Hi everyone! There was some interest in me sharing a few of my thoughts on writing the story so far, so here goes. Please skip over this if you're not interested, of course.
The whole thing started as a one-shot about Rose and Alfie meeting after she'd run away to London. I wanted to test the waters by putting something out there for people to read. I discovered that not only did I love writing it, that others also seemed to enjoy reading it. So I wrote another chapter and the rest is history.
I'm particularly interested in family relationships, especially siblings, so creating another, younger sister was an obvious step. I really wanted to explore the way in which, out of all the siblings, Rose is the most similar to Tommy – hence "Cut from the Same Cloth". Would she end up like Tommy? Would things be different for her? These are still the questions which motivate me when I'm figuring out her story.
I love Tommy. He's an incredible character, but I thought that Tommy, as a father figure, would be very controlling. He loves Rose but can't help micro-managing her life. He loves his family, but he's very single-minded in his vision of the family business and what he wants it to be. He can behave appallingly towards them if they don't fit in with his plans - he's ruthless in the way he won't allow Arthur to change because it suits him to keep him angry, and I'll never forgive him for telling Polly that Reuben was only involved with a woman like her because he wanted information from her. So, I wanted to include this side of his personality in the way he is with Rose. That's why there can be so much tension between them. Rose is growing up and becoming independent, but Tommy has plans for her. She's his great hope for the future of the family – the one Shelby who will finally, definitively belong in the places of power and influence he can only strive for, the one who will escape her background.
Rose has other ideas. She wants to embrace her heritage, maybe as a way of holding onto her mother, maybe as a way of rebelling against Tommy's control. She struggles being the baby of the family. Everyone grew up and moved away before she could benefit from any kind of stable home life so she doesn't know where she belongs. She adores Tommy and looks up to him. She wants to make him proud, but the two of them are so similar that they clash often. I'd like to write more positive and pleasant exchanges between them but Tommy can't help but drive forward with his plans and it's always the family who are collateral damage.
The war changed Tommy and made him into the person he is now - ruthless, driven, unafraid of death. I wondered, if a similar terrible thing happened to Rose, whether this would change her too. The kidnap and her time at St Mary's were for this reason. I want to explore how she'll deal with this traumatic event and whether it will change her in the same way it changed Tommy. What is true for Rose is that she does have a loving family around her in a way Tommy maybe didn't when he grew up, so maybe that will make a difference. I don't know yet.
I decided not to describe or dwell on what may have happened in that room with Jarvis before Alfie arrived. I didn't want to make it part of the story and I didn't want to have to write it down. Obviously, we can guess what happened given what we know about Jarvis, but I wanted to leave it open so that we would only know as much as Tommy and Polly know (and Alfie). This creates a different kind of tension for the reader as we wonder what she went through. It'll be Rose's story to tell if she ever decides to.
What is certain is that she will enter season 4 with an awful lot of baggage. Things will get worse before they get better as we know that the family is estranged at the beginning of season 4, each member dealing with their own issues from the fallout of what happened at the end of the previous season. Tommy is drowning in self-loathing for what he did to the family and, of course, in our story, this will include what happened to Rose. And, horrifyingly, we know there is also a terrible family tragedy awaiting them. It's definitely going to be painful!
As far as her relationship with Alfie goes – I love it as much as you do! I try to stay as close to canon as possible so I don't want to shoehorn meetings between him and Rose into the story which may seem out of place. Thankfully, he does appear in season 4 so with that and som other ideas, we'll see him and Rose together a few times.
Finally, I just want to say thank you again and let you know how much I appreciate you reading the story and letting me know what you think about it. I find your thoughts and ideas and questions really helpful when I'm figuring out what comes next for Rose. I enjoy the collaboration and love the idea of having friends out there who are so encouraging about my writing.
I hope you found this interesting. I'm off to work on the first chapter of season 4 now! I have a few ideas swirling which I'm quite excited about. Watch this space!
Take care,
Wenlock x