I started writing Make It Alright the second quarter of my senior year. Like many high school seniors, I had a fairly easy schedule. And to top it off, I dropped my math class. It was fifth period, and NO ONE else had an open fifth period. Make It Alright began as a way to pass the boredom during empty those 55-minutes everyday.

I wrote most of those early chapters in the park two blocks away from my high school, trying to get an early tan. I must have written four or five drafts of the prologue before I posted it on the Internet. I wanted to get it just perfect before anyone read it. That’s why the prologue is longer then any other chapter. Funny thing is, I’m still not happy with the prologue. I could easily write several more drafts before I get it just right.

As Make It Alright began to gain more of a reader following, I became more interested in producing chapters for everyone to read, rather then getting the perfect draft. Maybe one day, when I’ve finally finished the story, I’ll go back and revise it to perfection.

One of my main problems with Make It Alright is that the main character, Melissa, has the same name as myself. I’m a huge fanfic addict, and I always thought it was kind of cheesy when author’s named their characters after themselves. So here’s the story on that. The entire time I was writing the prologue, I didn’t have a name for the main character. But time was running out until I had to post the prologue, and I needed to come up with something to call this unnamed girl. So I reluctantly gave her my name. Why? Simply because I was familiar with it, and Melissa has a lot of good nicknames I knew I could use in the story.

Melissa the character obviously has a lot in common with myself. But we’re not the same person. Melissa has a lot in common with me when I first started writing the story. Her brown-and-orange truck, Butch, belonged to my friend Kate. The smoothies she drinks in the prologue stem from a Jamba Juice fetish I had when I began the writing the story.

I’m not sure how well I write Nick. Most of the thought processes he goes through stem my own thoughts on Nick. You know what I’m talking about. Being a real Backstreet fanatic means over-analyzing every aspect of the Boys life, whether or not you want to. But Nick’s actual dialogue sounds nothing like Nick Carter. I’m trying my hardest, but its just not there yet. Hopefully, the more I write, the better it will get.

Brent. Poor, poor Brent. I feel so bad for that boy. I literally tear him apart in this story. And the worst part is, I know nothing about that boy. I went onto a couple BIK sites, and found enough information to get the basic idea of who Brent is. The rest of his character is my imagination. I feel bad for writing him in such a bad light during the fight with Mandy in Chapter 31. I based that fight on something that occurred between some of my roommates at the beginning of the year.

Amanda Williford. I hated the girl as much as any other Backstreet fan. But she also sort of fascinated me, simply because I was trying to figure out what Nick saw in her. Anyway, last summer she performed a free concert in my hometown. The original plan was to go and boo her, or throw water balloons at her or something. But my Backstreet fan backed out, and I didn’t have the nerve to be mean on my own. So I went to the show. And had a really good time. And later, I met Mandy, her mother and her dancers. As much as a hootchie she looks on screen and in print, Mandy is really pretty up close. She wasn’t wearing any make-up, completely fresh-faced. But she was really beautiful. She was also really nice. She signed autographs for hours, much longer then her managers wanted her to. Since then, I’ve had mixed feelings about Mandy. Deep down inside, I think there probably are really great qualities about the girl. But she’s so driven to be a star that those qualities are drowned out by the bitchy ones. I hope to portray the Mandy in my story as a happy medium of those two personalities: the bitchy superstar-wannabe, and the girl who Nick fell in love with. I have so many theories on the Nick and Mandy relationship. That’s the great part about writing this story- I’m able to express some of them. Maybe one day I’ll write up a little ditty on it.

Melissa’s friends: For those of you who don’t know, my life was stolen and made into a show called “Will & Grace.” Melissa’s friends in the story are a combination of my real-life best friends, and the characters on the TV show. Jorge is a combination of Will and Graham, (or Little G). Phillip is Jack, or the other Graham (Big G). Sadie is a toned-down version of Karen, and my friend Riana. She’s also inspired in part by Audrey on “Dawson’s Creek.”

And finally, the storyline. There must be hundreds of other Nick Carter fan fictions out there with the exact same storyline: best friends turning into something more. So why did I add another one to the pages of the Internet? The very first Backstreet fanfic I ever read stemmed from this common theme- do you guys remember Friendships Ever Changing? And because despite everything, I love clichéd storylines. When I read fanfics, this is the plotline which catches my attention. But I knew I had to do something to make my story stand out, and that’s why I added in the back-and-forth timeline. I just hope it worked.

I just wanted to thank all of my faithful readers for sticking by me throughout this past year. And what a crazy year it has been. I’m sorry the story is so slow-going sometimes. I’ve been on your end of the story before, anxiously awaiting for it to be updated, re-reading past chapters over and over again. I know how much it sucks. And I’m just as anxious as the rest of you to write and post the upcoming chapters. Aren’t you excited to find out how Melissa and Nick finally get together?

Thanks a million. -Melissa