I ended up completely rewriting chapter one, which I didn't anticipate doing, so I decided to repost even though I said there weren't going to be updates. Yeah, I lied. :(
These are similar to the notes I had at the beginning of the original chapter. It's just some of my thoughts about and hopes for this story, in case you're interested, since it'll probably be a while before you see any (real) updates. If you are interested, keep reading; if not, skip on to the story.
Originally I didn't want to post this as a separate chapter because FFN rules say that's a no-no, but I feel like a lot of people do it anyway. I guess if the site wants to come after me for not wanting to hog up tons of space in my chapter with these, that's their prerogative.
This began as a writing exercise for myself, just to get me back in the habit of writing because I haven't done any serious writing in so long. Consequently, there were/are a ton of issues both with the writing itself and the plot behind it. I posted it in the hopes of motivating myself thinking that people had actually read this and might want to see more, but then I forgot about the fact that you really only get reviews when you update and are on the first page or two of stories. So I guess I'm gonna have to write this for myself and hope I can keep going.
That being the case, I would love to have a beta to consult and bounce ideas off of, and so s/he can kick my ass into gear when I start dragging my feet. PM me if you're interested and we'll discuss.
I know the college AU is nothing new, but my goal with this is to write a more "mature" romance, for lack of a better word. Don't get me wrong—I've read a ton of college fics and really enjoyed several of them. I'm not writing this as a way to prove there's something wrong with any of the others. In fact, if you do enjoy those, you may very well not like mine, since I feel like my target audience is different. I will say, though, that I've made a conscious effort to make this as original as possible. I think there are enough college/high school AUs that it's inevitable people will find similarities, but I haven't used any ideas because I saw it in another story and liked it; and if I ever do, I will credit the author.
Actually, this didn't even begin life as a college fic. I originally wanted to write them as adults with careers and such, but the amount of research that would have required was not in proportion to my desire to use that idea. I'm a lazy author in that I don't want to do extensive amounts of research into specialized subjects just because, oh, that's what my main characters happen to be studying. This is my attempt at a compromise, since I am comfortable writing a university setting, if not the specific programs my characters are in.
This is not going to be a huge crossover. The only characters I borrow from a third film are Rapunzel and Eugene, but then they did make a cameo in Frozen. This is a small-scale story; I wanted it to feel more intimate with a limited cast. So if you like stories involving all those other characters as well, this might not be for you.
One thing I decided early on was that I wanted Elsa and Jack to start as casual friends rather than strangers or even enemies. I guess they're more than just acquaintances, even friendly ones, but I'd say they're friends that would never do things together unless it's in a group. The main thing I wanted was for them to have a longstanding history to build on, but also have plenty of room for their relationship to grow as they got to know one another better. I'd say the story is much more about how they fall in love, rather than what happens after they do. So if you need to see them hook up right away, this definitely isn't the story for you. That's not to say there's going to be a lack of Jelsa moments, though. I'm a big fan of unrequited sexual tension. My first OTP was (canonically) chock full of it. Whet my appetite at a very young age. ;)
If you read all of this, then you're my hero. I hope you'll enjoy it enough to keep me on your back burner. If you have any questions/comments, don't hesitate to PM me or ask in a review.