No. 3: The One about my Bestselling Fiction feat. Boyzone

When I was in high school, writing was my "thing." But I didn't have the discipline for journalistic writing, which I found constrictive. I had a lot of authors I wanted to model myself on, not least of them is Jane Austen. But when you're a teenager in an all-girls convent school in the early 90s, Jane Austen doesn't sell. What sold were those Sweet Dreams books, a teen romance series (before it was coined its current term Young Adult or YA).

I tried writing those sober, gothic stories. But once, I translated one into a play for English class, and it didn't go over very well. It could be because of the trite writing, or maybe because of my hammy acting of the hero's dying mother. Which ever reason it may be, it made me want to see if I could write anything my own age-group would appreciate. So something like Sweet Dreams mixed with something popular, maybe. And what was popular that decade were boy bands. There were tens of thousands of them doing the duck-face pose before any girl on Facebook ever did (check pic above). So I wrote one about Boyzone who happened to be my world as well.

I knew I needed research to make a strong, believable plot, and thanks to being a teenager, I knew that I know all about:
1. True Love, obviously
2.  Pimples, Cramps and PMS
3. Mean girls
4. 200 alternative words for crush
5. MTV (back when it was cool)
6. Boyzone's whole discography
7. Every minutiae of what the band members made, ate and pooped for the last 3 years

Of course I was qualified to write a teen romance!

And so when I was 14 years old, the short novel "More Than a Fling" was born. (oh geez, I am cringing as I type this).

It was about Liv (duh!) our heroine who is an MTV Video Jockey who got to interview this hot new boy band called Boyzone (double duh!). Liv is like She's-All-That, but getting really tired of the fame and popularity and the tons of money she makes while doing pretty faces and sounds in front of the camera. (I didn't know how mortifying this was going to be when i set myself to write this).  But meeting Boyzone, Stepehen in particular, changed her life. She fell in love with his quiet, unassuming ways, and he loved her energy and smile. They had some problems as love stories go, but they overcame it and lived happily ever after.

To make it more interesting to my classmates, I made sure I used their names and paired them up with their crushes. So V was partnered to Ronan Keating, J was partnered with Nick Carter when the Backstreet Boys made a cameo in the story, etc... you catch the drift. If it makes sense for them to be there, I put them there. And sometimes, even if they don't. What the heck, put it there anyway.

And oh boy, was the short novel a success. My Dad printed it up all nice and bound it up (oh God, I am just realizing what if my Dad read that story? Wait, what if his staff who printed and bound it for him did?) People who wanted to read the story wrote their name on the front page, right under the credits, as a system. My happy memory here is this: my last glimpse of that novel was a 3-column list in front of classmates and batchmates, and at the back, a name of one of our teachers among the list of borrowers.

I don't know where that novel is now, thank heavens. I can't remember if  it was ever returned to me. That novel was utter crap. It's worse than Twilight, which you know I totally abhor. I don't even know if my classmates liked it. I don't think they would've told me anyway if they didn't. I was the tallest and biggest girl in the class after all.

But I wish I still have it. It can remind me that... well, I am capable of selling out, is one thing, but not really the point here. Remembering it reminds me that I can do whatever I set my mind to do. Taught me some marketing strategies too, which came in handy later in life.

1. Ownership -- my most loyal fans who promoted the book til their dying breath were those whose name were mentioned at least once, in the story.

2. Context - it helps if you know your audience. It helps if you can get them to relate to your story. Empathy is key.

3. Accessibility - I wonder what would've happened if there was more than one copy circulating in the school?

4. Opportunity - I really should start getting paid doing this creative stuff. Dang it.

And by Jove, it was surreal seeing this picture again. Rest in peace, Stephen. Have fun up there, girlfriend. 

Tuh-muh!