a light bulb went off inside my head. 

Coincidence? I think not.

But, believe me guys, I know how irritating it is to feel like someone is constantly preaching to you. I hardly read Christian stories because of it, which is why I really didn't feature it too much in this book. I think three chapters out of a hundred-and-sixteen is fine. Like they say in my law classes: less is more.

So yes that's it from me. I have a new story that I'm currently working on, but I will only publish it in November because I want to get my university work done first for the year; and I don't feel like being split between writing and studying.

So I'll leave you guys with just a few questions because I'm curious to find out your responses. There's no pressure from you to answer, just that I would like to know.

1. Who was your favourite character and why?

2. Which was your favourite of the two love stories and why?

3. What did you like about this book?

Thanks once again for all your support and love!

Katelyn Grace