note: contains spoilers for chapter 3!
in regards to the two scenes i mentioned in my first bts post (the ones that got the major overhauls), that would be the confrontation in the woods between will and what i affectionately refer to in my notes as "the nots" (not-jonathan, not-max, etc.), as well as the scene from el's POV immediately after. the scene with the nots was definitely the hardest to nail down, i REALLY struggled with figuring out a) how to make the flow of the encounter feel both natural and genuinely unsettling, and b) how to build the psychological horror in a way that felt personal to will specifically.
to be more specific, (and this might not make any sense but i'm not sure how else to put it) i kept finding myself straying toward a more general psychological horror vibe where more of the focus was on "what the hell is this thing talking to me? why are its eyes so empty? how does it know all of this stuff about me????" when the real horror of this scene comes from how deeply personal it is to will, a way of exploring some of his deepest insecurities and all those uglier thoughts he normally never lets himself touch. it's the monster knowing your mind inside and out, and using that against you. basically the focus shouldn't be on what the monster is or how scary/wrong it is, it should be about what it's actually saying and how that's making will feel.
idk, hopefully that makes sense. 😅
in regards to the scene from el's POV: well, it actually wasn't always from her POV! originally we stayed with will as he went back inside the house, changed his clothes, found the D&D books, etc. all the way up to the fight with mike. genuinely though this scene changed so much even when it was still in his POV, it's really not worth going through every single iteration. i'll just say i'm VERY happy with where it ended up. i'm so glad el got a moment to shine, and i'm glad we got a little more insight into her life specifically during those three months between what happened at starcourt to them leaving hawkins. i was so concerned throughout the entire story with keeping her as in-character as possible, i NEVER wanted it to feel like she was just the annoying girl getting in the way of my gay ship (lol). el deserves better than that, so getting to flesh her out in this way really ended up feeling like such a breath of fresh air. 🩷
i'm also just now realizing i think the main reason i was struggling so much with the previous version of the scene was because sticking with will's POV would have meant having to write a definitive ending to his arc, even if that ending was never going to feel satisfying regardless. like..... his story isn't over yet. not by a long shot.
as for what's to come, now that the story is over... well, to be honest, i'm not sure yet. i do want to write a sequel (covering the events of season 4 of course), i just don't know if i actually will. i suppose part of what would help me to decide is if people really want to see one. now, this isn't me guaranteeing that if enough people say yes, sequel please! that i will for sure write one, so just keep that in mind.
if i'm being completely honest i think the main issue is that, while i do have some ideas for how to continue, i don't have a lot. which is... obviously a problem. at the very least i'd need to map out how i would want the third story to play out (because if i do do s4, then i'm almost certainly committing to covering s5 as well), particularly the ending. like i said, i have some ideas—in fact, i even planted little hints here and there in this story for certain future twists, just in case. but i refuse to commit if i don't have a solid ending planned, it seriously would break my heart to leave this series incomplete. honestly this is where i think season 5 will most come in handy, helping me plan towards a satisfying ending (in regards to the supernatural side of things, at least). so yeah, i guess we'll see!
tldr: i'll have to see season 5 first before i decide if i can commit to writing a sequel.
FUCK ALL THAT I'M WRITING IT LMAO. HAPPY NOVEMBER 6TH 🥳
new/revamped individual chapter covers!! you wouldn't believe the amount of time it took to make these, and only for tumblr to eat the quality?? like i swear the third one doesn't actually look that shit normally lmfaooo i'm so annoyed 😭
that's all for now but if you have any other questions, please don't hesitate to ask! i could seriously talk about this story all day long :)
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