I just submitted the final chapter of A Little Help and it should be up soon. I want to thank everybody who voted for the story and wrote me feedback. It was nice to read what people think of the story and I appreciate the corrections that people mailed me.
The story has been quite the journey since I started editing it again. It was fun to revisit one of my first successful stories on SOL. What made it even more fun was that I was actually single when I wrote the story while I have kids now; it allowed me to reflect on my life as well.
For those who are interested, I also have a cover of the story that fits the final chapter very well. You can find it here.
I hope you all enjoy this final chapter! Feel free to let me know your thoughts.
-Jasper Storm
Life has its ups and downs. Sometimes, we need to go very deep before we can rise to great heights. This is not only the case in real life, but I believe that it is also good to reflect such difficulties in storytelling.
We can emphasize easier with the great losses that some heroes endured and those stories tend to stick with us. The Arthurian Legend comes to mind where King Arthur rose to great heights only to lose his wife and see Camelot burn in the end.
I think the same holds true for a good romance story. It is easy to write a story where the main character only knows ups and never really experiences any downs, but where does that leave you?
It is only through difficulties and learning to overcome the challenges in your life that you can grow as a person and become more than you were. Failure, although bad in the moment, gives you an opportunity to learn and grow.
With 'A Little Help' the main character goes through several challenges in his life that he'll need to overcome in order to accomplish the goals he had set out for himself.
I am not sure if drama is a necessity for good romance storytelling, but I do believe that seeing how somebody overcomes his difficulties can be inspiring and makes a story memorable. As my grandfather once told me, "You can't have the good without the bad. It's through the bad that you learn to appreciate the good."
It's been a long time since I wrote this story, but I actually found some information back about those days and what had originally inspired me to write the story.
I figured I'd post it here in a blog, rather than in a preface of the story since it's not really an interlude to story itself.
Anyway, enjoy!
*****
One day I was walking to the mall, when I had an idea for a short story. Earlier that week, I had run into some trouble at the supermarket with my bank account, when I tried to pay for my groceries. I had forgotten to transfer money to my pay account, and I had to fix that before I could make my payment. It is something that probably happened to everybody, at one time or another, and though it was inconvenient, it was not a big deal. While I walked to the mall, I thought of a welfare mother of three children who I had met years ago. She never had a lot of money to spend, and I could only imagine how she would have reacted to this situation.
That thought turned into an idea for a short story, and, once I started writing, it quickly evolved into a lovely romance. 'A Little Help' was inspired by many events that happened in either my past, or that of people close to me.
When I realized how fortunate I really am to have a good job, a nice house, and basically my biggest worry is what to have for dinner, I also realized that there are many people out there who struggle every day to make ends meet. It's easy to forget about the struggles of others when everything goes well for yourself, but at the same time the signs of poverty are everywhere, even in First World countries. You likely won't have to travel farther than a few kilometers to see so for yourself.
When I wrote this story I thought about what kind of effects a simple action could have on the life of a less fortunate person, and how the choices we make affect the future of ourselves and others. Though 'A Little Help' plays in The Netherlands, the story could have happened everywhere, and likely does in one way or another.
I want to thank Hugh R. Green, R.P.A.M., David Lloyd and 'Little Owl' for helping me with proof reading and editing the story. Your help was invaluable!
I hope you enjoy reading the story as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Jasper Storm
It's been a long time since I posted anything new, too long for my likes. Life has kept me busy these past years and will continue to do so now that I started a bachelor study next to a full-time job, however, I also started getting that writing itch again lately.
Back in 2012 I wrote and published 'A Little Help', which had an incredible reception back then and even got me into published writing for several years.
I'm now revisiting that story and editing out the minor mistakes still left in it. I'll do my best to publish a chapter every week, which will most likely get uploaded on Mondays.
One of the things that make this story fun to revisit for me is that it was half prophetic in a way. Back in 2012 I was single without a wife and children while I'm married and have two children now.
Feel free to share your reaction to the story with me. I love reading comments and receiving critique, both good and bad.