OLD DRAFTS - SPOILER ALERT!
On this page, I share parts of my first drafts of 7th Grade with My Fabulous Friends, My New Neighbors, & Me. This includes sensitive information about the plot as a whole, so if you haven't read the book yet, PLEASE don't scroll any further down this page! Instead, buy the book on Amazon, read it, and then you'll be welcome to explore this page :)
All of the drafts you will see below were written when I was thirteen and fourteen years old. You'll notice that some parts were copied almost word for word into the final drafts, while others were changed dramatically. Some of the books even underwent entire plot changes!
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This is an excerpt from "Middle of the School." For the final draft, I changed the circumstances under which Allisen got detention. "Racecar's Rook" was the original name of Learner's Academy. I kept that name all the way up until it came time to publish the first book, and then I realized, "Wait, this name doesn't make any sense!" |
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As you can see from this excerpt of "Freaky Friendships", Allisen's school originally had dormitories (for kids five and older. Yes, because every parent wants their FIVE-YEAR-OLD in a dorm!) That was something that was removed in a later draft. Interesting thing about Carie Luesan-- although she was never again mentioned in the Allisen's Notebooks series (even the first drafts), she ended up being the main character of a different book I wrote! (I do not ever plan on publishing it.) |
Click through the images below to read the first draft of "Giving Thanks for Thanksgiving"
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Something I like about this excerpt from "Many Miracles" is that you can see the edits I did even before I ever started typing the books up. I realized that it was unrealistic for Kim, Shevea, and Jack to just be wandering around together on a Sunday morning and decide to go to a random church-- and even more unrealistic for that church to just so happen to be Allisen's! |
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The first draft of "A Mystery to Solve" was pretty much the same as the final draft. Although, as you can see, there were a lot more kids invited to the party in the first draft! None of them were suspects, though, so they didn't add much to the story. The picture, from left to right, shows Nalcie, Sara, James, Jack, Allisen, Kim, and Shevea. |
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"Happy Hearts" additionally had a sub-plot in which Allisen's parents decided that Mirisen was going to start attending Allisen's school and following Allisen to all her classes. I removed this plot element from the final draft because it was unrealistic and didn't add anything to the story. |
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Sometimes you have to remove elements of your story that don't actually contribute to the plot--like this part in "Friends Forever" in which Allisen is obsessing over Lindie's kitten :) Cute, but not necessarily relevant. |
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I was nice when I wrote the first draft of "A Vacation To Remember." I let Allisen celebrate Easter at home with her family instead of spending it stuck in an airport. I was fourteen at the time, and couldn't imagine having to spend a holiday stuck in an airport. When I wrote the final draft at age twenty-one, my mentality was more like, "Problems don't stop just because it's a holiday; deal with it." Sorry Allisen! |
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As you can see in this excerpt from "A Time of Change," Pete was originally a lot weirder. How you see him acting in this excerpt was essentially how I portrayed him in all of the first drafts. For the final drafts, I removed the wackiness and made him a more typical angry, rebellious teenager. |
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More Domacie drama. This is a deleted scene from "New To Get Used To". This was the last time Domacie made an "on-screen" appearance in the first draft of the series. Oh, and I just realized the little girl who I said was moving into their old house was a 4-year-old girl named Shania... total coincidence that she shares the name of Kim's Little Buddy from 10th Grade, but given the age and the time period, the two of them could actually be the same person! |
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In "Easy Money," I originally introduced a super shy girl named Destiene. She lived in Allisen's neighborhood, but wasn't part of the group of kids. I think the plan was for her and Allisen to become friends over time, but then I didn't mention her a whole lot in the successive books, and at some point I just decided to remove her altogether. It might have been when I came up with the character of Ellie Ramsey (9th grade), or maybe even earlier, I don't remember. |
Click through the images below to read the first draft of "Pizza Petto/Pete Zepetto."
