(I'm going to cheat here and address all three from the meme, because I never get asked about 4B!)
I don't think I really cut anything out of that particular story mostly because I wound up including more than I thought, but let me think... I definitely learned to not start posting something, no matter how close I think I am to finishing. I was originally going to end things in the hospital, skipping a large chunk of what after Jack got shot, and explain or imply it with the final scene of Bobby giving him the toothbrush and the "tooth fairy" joke.
Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your point-of-view, as I was thinking that scene through (and how to finish things up in the store), I realized it was going to be very difficult to fit all of those resolutions into the story (Jack's concussion/confusion over the Jerry/Abel thing, Bobby "convincing" the ones who escaped to give themselves up). It's interesting, because it almost feels like two stories to me, because the "climax" in my mind was always the point where Jack got shot, not everything after. (That would be the longest falling action EVAH.)
One thing I wondered about, a lot, and tried to research to the best of my ability is whether or not Angel could have actually been there. His intro scene in the movie made it seem like his brothers hadn't seen him since he'd gone into the Marines (they definitely would have made him shave that "afro"... if he ever had one and that wasn't some strange in-joke.) So I kind of fudged it a little so that all of them could have been there at the same time.
I also wondered a whole lot about the timing of when each kid came into Evelyn's care, so I decided at some point to kind of guesstimate that Bobby came there somewhere between the ages of 8-11, Jerry 9-12, Angel was probably a teen, maybe 13 or 14, and Jack came in around six or seven. My reasoning for why escapes me at the moment, but I think it seemed to stem from the way they acted with their memories of Evelyn, and how they acted around each other. Also, I totally wanted Jack to have been with the Mercers long enough to have a solid bond with his brothers, as well as to have recovered somewhat mentally from whatever trauma it was that still makes him shake at the table when he's an adult.
no subject
(I'm going to cheat here and address all three from the meme, because I never get asked about 4B!)
I don't think I really cut anything out of that particular story mostly because I wound up including more than I thought, but let me think... I definitely learned to not start posting something, no matter how close I think I am to finishing. I was originally going to end things in the hospital, skipping a large chunk of what after Jack got shot, and explain or imply it with the final scene of Bobby giving him the toothbrush and the "tooth fairy" joke.
Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your point-of-view, as I was thinking that scene through (and how to finish things up in the store), I realized it was going to be very difficult to fit all of those resolutions into the story (Jack's concussion/confusion over the Jerry/Abel thing, Bobby "convincing" the ones who escaped to give themselves up). It's interesting, because it almost feels like two stories to me, because the "climax" in my mind was always the point where Jack got shot, not everything after. (That would be the longest falling action EVAH.)
One thing I wondered about, a lot, and tried to research to the best of my ability is whether or not Angel could have actually been there. His intro scene in the movie made it seem like his brothers hadn't seen him since he'd gone into the Marines (they definitely would have made him shave that "afro"... if he ever had one and that wasn't some strange in-joke.) So I kind of fudged it a little so that all of them could have been there at the same time.
I also wondered a whole lot about the timing of when each kid came into Evelyn's care, so I decided at some point to kind of guesstimate that Bobby came there somewhere between the ages of 8-11, Jerry 9-12, Angel was probably a teen, maybe 13 or 14, and Jack came in around six or seven. My reasoning for why escapes me at the moment, but I think it seemed to stem from the way they acted with their memories of Evelyn, and how they acted around each other. Also, I totally wanted Jack to have been with the Mercers long enough to have a solid bond with his brothers, as well as to have recovered somewhat mentally from whatever trauma it was that still makes him shake at the table when he's an adult.