Ok, so I thought it was about time, to tell you all the nitty gritty details about my one and only love in writing, and that is of course the five stories I started many years ago which was named: Westlife Trilogy 2002 – Series One.
First of all there are five stories, and all of them follow the challenges faced yours truly: yes me and of course the Westlife lads too. There are other characters as well whose own stories appear from time to time.
I can also say they weren’t done in the correct order; the five stories in order are: ‘Can’t lose what you never had’, ‘My love’, ‘I don’t wanna fight’, ‘My Everything’ and ‘Against all odds’
IDWF was born December 6th ’01, ME was born December 30th ’01, ML was born January 4th ’02, AAO and CLWYNH appeared between late 2001 to 2002 also.
Originally I was only ever going to write one story, but I remember on that particular day December 6th, I was sitting listening to Westlife’s first album, when I heard the song ‘I don’t wanna fight’ which is the name of the song and why I named my story after it and something about it really struck a chord with me and it came from the song’s second verse. It had such a profound affect which lead me to be inspired.
Now the first draft of this story was quite different to the story I eventually wrote, the basics of it showed my two characters, aka Vickie and Mark having just had an argument, they are refusing to speak to each other, though they do want to try and work around this issue they have and get it resolved. Then as I was writing this I was beginning to wonder about them as a couple; like, how they got to being together and where they were going in the future.
The song ‘My Everything’ by 98 Degrees then became the headline for the second story, at the time I hadn’t considered it being a sequel it was just another story and aimed to see how the future unfolded for my two characters and as I wrote this I began to realise there were elements in this story relating to the first one and found a way to tie them together.
In January 2002 as I worked on both those stories I discovered in IDWF there were some interesting questions raised about Vickie’s character in terms of what she was hiding from everyone, and the parts of her life I hadn’t yet considered for her. At this point ‘My love’ from Westlife was a song to the story allowing me to see how the characters’ stories had developed before they got into their problems in IDWF, so it was the prequel if one should call it; and it brought out the side of the pair in the early parts of their development as a couple.
Later that year the story continuing on from ME became the consideration again aimed at their future and the possibilities of where they had been and what was next; and unlike most stories I never aimed to make it a happy ending; instead this story was going to take a turn for the worst where my lead character never survived. (as of 2010 this has changed significantly, I couldn’t bring myself to be that cruel) and although ‘Against all odds’ isn’t a song I listen to much, there was some significance to its meaning for the story of the same name. I took some elements from ME into this one to make it a bit more interesting and added a few other components as well, and also the events from ML played a factor.CLWYH was the very last story and would be the one to turn it into series and this story basically goes back to the beginning of the characters’ lives before they met and how they deal with what happens in their lives, its been the hardest story to write because I had the others done before this one and it seems as the first is trying to mould it for the remainder of the series to match the others.
CLWYH is set in September – October 1998, in Co. Sligo, Ireland, before Westlife’s emergence in the music industry and sees a bit of it start to unfold though it is not vital for the first story because its main point sis to chart the lives of Mark and Vickie at the very early stage, from them meeting and developing their relationship over time. It seemed a bit crazy being set in a month and everything was supposed to happen in that time frame but for me its worked out well. The epilogue of the story is based in December ’98.
ML is set in May 1999 in Australia, and does continue over the course of the next few months, and by this stage of the story its been 8th months on since the first and Westlife are just starting to make a name for themselves. Mark and Vickie are in a situation of dealing with the attention from the public as well as their own, as there is a big stepping stone they cross (*wink*). At the same time the story opens up to Shane and a friend of Vickie’s in Nicole and what goes on between the two of them. The epilogue centres on February 2000.
IDWF is set in 2002 in London and Co. Sligo, three years later after the events from the second story and goes for a few months. Relationships are well-established now and our two couples have been very happy and are moving on with their lives but not all is what it appears when secrets come out threatening to destroy it at once. Everyone is left hurt, betrayed and misunderstood and in particular Vickie who now wonders whether this is really the life she wants to keep leading, and at the same time another of the Westlife lads and his loved one have a bridge they must overcome. The epilogue sees a happy ending for everyone in 2003.
ME is set in 2004 in Co. Sligo, two years after the third story and one couple is again reaching a new milestone but before they can do it they have a major block to get past and it is one that will put them on a knife edge when the realise perhaps the past few years have robbed them of a true life experience. It again puts Vickie and Mark in a problematic situation and in many respects it is like the 3rd story just in reverse. There is no epilogue as yet.
AAO is set in 2009, Co. Sligo, five years on and our couple have one more fight on their hands with Vickie’s own secret out in the open, threat of an old friend comes to pass and an unlikely helper waiting in the wings but above all questions are raised. 11years is a long time to be with someone especially in the public and they’ve been tested along the way but whether their resolve is really strong enough to stand up a final time remains to be seen. The epilogue is set for 2010.
My favourite story of all five is the third one, I started with it and in essence it created the idea of the series, even though the other stories sewed together the series.In essence the five stories looks at the elements of first love, public scrutiny, family, relationships and life..
While I was very young and naive when I started writing this; and as I see it now there are plenty of changes to make, still I wouldn’t change the original from what it was because that was how I thought at the time. It will be further edited with slight changes here and there eventually but the original is as it was and I wouldn’t change it.
While there were many influences into writing this like the songs each story is named after; the biggest part to writing it was because of just one character and that is; daughter Samantha Erin Pearson (last name taken from her mother’s family, though later dropped after taking up her father’s). She only appears at the end the 2nd story and is mentioned briefly in the 3rd and 4th story before becoming significant in the latter stages of the final story.So that there is all of it.I have plans to tell you about the second series…but that is a story for another day; though I can give you a slight hint.
In The Official Westlife Series – Part 2, explores a different side to our couple, abs is using different parts of series 1 to form this second series. An example I can give you is, the first story in this 2nd series named: ‘I lay my love on you’ – set in 2001 so it is before the 3rd story IDWF in series 1 and after the 2nd story of ML in 1999 but is NOT related to series 1 at all.I have an inkling of doing a series 3 maybe (at my age I’m not sure my creative juices can still flow. lol) or hopefully another series of something else…maybe one for BSB or *NSYNC…you never know…