And with that, I have officially finished my first ONC novella! Cheers! Not only that, but my strategy for it worked out perfectly! Three Acts, each around 10,000-11,000 words, for a final word count of around 35,000 (since I don't trust myself not to write a novel without a strategy).
And here I am! Milo and Maisie has been so much fun to write because there were a lot of firsts with it: my first LGBTQ+ story, my first non-fantasy/science fiction story, my first Disney College Program story, my first skiing story, and let's not forget the ONC, too! Feya is one of my new favorite characters I've created, although I have no complaints with Milo and Maisie.
I wrote this story to document my early days with the DCP and as another attempt to share my brother's story with the world. His name was Matthew, too. As Feya said, "Sometimes moving on just takes a little bit of courage." My method of courage is writing about my experience with grief—to tell people that your loved one will always be with you. I achieve this through my characters and documenting the lessons I've learned since Matthew's death. Of course, one of them is, "Sometimes moving on just takes a little bit of courage."
In winter 2021, four months after Matthew died, my family and I traveled to Mt. Tremblant in Canada to ski. I returned from that trip a new girl—ready to finally start writing again. Two years later, my family and I took another trip to Breckenridge, Colorado, one of my brother's favorite ski resorts, and I returned from it as another new girl. Skiing has greatly impacted me since Matthew because he also loved to ski, and I had to include it in Milo and Maisie!
Even though this is a crappy first draft, I hope y'all enjoyed this novella nonetheless. I pour my heart and soul into all my stories, and I hope that one day, people will appreciate my different writing style.
Thank you, Venator-TheThird, for being my beta reader and brainstormer for Milo and Maisie! You helped me with Infrared and helped me here, too. I am proud to call you my friend.
And to the few readers I do have—y'all have no idea how much it means to me! I will continue to improve this story, turn it into a novel, and return the favor. After all, writing is a process, and that's why it's just as powerful as a star gone supernova.
Thank you again for reading Milo and Maisie!
Love,
Viktoria Fyodorova