Behind Colder Than Winter: Chapter 1

Chapter One: The Rink Incident

Commentary

Spoiler Alert: This is not a chapter from the book, but merely a commentary about it. Please note that if you haven't read Colder Than Winter yet, you will see spoilers to chapter one and possibly minor details from future chapters as well.

One Shot Shot Down

Fun fact: Colder Than Winter (CTW) was not originally intended to be a full story. I was set on it being a simple one-shot. That one-shot consisted of what is now chapter 1 and 2. It was not going to continue after that point. However, I asked my sister to read it so she can point out the typos (because I cannot, for the life of me, catch all of them!) When she was done, she said that she wanted to know what happened next.

And voila! My road to complete CTW began! Which, I'm glad I did. I've seriously come to love my story so much! Even in it's imperfection.

The Third-Person Snippets

At the start of some chapters are little tidbits that keep us updated on what's going on on the other side of the plot with the adults. At first I considered writing the adults' perspectives just as devotedly as our main characters. However, I figured the story was already crowded with different perspectives. Therefore, I only included a small amount that I felt was needed at the time they were posted.

I even dropped questions about them throughout the story so that I could bring up their back stories later. Unfortunately, I was so focused on answering questions about the teen characters that I overlooked the chance to tend to the older ones. I am contemplating writing short side stories that didn't make it into the book though.

Our Infamous Bullies

Namjoon, Jungkook, Yoongi, and Taehyung.

I mean if you had to choose four of the seven guys to be bullies, wouldn't it be these four? Namjoon with his leadership skills and dangerous brain. Jungkook with his muscles and persistence. Yoongi...well, because he's Yoongi. And Tae with his talent for being underestimated. They just clicked as the perfect dysfunctional bunch, which made them perfect.

When creating them as bullies, I thought it might be interesting to select a few real life qualities about them and then twist it into a dark alter-ego version of it. Namjoon is very intelligent, philosophical, and always looking to learn what he can about life. But how would that type of mind end up if the only life he knew was the one where his parents constantly made each other miserable - where his father was selfish and an unfaithful husband and his mother was an alcoholic gold digger?

I never got into Jungkook's past in the story. Like, at all. And even Taehyung for that matter. The reason for that is simply that I didn't want the story to get too dark. So I sort of beat around the bush and avoided writing too much about those two. However, I did stick with Jungkook's strength and persistence as well as Taehyung's staggering beauty, secret weapon role, and cutesy personality.

As for Yoongi, he has had a lot of hidden self loathing going on for the past couple of years but that's all I can tell you. (Just in case some of you have read chapter one but not the rest yet.)

Jung Hoseok

Another fun fact: CTW is a reconstructed idea from a previous BTS fan fiction I started, which I gave up on. And that's okay because I think I did a lot better this time around. Anyway, in this forgotten fanfic, I planned for my main character to befriend each member in the same order that I noticed them. Hobi was the first. I mean how could he not be with sunshine for a face?

You'll notice that his energy and personality isn't so different. That's because I felt like Yurim would've needed someone like him while in school. Didn't we all? Hobi just knows how to make you feel included and I wanted that aspect about him to stay.

The It Boys

Jimin and Seokjin are the golden boys of their high school. Everyone knows their name and wants to be noticed by them.

Jin. Of course I made my bias wrecker the dream guy. For Jin I kept his confidence and carefree characteristics. I also had the sense that Jin, in real life, actually has a lot of wisdom to offer despite always throwing out jokes and diffusing tension with lighthearted silliness. So I wanted to bring that out in my story by toning down the goofy side of him.

Jimin. I kinda felt bad that I hadn't put much of a spotlight on him, but it's difficult to do so in the beginning when there's already so many characters involved in one chapter. However, Jimin plays a pretty important role in the second half of the story, so he'll definitely get to shine.

Last But Not Least

Yurim. One more fun fact: this name is the name of one of my childhood friends. To be honest, I didn't want to spend hours trying to find a name I liked for my main character. I tend to do that a lot. So, I just grabbed one from memory and ran with it. Also, I still have yet to find a name that ends in 'rim' in the K-Pop/K-Drama world so it seems unique to me. Or maybe I'm just blind, I don't know.

One of the things I regret is that I hadn't fleshed out Yurim's character before continuing on with writing chapter three. Like I said, I only intended to keep CTW a one-shot story so I didn't prepare a background for her until later as I was writing. But it's okay! I've already agreed that this is my training wheel story. Now I know that I need to be more thorough when writing a full grown plot. It's all good!

Anyway, I was really excited to make a female protagonist that isn't afraid to take a swing at the school bully. It was part of her flaw but it was still awesome! As for the faceclaim, I chose Seo Ye Ji. I had just watched "It's Okay to Not be Okay" and I'm a fan of her solemn facial expressions while still being capable of being bright and cute. I thought she radiated Yurim's vibe well. I also appreciate that she has a lower voice as I had seen too much aegyo going on in K-Pop and K-Dramas at the time and really needed something different. (xD)

Closing: Favorite Part

My favorite part of this chapter has to be when Yurim is skating on her own and just enjoying herself and Jin notices her for the first time because of it. Something I've learned through life is that worry and self consciousness really dampens our potential to be the best of who we are. Sometimes all we need is to find those things that bring out our smile or our confidence and it will lead to new and exciting things - things that will either challenge us and make us stronger or lift us up to let us know that we're doing great and to keep going.

That's all for now. 'Til next time, fellow geniuses!