Update Link: Foolish Games – Part 1

Happy Tuesday! Yes — that is a new story. Let me explain –

Short Explanation: Need to sketch out the next section of You’re Not Sorry because I’m winging it, and didn’t want to miss a day or several. Not Sorry will return either on Thursday or next Monday. If I’m not ready to start writing again on Thursday, I don’t want to write the new story for three days, switch to Not Sorry for 1 day and come back to the new story since it’s the new weekend story.

Longer Explanation

You’re Not Sorry has ended up being a deeply complex story with several strands and subplots that I didn’t plan for and I’ve been winging the last few parts, which I don’t like. (For example: the entire teen storyline has been a massive addition and was not planned in the slightest. I don’t mind the detour because it’s given me more motivations for Kristina, but it has been a detour, and I haven’t been able to sit down and plan the rest of the story.)

I’m taking a little time (1-3 days) to take a moment, and finish sketching out the story — without complicating life more. To avoid messing up my marathon, I’m going to start the story I had planned next. It will be your Flash update for today and maybe for a few days, and then we’ll make it the weekend Flash story until You’re Not Sorry is done.

Origins of New Story

As for this story, Foolish Games, it’s set in late 1997/early 1998. I’ve been mildly obsessed with this era for some time. I got inspired by a gif someone posted back in 2018 about the 20th anniversary, about Liz being at the shooting at Luke’s the night Jason saved Nikolas’s life, and I got struck with — what if she was a nurse and in Jason’s age range? Since Becky Herbst is actually older than Liz, it doesn’t feel weird to go back and age her to be about 22 since she was 21 at that point.

That particular plot bunny morphed into a story Kismet, that I wrote a little bit for an old Flash Fiction (Part 1 | Part 2) and was the November 2022 NaNoWriMo project. I started to write it according to my plot sketch — and then detoured into a mob storyline I hadn’t planned and that would either make Kismet super long — or I needed to rethink what that story was about. I recently decided that I was more interested in telling the story I’d started and not the one I’d planned. Kismet began as the “What if Elizabeth was part of the Michael story, not Robin?” and it’s become “What if Jason didn’t get involved with Michael’s paternity at all?” At least that’s the new plan.

If you’re interested in Kismet, it’s the $5 reward over on Patreon, and for Dec/Jan, I’ll be doing 25-minute writing sessions on Sundays to get it moving and then decide which story is going to be the weekend Flash Fiction series on Patreon (where I write first drafts of novels in flash fiction sessions). Right now, the choice is between Kismet and For the Broken Girl, Book 2 (the $10 Obsessed tier reward).

(I’ve also written another 1997/98 story: Karma).

A New Direction

Since I decided to remove the Michael element of Kismet, I had two choices: let the storyline I’d planned fade into the ether or….spin it off into its own story, and that’s what we’re doing here. Foolish Games begins after Michael’s death and the lie has begun, with Elizabeth as the NICU nurse and Carly who has already taken off.

I hope you guys are okay with the mild detour while I get Not Sorry in order 🙂 It might serve as a break to those of you not particularly invested in current day GH, to back to a simpler time. Writing about 1997 feels like historical fiction at this point, lol. No smart phones, wheeeee!