/May 27th, 2014

I'm covered in sand, still in my slightly-damp bathing suit after a day at the beach. My scratched up sunglasses are perched on top of my head and my legs are curled up beneath me on my seat. I've taken a break from Falling Dark for just a few moments, just to let myself write this tiny little idea down.
That tiny little idea turned into over 800 words of the first scene I ever thought of for Empty Alibi. Those 800 words led to Bethany, Elliot, and Harris. Jules and Chapman would come later.
May 27th, 2014, at 11:57 PM, I closed out the document after saving it as "Bethany Wilson and a Rather Gruesome Murder (Early Twentieth Century Mystery Idea Thing)".
I would spend that whole summer thinking of that story. It would be pushed to the back burner for a while, but I'd always come back to it. I drabbled for it over and over again, I tried to write the beginning. I started a Pinterest board.
In October I was trying to pick between that (which I was still just calling Bethany Wilson Story) and Project Orion (which has been put on what looks like a permanent hold - not my genre anymore, not something I really want to write). I was leaning towards Orion, and at the time, I didn't think much about historicals.
As far as I was concerned, Bethany was the exception to my streak of (admittedly, cliched) dystopian story ideas.
I wrote up synopses for both, though, and since I couldn't decide, I let my mom read them.
"Which do you think I should write?" I'd asked her.

She said Bethany.
Why?
It was outside of my comfort zone.
It was different than what I'd usually written.
And so I started pinning more onto my Bethany board. I came up with a title (Empty Alibi). I renamed Thomas Elliot as Elliot Henry, and gave the name Thomas to Bethany's older brother. Jules and Chapman were the product of character lounges with Sam.
Jules was created solely for the purpose of teasing/scaring/annoying Ashford Clarke (actual perfection) (jk) (not really). Chapman was how, in the Ellyn!universe, Bethany ended up bringing down the villain. He was a detective with the NYPD who helped her in the end.
I moved the story from 1913 to 1919, then to 1921. I can't remember why, now. It was probably a combination of Downton Abbey and various 1920s things I'd seen on Pinterest.
And just before NaNo started, I nailed down a year. 1924.
I documented my draft-one adventures all throughout November (here).
I'm spending the rest of the summer with Bethany and co. I've written roughly 136,000 words total for this story. I've spent hours on end brainstorming, developing, writing, thinking. I've made collages and written complete fluff just to make myself happy.
So here's to that hint of an idea I had on May 27th, 2014. And for once I'm going to congratulate myself for procrastinating.
Because if I hadn't been seriously stuck on Falling Dark, Empty Alibi might not have happened.