I made an offhand comment about writing an essay on how the Ivy Brother characters are proto-versions of other SHV characters. And while the word essay may have been an over exaggeration, I do think they share some traits.
The Ivy Brothers and Me
I re-read the Ivy Brothers a few years ago and the main character I was thinking about when I made that essay comment was Nicholas, my first attempt at a queer character (although Elisa and Rose could be read that way....). I'd forgotten this but, at the end of his story he learns to stop taking on burdens for his family and pursue his own life. He ends up going to an LGBTQ event at his school and meets....a boy (who's name is Mason). I think his story graphs a lot on to Haley's about leaving a toxic-ish family situation and finding your people.
Elias is in some ways like Jonah from HMLIS. Living a small life that gets intruded by larger than life characters. IDK if I have a character who is as introverted as Elias though,
Slate's rebel without a cause-ness and the way he walks around like nothing can hurt him is very much Nova in Nova and El in Sunshine.
And I think Darcy was my first crack at the voice I ended up using for Rin from HMLIS
I never had a story for Ivy Boys and I really do not like looking at it but I accept it's where I was and what I had to write to get where I am now.
Why Not
This next piece of the extended epilogue involves Juliana and Rhett and I was trying to figure something out about how to write them so I went back to EPOH to re-read. During my re-read I kept seeing things I wanted to edit. Then I was like 'why not ?" and I went into Yola and...changed them.
It's mostly edits to dialogue. I have really started to dislike dialogue tags in my 1st person present because I used them SO MUCH. I did it everytime, even when it's only two people in a convo. For a long time I wasn't comfortable having "free standing dialouge" I don't think I was comfortable playing around with dialogue structure until recently.
This section of Pulse is good example of changes I would make. This is when Vice!Luce and Vice!Haley are in a room together looking into a murder:
“It is. But it still works,” he says coolly and opens the black paper
notebook to a handwritten list.
He sits on the edge of his bed and I feel like I have to ask
permission before I sit next to him which makes me mad so I just roll
the desk chair closer to him so I can see the notebook.
“I made this list last night after—after I left your garage.” he says.
More like after he ended things with me.
“You can write by hand ?” I say instead, admiring his perfect calligraphy.
“I told you I went to a very strict religious school,” he says, his tone a little biting. “They didn’t allow technology I wasn't even supposed to own a syndicate.”
“Damn.Arkham was barbaric as hell but not like that.”
“These are the people who I think could have killed Linz,” he says, marking something
I'd change it to this:
“It is. But it still works."
He opens the notebook to a handwritten list and sits on the edge of the bed.
It pisses me off that I feel like I have to ask
permission before sitting next to him. I roll
the desk chair over so I can see the notebook.
“I wrote this list last night after—after I left your garage.”
After he ended things with me.
“You write by hand ?” His handwriting is perfect.
“You know I went to a very strict religious school.” His tone is little biting. “They didn’t allow technology. I wasn't even supposed to own a syndicate.”
“Damn. Arkham was barbaric as hell but not like that.”
He circles something on the paper. “These are the people who I think could have killed Linz."
I actually don't know what coolly means, I use it a lot and it is def a crutch word. And like, I don't think Luce would say "making me mad" and the thing about calligraphy is weird because there is no way he'd just randomly be writing in calligraphy, I meant handwriting.
I know UL is waaaay worse so I just cringe everytime Lile says she re-read it. I could do the little edits on UL but I feel like if I'm going to mess with UL I would want to make big structural edits. Like I'd straight up delete some stuff. I'd also need to retroactively make it take place in the 90s and not 2009.
There is also some super problematic stuff I want to take out of Ivy Brothers but I'm not sure I know how to log in the website ? I'm pretty sure the e-mail I used was purged.
Extended Epilogue: One More Scene
CP!Shawna: Boy, you sure are stuck on the paradox line stuff in Lile's comment section
SHV: I know. It's just the little details are weird
CP!Shawna: Well, we should stop talking about it before she thinks we are copying everything she does. Now what's up with this last part of the epilogue ?
SHV: Okay, well it takes place at a cookout in Connecticut---😬
CP!Shawna: 😬
Recap
In the last piece of the epilogue Lucely move to Connecticut so Haley can take a job that will pay for his schoole, then they go out to brunch with Juliana, Rhett and Mason in So We Meet (I could not figure out how to write that story from the parents perspective) and this takes place the next month on the 4th of July.
-1- Keep Your Head Up by Andy Grammar
-2- I Want U Back by The Jackson 5
-3- Forever After All by Luke Combs
-4- Slow Dance by AJ Mitchell
