*Warning:  If you haven't read/seen the full play, some of what is written below might not make sense. You can access the full script under the tab, "THE SCRIPT" and it is strongly recommended to read the full play first and then come back to read this page.*

*******************THERE WILL BE MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED******************

INSPIRATION

As soon as I came up with the idea of writing my own play, I knew it wasn't going to be easy. The first idea that actually made sense that I could work off of was that the main character should be slightly based on myself. If you know me, you know I am not the most confident in decision-making and even something simple like talking to someone new can cause great stress. Austin is similar as you probably figured out based on his interactions with those around him. Oh and he wouldn't be the same person if it wasn't for his love of magic tricks, which is something that I also have admiration towards. But I knew that one character isn't all that I needed. A good story pushes the main character into situations that are so abnormal it leaves the audience wondering "what happens next?" 

So, I had to think of obstacles a common high schooler goes through, which if you've ever experienced high school, you understand when I say it's not too difficult to find obstacles in high school. This is where Austin and Alex separate, yet still remain similar. Throughout high school, I had a best friend and because we knew each other for so long, it made it easier for us to stay close friends. Thus, Zoey was born. Austin (aka me) would tell this best friend everything from rants to stories to teachers to crushes. And that's when I knew I wanted my main character to have a crush. Jennifer comes into the picture.

But like I said, I need to make this an obstacle for him to go through, not just some easy situation that can be solved in two seconds. I needed to create a "cool" guy for Austin's crush to have a crush on. And that's when Dylan started to form. As long as I can remember, even as early as 3rd grade, there were those students who soared above the social pyramid and were labeled as "popular" or "cool" or "athletic". All the girls would gravitate towards these boys and although it never bothered me or Austin, we are still perplexed by what makes that happen. To recap, Austin was going to have a crush on someone who has a crush on someone else, which sounds very familiar if you've watched any cliché high school TV show or movie. Does a love triangle ring any bells? I couldn't just settle for what's been done, so that's when I created Sophie, who has a crush on Austin and just to make it more interesting, is also best friends with Austin's best friend. That's when it hit me, I won't just be creating a simple love triangle, but rather a Love STAR. I literally spent days trying to figure which names went where for it to make sense and once they all clicked together, I had 5 whole characters.

That's it? 5 characters for all of that? Well, the other 3 came kind of naturally. I knew that if all of these students were going to school, there had to be at least one teacher throughout the day, which made me think: What if it was just one teacher the whole time and she did everything? I thought that was funny and allowed Mrs. Evermore to enter the scene. (Her name was the most important to me, I had to tie in that she's always around or everlasting or something along those lines and it's unclear exactly how I settled on Evermore, but anything else just sounds weird now). And while we are on the topic of names, I knew I couldn't name any of my characters with names of people I know personally, which cut out a lot. But then, it was even more difficult when I didn't want to choose names that were in shows/movies. But clearly, that didn't bother me. Zoey could be linked to Zoey 101, Sophie from Mamma Mia, Austin from Austin and Ally, or even Dylan like Dylan Sprouse. And for a little bit, I debated some names back and forth, but once I typed out their names more and had other characters use their name, it became more natural and increased the mental picture of what my play was going to look like.

6 characters still seemed very small, so I created Olivia and Mom. Yup, Mom is how it appears in the script and her name is not revealed anywhere in the play, I will leave that up to your imagination. I knew I wanted Austin to have a family of some sort so we could watch him come home after a long day of school or even before the day begins to see where he gets his overthinking from. Olivia is his younger sister (sidenote: I also have a younger sister) and Mom is well... his mother (which I also have). Introducing this family dynamic in the play added a whole separate story and message I didn't even expect when I first thought of the two. 

After all of the characters were finally finalized, I started to think of any scene ideas. Literally anything that I thought was funny or pushed the plot forward, I typed it out. Some things (as you'll read soon) did not make the final cut, but as long as I was writing, it made my brain expand to new ideas. The Love Star was a great starting point and allowed for a lot of conversations between a variety of different characters, and that combined with the different subjects that school has to offer, it was hard to not think of something new. I knew I needed some big climax to end the first act and some little thought popped into my brain that Austin should get slapped in the face to figuratively and literally be waken up by everything that's crumbling in front of him. 

There are so many ideas that I could spend thousands of words writing, but instead, let me just summarize by saying: this was fun. I planned it out where I could have half a year to just write this thing. I always tell anyone who is interested in writing their own work to only do it when they want to. Forcing yourself to work is the worst thing you can do. Sometimes if you have nothing more to write, all you need is to take a break from it and relax. I feel very lucky that I was able to outline every scene I wanted to be involved and by the end of the 16 scenes, I had 100 pages of text. It may not be that easy for a lot of people and it wasn't a fast process for me either, so never give up. Be proud of your progress even if it's two lines or two scenes, every word makes a difference. I loved every minute of writing and directing this show and makes me appreciate not only what I can do, but how it can influence others. 

DELETED IDEAS

I always love going back and reading my initial thoughts and ideas for how I wanted this story to unfold and basically laugh about how much I was going to do originally. Here are 5 of the many plot points I decided to get rid of due to various reasons. I can't even imagine the play now with these alterations, but early on, it wasn't so insane to understand. Some lasted longer than others and some make sense why it had to be cut, but there are also those that could fit in but would make the entire show too long. Enjoy! (Again, spoilers are ahead!)

1) Olivia's friends. 

For those who are fans of Olivia, you would be happy to know that in my first draft, I created two scenes with the main focus on Olivia and what she's going through. Throughout the play, we see Olivia care for her older brother since they've both experienced something no one should ever have to go through. Although we do see her appear at Austin's school during the day with the help of Mom's distraction, we never see what leads up to it. I originally wrote a somewhat short scene between her and her two best friends at her middle school. She discussed how Austin is acting and without revealing too much about her past, Olivia explained to both of them why it's so important that Austin opens up. Being the great friends they are, they convince Olivia that maybe the $20 and the note is the push that Austin needs to do what she wants. 

The other scene was similar since it involved Olivia and her two friends, but this time Olivia was drastically more pessimistic. She was so down on herself and the fact that Austin wasn't being nice to her, especially given what happened at his Gym class, she was close to giving up. The scene ending with Olivia lashing out at both of her friends, unintentionally revealing her sad past and then immediately heading home to have a conversation with Mom. 

There were a couple of issues with this. 1) I couldn't leave this conflict open-ended, I needed to consider adding in a part at the last scene (or at least after the scene with Austin at the railroad tracks) that would mend the bridge between Olivia and her friends. And I decided that if I were to that, it would take away from the main story between Austin and Sophie. and 2) The scene between the friends and the scene with her mom were beginning to sound very similar and I felt it was too repetitive so I decided to take the second scene out. As for the first one, I thought it would have been odd to have these two friends be in one scene for the whole show and not have much depth behind either or them.  

2) Zoey + Dylan.

This one didn't last long, but I still love reflecting on it. As you probably remember, at the beginning of the play, Dylan encounters Austin about getting closer with Zoey so he can ask her out eventually, but before he can do anything, Jennifer wants to go out with him. Although the result was always going to be the same (Jennifer and Dylan together), I originally had Dylan summoning up the courage to ask out Zoey before lunch, Zoey saying yes without Austin or Jennifer knowing. Then, the lunch scene still makes sense and Dylan would have slapped Austin for kissing his girlfriend. That would lead to Dylan and Zoey sitting down and having a conversation about how even though it might have made sense at one point, maybe them being in a relationship isn't the best thing, even if Zoey made it very clear she wasn't into Austin that way.

I decided that this idea wasn't going to last for multiple reasons, but mainly it was scrapped because I couldn't figure out a legitimate reason for Zoey to be so willing to say yes to Dylan in the first place. Sure, he's nice and supportive, but she barely knew him and as much as she's afraid to admit it, she is also one to overthink situations. Plus, I thought it would be too complicated if Zoey did have feelings for Dylan and still want to be with him even after the two had their conversation. I think her friendships are what she values most right now and if I threw a relationship into the mix, it would have been hard to tie up in the end. The way the play is now makes it so that Dylan still likes Zoey enough to slap Austin, but not enough to get stuck on her and ignore Jennifer's great personality, which allows them to be the great couple they truly are.