Working Notes for "More Than Friends"

MORE THAN FRIENDS
Notes and acknowledgements

| Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 |

This story is dedicated to its inspirer and and female lead, the real 'Heather.' We were very close once, but our lives have gone in different directions. I love you always, and I'm glad you've found your happiness.

That's who this story is dedicated to. However, no one else should read it. Actually, even she shouldn't read it. This story is bad. Seriously, seriously--baaaaad. Go read something else instead. "Arie & Brandon NiS" is a good one; it uses a lot of the same ideas, background, etc that this story does. Or, if you really want to know why long blonde hair is hardwired into my Hot Girl sensors, go read "Love At First Sight" by Jeremy Spencer, which is basically this story in a much purer form. (Though I can't recall if his Emily is blonde or not.) Purer? Yes: As we wrote, both Mr. Spencer and I had to decide about the length and intensity of separation between our respective heroes and heroines, and he made better choices than I did. Go read his story. Then, if you're really super desperate, you can come back to this.

Almost all city names are false; they were taken from a variety of fantasy sources. People have questioned this choice--why not some, you know, real names? And, honestly, they're right. Consider this my slightly bizarre tribute to my home genre. If it makes you feel better, ignore them; they're not really important anyway, except as placeholders.

All characters are based on real people, so it is no coincidence that they are the strongest part of the story. However, names, and sometimes personality and personal history, have been modified to protect the innocent. The events of this story are complete fiction. And before you ask: no, the fact that the real person's initials are CW is not a coincidence. My actual last name starts with an N, which is why Heather's last name is Norwellyn. There is also the amusing fact that, many times, I have used pseudonyms that my friends actually chose for themselves for use on the Internet. Which could get me in trouble if any of them actually read this. Another reason why y'all should go read something else.

General: The shift between 1st- and 3rd-person POV, as well as between narrators, is intentional.
Part 1: the line of song Heather sings is from Joni Mitchell's Big Yellow Taxi. Used without permission.
Part 2: Colin's description of love is a paraphrase of Orson Scott Card's description from Children Of The Mind. Also see Card's Xenocide for the more complete version of the philosophical argument about why we have to believe in free will.
Part 4: "Take what you want, and pay for it" is a saying from the world of Robert Jordan's The Wheel Of Time (used without permission). The exact line from Good Will Hunting, courtesy of the Internet Movie Database, is: "You're not perfect, sport, and let me save you the suspense: this girl you've met, she's not perfect either. But the question is whether or not you're perfect for each other" (used without permission). The saying "Wish in one hand, shit in the other" can be found in works by Stephen King and Thomas Harris, among others.

There was once a Part 5 to this story--or rather, there was once a Part 3, with the remaining two bumped down a number. But it sucked, so I'm not displaying it here. And, since a number of people have asked: there are no plans at present for a sequel. There are several reasons for this. For one: I write stories about people I know, and when I stop knowing them--we fall out of touch, we end up hating each other, they or I die--it gets hard to write those characters anymore. I have stopped knowing almost every person in this entire story, so there's nothing to say. For two: there is nowhere for this story to go but down. I did consider continuing it, but realized that it would just end unhappily: Colin and Heather would inevitably break up, probably before the end of the summer and almost certainly before the end of the calendar year; they'd go their separate ways and marry their separate people, and that would be the end of it. If continuing the story requires them to break up--and it does--do you really want me to continue it? Yeah, that's what I thought too.