NOTES/INSIGHTS/RAMBLINGS ON MONTH 1 OF YR FANFIC

Some lengthy notes on the first month of my Y&R Story:

Since I’ve taken some time off from posting episodes (to write more, I promise!!), I thought it was in order to offer some notes, comments, insights, reflections, ramblings on the first month (in case anyone is interested).

First off, THANK YOU so much to those who have been reading along. I appreviate it very much and I also really appreciate the comments and feedback that have been left for me on various forums (please respond to my survey here and/or email me at yrfanfic@yahoo.com if you have any suggestions or comments for me).

I can’t believe it was back in April that I started planning the story and I have now posted the first month of episodes. It has taken a lot more time and devotion than I expected, and unfortunately, I haven’t had as much time to devote to it lately as I would like. Something unexpected has come up that’s eaten away most of my writing time, which is the reason for the lack of episodes this week (and more than likely, until the beginning of August when I plan to return in full force).

I’ll talk a little bit about each of the storylines that I previewed in the Summer 2010 Spoilers thread, and offer a few more insights into how/why they were developed and what might be happening in the future:

1) JT’s life is changed forever by a successive string of shocking announcements.

This one hasn’t really happened yet, but is one of the storylines I most look forward to developing. JT has been on the show now for more than 10 years and we know very little about him. For one, we’ve never seen his family. That was the motivation behind this story. In my Episode 1, I mentioned JT having a younger sister that he isn’t very close to. Apparently, JT really does have a younger sister, so this was the perfect opportunity to help reintroduce teens into Genoa City. You’ll notice she’s not on the Summer 2010 Cast List that I’ve posted. That’s because JT’s sister, who I’ve named DJ, is not joining the show quite yet, but she’ll be mentioned a few times and the fact that JT isn’t close with her will have ramifications for his current situation.

What does this have to do with a “successive string of shocking announcements?” Not going to say yet, but what I will say is that JT’s family tree will be revealed, and not everything is as it seems.

2) Victor’s constant interference in his children’s lives continues to drive them further away from him.

We’ve seen this mostly with Abby so far, but remember, in my story, Victoria and Billy are still “married” and no one knows this (except Rafe, who was still asked about an annulment even though B/V decided not to go through with it), so Victor and Victoria never had their confrontation. I’m waiting for a much better time (than the real show) to reveal their “marriage.” Victor’s reaction will be pretty much what it was on the real show, but there will be another instance of him controlling Victoria’s life that will hopefully be shocking and unexpected. There will be a few (hopefully consecutive) episodes where the bombs will be dropped one by one towards the end of the summer. At least one of them will not paint Victor in a favorable light and might once again turn his family against him.

3) Tucker’s efforts to make peace with Katherine may have less to do with his own guilt & more to do with his wanting to earn the affections of a certain lady.

So we’ve seen Tucker try to merge his company with Chancellor Industries, and we’ve seen him admit to Katherine that he’d like a relationship with her. We’ve never seen Tucker interact with Ashley in my story, but he still keeps Jabot though, so it has to be coming soon. Since Ashley just begun her job as CEO and she’s never shared all the bonding scenes with him, you’ll get to see the beginnings of their relationship in my story. They are not on as good of terms… Ashley still does not completely trust Tucker and harbors some resentment that he still holds her family’s company. Tucker is definitely interested in Ashley though and wants to prove that she has him all wrong. Their relationship will have a different dynamic than it does on the real show. Who’s using who? That will be the question.

4) Phyllis’s past actions come back to haunt her.

Right now, the only thing that’s happened is Phyllis got two strange phone calls and a dead eel in her bed. I know that seems like hardly anything in a month’s time, but these episodes have really only taken place over the course of a few days, so things have happened very quickly and even though the eel incident was in Episode 3, it’s not like there’s been a three-week time gap where nothing has happened to Phyllis.

What will happen next to Phyllis? Have a look at her list of crimes on Soapcentral. Pretty much anything that’s listed there is fair game. Someone clearly knows all of Phyllis’s secrets and is making her pay. Who is it? And why is this person tormenting her? There are so many people it could be – Brian Hamilton, Tim Reid, Sasha Greene (back from the dead?), Christine, the list goes on and on. Or could it be someone less obvious who has a secret past with Phyllis? All will be revealed… eventually. What I will say is that several people from Phyllis’s past will, at some point, make a guest appearance, so anything’s possible. I know a lot of users on the message boards want Phyllis to be held accountable for her past, so I hope that when it’s resolved (not by the end of summer), that the outcome will be satisfactory and maybe help redeem Phyllis a little.

5) As she struggles to regain her memory, Jana is torn between trying to reclaim her old life or embracing her new self… & a new love.

I don’t want to give away too much here, but I think the direction this storyline is taking has been fairly obvious. I haven’t really tried to hide the fact that Jana will be spending a lot of time with Scott instead of Kevin, and there will definitely be feelings formed there. In all of their early scenes, I foreshadowed the connection that would be between them: They bonded over both needing to ‘rediscover’ Genoa City, Jana suggested that maybe Scott’s perfect woman would be in GC, Jana asked Scott if he had any problems “cheating” (not referring to infidelity, but the connotations were clear). So there is definitely something going on between the two of them, even though neither one has admitted it yet. The question is… when/if does Jana decide that what she had with Kevin (which she still doesn’t even remember) can’t be recaptured? And how/when do Scott and Jana act on their feelings for one another? I’m not saying the answer to either of these questions because there is definitely still some fight left in Kevin/Jana. If I was going to, I would never destroy them as a couple as quickly as the real show did just to have Ryder/Jana hook up for a few weeks. And even if I did have Scott and Jana actually become a couple, it’s not quite clear yet who the “end game” is – will it ultimately be Jana/Scott or will Jana realize that what she had with Kevin is too special to give up? That’s the storyline in the most basic form, but it will get a lot more complicated than that. I think it will be really interesting and there will be a lot of twists and turns. This is one of the storylines I’m most looking forward to writing… I think it will be much more riveting that the Jana/Ryder story on the real show, and the implications of it will be long-lasting and far-reaching for the Baldwin-Fisher extended family.

6) As he tries to move on without Amber, Daniel finds an unlikely ally who has the potential to become more than just a friend.

I think this one is fairly evident too considering the scenes that Daniel has been in, and who he’s shared them with. More on this one when it actually develops a bit more… (but rest assured, it is NOT Abby!!)

7) The Newman-Abbott rivalry begins a new chapter when Kyle Abbott returns to Genoa City, intent on proving his superiority over Noah Newman.

I am very much looking forward to writing the “teen scene” storylines over the summer. I realize how popular the whole Glo by Jabot stuff was in the summer of 2001(?), and I’ve been wanting the real show to offer a teen storyline for a long time now. There are so many outstanding legacy characters who could return as teens, so I am thrilled to be able to reintroduce Kyle Abbott and Ricky Williams, along with a new teen (female) character named Sully, who has a mysterious past and quickly gets involved with the other teens.

In my second-last episode (Episode 13), Kyle and Ricky came to town. I think I effectively established in those episodes that Kyle is clearly the more troubled of the two, and Ricky is the follower who, despite his best intentions, is going to fall victim to Kyle’s bad influence. For Abby, things will be a little more complicated as she’ll be torn between her nephew Noah and her cousin Kyle, who take an instant dislike to one another.

I really like the idea that the Newman-Abbott feud can continue on in another generation and I know this was a popular one on all the message boards that I’ve visited. Hopefully I can do it justice.

8) The unexpected return of a woman from Malcolm & Neil’s past threatens to once again put the half-brothers at odds with one another.

This was one of the earliest reveals and it’s obvious that it’s Alex Perez, the former fiancé of Malcolm who he never contacted after returning from the dead. I really would have liked the real show to address this when Malcolm returned, but instead they had to bring him back just to do the Lily paternity storyline… Anyway, seeing as Alex was a corporate lawyer, I thought this was a good opportunity to bring on an additional minority character and build up Tucker McCall Unlimited. Ironically, the real show is now doing the same thing with Sophia Dupre, so I’ll be interested to see how that story plays out compared to mine.

9) Abby’s growing relationship with Ryder continues to be problematic for her parents, who will go to any lengths to keep them apart.

We’ve already seen this with regards to Victor (although he definitely has more up his sleeve still), but Ashley’s reaction to the relationship has a whole added layer to it that you’ll see start to play out soon. It has to do with who Ryder’s father is and his history with her family. This storyline will continue to develop into the fall and lead to a peak in the winter.

*) There’s another storyline that’s in it’s beginning stages, and that’s Katherine and Jill asking Paul to find Jill’s birth mother. The reason I haven’t discussed that story is because it’s just being established… it’ll be revealed in September (around Jill’s birthday), so it’ll be a fall storyline rather than a summer one. What I can say is that I think the reveal of Jill’s parents will be very interesting, and that Neil Fenmore is NOT Jill’s father nor is Lauren her sister. I planned out this story in April with the others, long before I knew the real show planned to reveal Jill’s birth parents, so I’m glad the two storylines are not running simultaneously. I think the implications of who Jill’s parents are in my story will be greater than in the real show, but since the Lauren vs. Jill story is just beginning, perhaps it’s too early to tell.

Character Episode Counts

So I just finished updating a chart of which episodes all the characters have appeared in, and it was a little surprising in some cases, and in others, exactly what I expected. It turns out Lauren has been in the most episodes (9 out of 14), which I really didn’t realize at all as I was writing them. When I thought about it a little, though, it makes sense: Lauren’s son Scott just came back to town; she’s still dealing with the tail-end of the Sarah/Daisy/Ryder stuff; she has the Boutique to run; she’s friends with Phyllis, who is in a frontburner storyline, etc. So of course she will be in it a lot. The funny thing is she doesn’t really have a storyline herself though; she’s just there in a supporting role to the other characters she’s interacting with. This may soon change though. There will something big involving Lauren towards the end of summer.

Katherine is the next most featured (8/14 episodes), which is no surprise, considering how she regularly interacts with at least someone from all of the other five core families. Speaking of the families, the episode counts for each family were as follows (Baldwin-Fishers: 56 appearances, Newmans: 43 appearances, Abbotts: 30 appearances, Chancellors: 20 appearances, Winters: 20 appearances, Williams: 8 appearances; “Others” in 12 appearances). Remember, this is just over one month, though, so sometimes one month may skew heavily in favor of one family or character, but I will definitely be keeping track of this and having a balance. My story will definitely NOT be The Newman Show (or maybe The Baldwin-Fisher show, in this case)… In fact, now that Kyle and Ricky have returned, I’d estimate that next month will feature the Abbotts and the Williams more than the BFs and the Newmans. Admittedly, since I cut out Cane/Chloe/Chance/Nina, the Chancellors’ airtime has suffered, but the family will still remain an integral part of the show. For the Winters family, Lily will be featured more once I return with more episodes, and I also have several episodes exploring the Devon/Roxanne relationship, which has been really neglected on the real show. So the Winters will be getting some more face time, as well.

Probably the biggest disappointment to many is that Sharon has only been in 2 episodes out of 14!!! I realize this – it was difficult to fit her in when there were so many other storylines I had to establish. But think of it this way: Sharon has been happily raising Faith. There’s no Adam to continually torment her. And rest assured that Sharon will be in a frontburner storyline for the rest of the summer, so expect her episode count to skyrocket soon.

I think I’ve rambled enough now. Again, a HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who has invested time into my story. Please continue to stick with it as new episodes go up later this summer. I promise you won’t be disappointed.