Writing I Think I Hate My Friends was a new adventure for me and the first adult novel I’ve completed. Authors are always told to find a genre and stick to it. Unfortunately, I am not great at following the rules. When I began self-publishing, I wrote a children’s book. I followed this up with two Young Adult novels, Almost 21 Again and All That Remains. After those YA releases, I felt confident that I would remain an author of YA books. Until I started thinking about my friends from college.
I Think I Hate My Friends didn’t start out with that title nor did it start with any of the characters or events that happened in the completed novel. For one, each character was based on friends I had in college. As I continued writing, I developed these characters in a way that felt like they were becoming people I’d never met. Characters were removed, backgrounds were changed, and events were completely altered. Within the first month of writing, not a single character or event resembled my college experience. Perhaps that’s not completely true. The time, the location, and even the type of college in which the characters met stayed similar to my experience.
Through months of editing, reading, and rereading, I discovered that not only are the characters completely their own, but they are also characters I adore. Ida may be my favorite. What she lacks in self-confidence, she makes up in intelligence and bluntness. She’s funny, she’s likable, and her imperfectness is so much of her charm. She is the character to who I may return. Whether it be in a prequel, sequel, or short stories, Ida Blum will most definitely return.
Megan Bushree Sometimes Writes 