Twenty Years of The Story and The Characters You've Come to Love and Hate

When one comes up with a story idea, they could either let it evolve to become the best version possible; or let it get buried with other ideas. Sometimes that one plot could stay with them for years, revisiting it numerous times until they're ready to publish the final version as a novel.

For me, that has been the case. The One Series had been on Wattpad since October 2011. This year would be the ten-year anniversary since I first published Let Me Be The One on that platform. I had attempted other platforms, such as Tapas and Inkitt, but Wattpad was where it started before finally publishing the series on Amazon. That process will be a yearly project for me, just so I can finalize this series.

To most readers, no one knows that The One Series actually had earlier iterations before it premiered on Wattpad. Most of them were not shared online, until I put them in a fact book.

Everyone's stories start somewhere, and for me, it started with a TV special I watched when I was thirteen. Think of this article as a look into the author's mind on how I let my series evolve into becoming the final version you see now on Amazon.

Fanfiction Rule Our Lives

2002. Pop groups were all the rage, well, kind of if you lived in Europe. The biggest acts included Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, NSYNC, and the Backstreet Boys. For thirteen-year-old me, these were my favourites. I was also watching the teen Disney shows, but I was still sticking with this one show from when I was a kid, Arthur.

I'll admit that saying this makes me cringe, but it was this show, and other factors, that brought about The One Series. It was when this childhood show aired a TV special that had a popular Nineties' boy band as the guest stars. One of the characters wanted to form a rock band to counteract the pop group. Her band got popular, she didn't like that, but they served as an opening act for the Backstreet Boys' concert in the girl's hometown.

I thought it was the most amazing thing I had ever watched. I still kind of think that to this day, but it was the moment that sparked inspiration. I didn't write the actual story at the time, but I had a decent idea on what it was going to be about.

That same girl who formed the rock band, which ended up splitting up, decides to reform it as a vocal pop group. Their music would sound like the European co-ed pop groups at the time.

I didn't have the time to write it out due to being in school and such, but I did go as far as making fake CD label covers for their albums.

As of this writing, Arthur is ending next year with the final season. It saddens me to see something from my childhood ending. Though I haven't watched the show in years, it still means something to me. It was also the earliest connection to The One Series.

Pop Groups Change the World

A year later, I became a fan of a British teen pop group. They were S Club 8, and we all shared the same ages. It was that moment that things began to change for my characters and their story. They transitioned into original characters. Their pop band's origins also changed.

Several months later, I figured it was time to write my characters, despite being busy. I barely worked on it, which I don't remember why. Still, I had the premise in mind. It was going to be an S Club 8 fanfiction with the prototype version of The One Series' pop group, UTurn. Their name wasn't UTurn at the time, and they only had five people. Both groups were going to tour across America.

I didn't have much else in mind at the time, and I couldn't quite submit it to a fan website, so it died in my files. Despite that, I had some idea on what the characters were going to be like. It was from there that it was time to give proto-UTurn a series of their own.

Popstars:2004

Later that year, which was 2004, I got inspired by teen books, movies, and TV shows. They included stuff like Mean Girls, The Olsen Twins' final movies together, The OC, and the Gossip Girl books. I was ready to write this series with the proto-UTurn, who was named after S Club 8 at the time. Don't ask why I thought this was a great idea to name them that. I was barely fifteen at the time.

The premise of this series was this: A group of middle-schoolers form a pop group. They juggle being in a pop band while dealing with school drama. I even made graphics for each story, but I barely wrote any of them. Once again, I had other things going on in my life.

The idea was that this series was going to have a sub-series. Each sub-series was going to cover one year. Basically, there were going to be these short stories in each sub-series. There was no overall series name, but today I call them The Popstar Series, named after the sub-series name, Popstars:2004.

It was my first middle-grade series, and my first attempt to write a drama. I hit a block when I was sixteen, not sure where to go with this series. I just knew there was going to be drama involving the pop group and their classmates. If I remember correctly, there was going to be a couple in this series, an early Andrew-and-Alyson couple, who were the members in the band.

It was also during this time I was developing the characters further. One example was that I was toying with the possibility that proto-Andrew was going to be bisexual.

Unfortunately, I stopped trying to work on this series. I left it alone for several years, focusing on writing fanfiction about other co-ed pop groups.

Press Pause

2010. A new decade. I was now an adult, at around twenty-one. I was a freshman at a community college as a dance major. I was also struggling as a writer, trying to find a place to post my works. I was also ready to work on original works again.

Inspired by me being a college freshman, I decided to pick up the Popstars series characters. Instead of sticking with the middle-grade story, I aged the characters and put them in a college setting. The title was Press Pause.

The premise was this: A group of former elementary school students were split into different schools after graduation. Years later, some of them end up in the same arts college in New York City. They rekindle their friendships and love lives while juggling college.

This story was going to be a duet, a two-book story. The pop group does get formed in this story, which I think it was an early Alyson that formed it. I don't remember, and unfortunately, I never got to writing that part. Interestingly, this band's name was UTurn.

The development and everything was growing more and more, but I stopped due to numerous reasons. I was busy with homework and rehearsals. There was non-stop drama in college that affected my mental health. My computer, at the time, was not working. There was one platform that Press Pause was on, but there was little to no traffic to that platform, as it was a forum. I had to rely on people commenting to allow me to further my story.

With everything combined, I literally put a pause on this story, never to get back to it again.

The One Series Factor

2011. A year later into my college experience. Things weren't that much better, but I had outlets. I was on Tumblr. Glee was all the rage. Wattpad was finally the platform I needed as a writer.

I hadn't thought about my Popstars-Press Pause characters at all, until two things popped up: The premiere of the American X Factor, and revisiting a Texas-based co-ed pop act, Savvy. I was excited to finally watch The X Factor in the comfort of my room. I was impressed with Savvy having a TV series. They seemed like they were on their way to becoming a major pop group, especially in Australia.

With those two combined, along with my love for Glee, I decided to finally bring back the characters. I decided to set the series in 2004, like in Popstars. I also made them high schoolers. I created a list of face claims, or dream cast, for the characters. I used the first letter of the celebrities' first names, and made new names for my characters. I started to work on an outline, trying to write it as fast as I could so I begin writing the first book.

In October of that year, I uploaded the first chapter of the first book of my new series: Let Me Be The One. The title of the series was The One Series.

I had been writing the original draft of The One Series between late 2011 to early 2014. I was writing the books while juggling homework, dance rehearsals, love life, college drama, university applications, doing other writing projects, and holding down my first job. It was a lot, especially as my mental health wasn't in the best state at the time. I kept going, kept pushing because I wanted to. I would even watch TV teen dramas and novels for inspiration.

By 2014, I had graduated from community college. I had a job, and I was still in the process of applying to transfer to a university. I was also experiencing burn-out from writing The One Series. I was working on the tenth book of the series, as each work was relatively short at the time. I had an outline that went into books eleven and twelve. I was planning to end the series with a total of thirteen works. I was stretched thin with the plot, trying to come up with more drama. By the end of year, I gave up and worked on other projects instead.

Second Revival

2017. A couple of years since I worked on The One Series. Wattpad wasn't doing me any favors. Any critiques I could garner for the first book weren't that great. I was an English major at a local university, as things changed in my life. I had a different job, but things weren't going that great.

Even though I was drowning in papers, I decided to finally revisit The One Series. I had attempted to tweak some things in the past, but decided against it. I was also in the process of changing the book titles and covers. Instead, I decided to completely rewrite the entire series. Start from scratch with new plots and rearranging existing material.

Once summer came, I was working at a new job that gave me good hours. I used this opportunity to finally begin the rewriting process. I didn't write an outline. Instead, I used the original draft I had, and expanded on it. I had material from later works within the series, and placed them in the first book.

Later that year, I uploaded the new version of The One Series. Let Me Be The One still had the same title, but everything else had changed. The book was the size of a novel with fifty-ish chapters. The series became a lot shorter, with six books planned for this series.

The One Series is currently still in its' second draft form while being on Wattpad. There was a stint of having the series on Tapas, but that ended quickly. The second half of the series would be on Inkitt due to the mature content it'll contain.

Final Form

While I was working on the series, I was seriously debating my options for publication. Traditional, indie, or self-published on Amazon. I was going back and forth on my options.

Then 2020 and Covid came. I was furloughed as I had to stay home. I had been desperate to get Let Me Be The One to be in pristine perfection. With me on lockdown, I had no choice but to just publish the story as it was. I went through a second rewrite, so I edited myself by using ProWriterAid. It wasn't perfect as the story is still a bit rough around the edges, but I did the best I could to make it look presentable for the average reader.

In May 2020, Let Me Be The One was available in ebook format. One could purchase it, or read it free on Kindle Unlimited. A month later, it was available in paperback format. One year later, in June 2021, the second book of the series, Secret Obsessions, was released.

After ten years being on Wattpad, and twenty years since its' inception, The One Series was now finally being sold for everyone to buy, read, and enjoy.

Conclusion

In 2002, after being inspired by my childhood TV show, I began to work on the characters in the form of a head-cannon fanfiction. In 2004, the characters became their original selves, and I finally got to write their story. In 2010, I went back to the characters and tried to write their story. In 2011, I began to take characters seriously by putting them on Wattpad. In 2017, I began the complete overhaul of the series. In 2020, The One Series was finally published on Amazon with the first two books being sold.

As I said earlier, an idea for a story could either simmer and evolve with the author, or get buried. For me, this idea of a girl forming a pop group while being in school had always been with me. I had been on-and-off with the idea, but I always came back to it. The girl and her story now has its final home after twenty years.

I do plan to milk this series until I can't anymore with spin-off series and stories. There is a prequel I'm working on right now. I plan to use Amazon Vellas for bonus chapters that couldn't make the final cut of each book.

I'll be sad once I finish writing the final line in the sixth and final book of The One Series. This series and the characters had been with me since I was thirteen. At the same time, I'll be happy to see people enjoying this series.

The final frontier for The One Series is to be adapted into a streaming TV series. That will be something I have to work on making that happen. I hope it does happen, and I hope we'll see my characters on your devices. Hopefully, it won't take another ten years for that to happen. Only time will tell.

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