Final Notes

Some of the best authors have said the most important thing to do is to write what matters.

I believe in that.

As writers, I think there is a certain responsibility to memorialize the ideas of the time. It's difficult to write anything without our culture saturating it. From something as simple as pop culture references to the civil unrest in the nation, everything has a way of seeping into what we write - even fiction. This is, I think, because the written word is the most straightforward and steadfast form of communication. Authors have been utilizing this communication in fiction from the very start; Jane Austen's works all reflect the values and hypocrisy of peerage; Stephen King regularly writes about how our fears dictate our behaviors; and countless young adult authors have penned entire worlds on the ideas of propaganda, free press, revolution, and speaking out against social injustices. You can see allegories for real life in all kinds of literature, such as How to Kill a Mockingbird, The Lord of the Flies, 1984, Fahrenheit 451, and The Catcher in the Rye. Authors speak directly to readers about the issues of the times through fiction. Authors capture the attitude, the fear, the controversies of the time, either with underlying or explicit detail. Authors do this because it's unavoidable because whether we like it or not, we are all products of our choices, our circumstances, our cultures, and the world at large.

Fiction is never just fiction. If you look closely enough, there are themes everywhere. Even in Twilight, where you could argue that the coming of age plotline is punctuated with moral and ethical struggles, as well as a fear of authoritarianism. It's there, intentionally or not.

So. Authors are tasked to write what matters.

Love 2.0 has had a lot of themes packed into the plot, many of them deliberately overt to reflect characters who are very much a product of these times. I said from the very beginning that these characters are all inspired by Millennials and Gen Z, specifically the things they care about. With these characters, we covered capitalism, social justice, equality, racism, LGBTQ issues, the rights of free speech and protest, cultural awareness, indigenous rights, feminism, intimacy, consent, and so much more. We experienced some of these issues with them.

It was important, for me, to capture the essence of these generations. My goal was to create an immersive experience that reflects how people think and feel in the real world. In particular, I put a lot of focus on the divide between online and offline personalities, because we are all, in a way, living double lives.

Much of this story was also experimentation for how to tell a story. Do I have to rely solely on narrative to develop a character? How can I place one piece of a very large puzzle that will make a big picture? How can I use different perspectives to capture the different facets of a personality? What mediums can tell a story? Who needs to be speaking to provide the right perspective? I'd like to think that I succeeded with this non-linear narrative.

Initially, this story was supposed to be a Twilight retelling of the Chinese drama Love o2o. I wanted to infuse the story with Western attitudes. I wanted to explore what modern love can look like and how important non-romantic relationships are, sometimes even more important and intimate than romance. But in doing this, the story that was supposed to be less than 100k blew up and became something much bigger and much more important.

Oh, there is certainly romance. But it's probably the most intimate relationship I've ever written. It was very emotional and so fraught with a special sort of intimacy that, in the end, I didn't end up writing anything more explicit than third base. When the time came, it didn't feel right. It felt intrusive to the characters. So, I left it out, and that felt like a more honest way to tell the story. I leave the rest up to your imagination.

This story was written in the middle of a worldwide pandemic. So many of us were turning to the arts for escapism, and I know that this story became an escape for so many. There was a certain lightness in the narrative that has made Love 2.0 a happy place to be - even for me.

I have poured so much of myself into this story - so much more than I ever thought. So many of the details, the pop culture references, the social commentary is just me. Something about these characters made it so easy to connect that my soul ended up on the page without me even realizing it. In many ways, this story is an ode to being a modern person, just as much as it is an exploration in all the attitudes and perspectives that people my age feel. Here are our interests, our trends, our dispositions. Here is me, right here to be seen and accessed - and that's not even counting the A/Ns.

Someone told me earlier in 2020 that politics and social issues should be separated from writing. I disagree. I think that's impossible. Psychologically, it's very difficult to separate our interests from our worldviews - one always informs the other. Maybe that's why the premise and narrative of this story contains so much of myself.

It's my sincere wish that you come out of this story having gained something - happiness, satisfaction, a new perspective, education. I hope that the story was immersive and that it leaves an impression on you. I hope parts of the story made you think about the younger generation and how they view the world.

I hope this story made you smile.

As always, be honest. I can take it. Stay safe, everyone. Be the good you want to see in the world.

~Rae