USA Today Bestselling Author of The Young Adult Trilogy The Breathing Series
I would like to share some scenes that never made the final version. A couple are from the original draft of OOB that was written in 2009. And the others are moments that changed completely, or just didn’t add to the plot. But they’re just too important to me to throw away.
I must warn you that they are first drafts and flawed, but if you can get past that, I think you’ll enjoy them!
I had so much fun writing this scene with the guys. I got a little carried away. In the end, it was too much after Emma’s run on the beach.
This is a cute moment that was eventually edited out because it wasn’t necessary for the plot. You’ll see why I wanted to share it with you once you read it.
I fought with Chapter 12 for about two weeks. I ended up leaving it and continuing to write the story, knowing I had to come back to it eventually. Initially, I did have Jonathan physically in OUT OF BREATH. But why he was on the camping trip was a side story I didn’t want to go into since it would divert the story-line from what this scene is truly about. However, if I left it without the explanation, my beta readers had a hard time accepting that he was there as a coincidence (which it wasn’t). I decided to remove him from the story, and inserted the text exchange. And as you can see, Emma’s tone in this version compared to the final is completely different as well. A lot happens during editing.
From the First Draft of OoB
As I’ve mentioned before, I initially wrote all three books back to back. I ended up rewriting BARELY BREATHING and OUT BREATH over entirely. There were plot developments that were left out or it ended up going in a different direction, so these scenes didn’t make sense any longer. But they’re two of my favorites, so I wanted to share them.
I adore this scene between Emma and Serena.
I finally got them to play soccer together. I really wanted this to make the final version of OUT OF BREATH, but it just didn’t fit anywhere. This happened when the Stanford roommates came to visit, right after Cole left and Emma moved into the house in Santa Barbara with Evan and Sara.