Happy December! We’ve made it to the last month of the year and the second-to-last Throwback Thursday blog. This week, I’m counting down my top five favorite dramatic scenes. If you’ve read my stories, you know I love drama, which is why I saved this blog for (almost) last! These are the moments that made my heart race as I was writing them and hopefully gave you the same kind of emotional reaction as you read them. That is why they are some of my all-time favorite chapters!
5. Q’s Funeral
Most of the drama I write is fictional (thank God), but I also tend to weave real life drama into the fabric of my stories. Sometimes it’s unavoidable, like when the Boys’ longtime bodyguard, Q, unexpectedly passed away in 2013, while I was writing Sick as My Secrets. Since my story took place the same year, it didn’t feel right to pretend like this didn’t happen or ignore the effect it had on the Backstreet family. So I wrote it into the story. And, in the context of my fictional plot, it became one of the most dramatic scenes in the story.
The scene starts at the end of Chapter 15, when Howie and Leigh reunite to attend Q’s funeral together. It’s one of the first times Howie has had to face Nick since finding out he unknowingly infected him with HIV. Nick, who has been struggling to adjust to his new medications, is understandably still upset. When Howie puts his hand on Nick’s back and tries to guide him away from the rest of the group so they can talk privately, Nick snaps, “Don’t touch me” and smacks Howie in the face. Of course, the other guys want to know why he reacted so violently, and in Chapter 16, the truth comes out. It’s a dramatic scene that involves Nick announcing to the whole group that Howie raped him on the cruise, an accusation that will have even more dramatic consequences.
This juicy scene was a lot of fun to write. Fifteen chapters in, it was satisfying to finally get to the big reveal and imagine the guys’ reactions to this (admittedly ridiculous) scenario. SAMS may not be my most realistic story, but it’s definitely one of my most dramatic!
4. Nick’s Overdose
Let’s be honest: Most of my novels are dramatic, and Curtain Call is no exception. Everyone knew Nick would be in for a bumpy ride when he decided to keep his cancer diagnosis a secret and continue touring while receiving his chemo treatments on the road. After weeks of pushing his body too far, he finally reaches his breaking point at the end of Chapter 41, when he collapses after a show.
The drama continues in Chapter 42 as Cary finds Nick lying on the bathroom floor in their hotel room and rushes him to the nearest hospital. In the emergency room, he is diagnosed with and treated for an episode of supraventricular tachycardia, a rapid and irregular heart rhythm that, in Nick’s case, was triggered by the high levels of caffeine he’s been consuming before shows to combat the fatigue caused by his cancer treatments.
Although he turns out to be “fine,” relatively speaking, this is an important moment in the story because it’s the first time since his cancer diagnosis that Nick comes face to face with his own mortality. For a moment, he’s genuinely afraid that he’s going to die – and that fear forces him to take better care of his body moving forward. It’s a scary moment for Cary, too, but also an important moment in her character’s journey and relationship with Nick. After weeks of allowing herself to be manipulated by him, she finally puts her foot down after this incident and gives him an ultimatum: either he stops drinking alcohol and caffeine and starts taking care of himself, or she will tell the other guys the secret she’s been helping him keep. Instead of continuing to follow Nick’s misguided lead, we see Cary step into the leadership role and take charge of the situation for once. I love the combination of tough love mixed with genuine care, concern, and compassion that comes through in their interactions throughout this set of chapters.
I obviously love writing medical drama, and Chapter 42, in particular, is one of those magical scenes that I remember being really “in the zone” for. I stayed up late and drank a bunch of Diet Code Red Mountain Dew, so my own heart was racing while I was writing Nick in the midst of his caffeine overdose. Even though I knew he would be “fine,” it felt dramatic in the moment, and I think that’s why it’s always been a memorable chapter for me.
I was looking through old photos and found this one… holy shit! I’m happy to report that I’m drinking far less Code Red these days and have gotten much better at taking out my recycling. This was during a Curtain Call writing binge. pic.twitter.com/8T8RxW4RK3
— Julie 💖🐊 (@RokofAges75) January 26, 2019
3. Brian’s Escape
I loved those Curtain Call chapters so much that I ended up writing a whole novel full of similar-yet-scarier scenes. I could have easily filled this top five list with scenes from A Heart That Isn’t Mine, but I limited myself to just one: Chapter 37.
A lot of big stuff happens in this chapter. Howie receives the news he’s been praying for: nearly a month after his disappearance, Nick has finally been found. Meanwhile, Brian manages to escape the hospital of horrors where he’s been imprisoned for the past three weeks. But their triumphs are short-lived. Nick arrives at the hospital in grave condition – and just when Brian thinks he’s in the clear, he is recaptured by the man from whom he ran away. It’s a rollercoaster of a chapter, full of exciting ups, devastating downs, and suspense at every turn. There are a couple of moments that make me cringe – the description of Nick when Howie first lays eyes on him, and Brian ripping out his catheter – but I guess it’s a good kind of cringe because those parts were meant to be graphic and horrifying. I definitely didn’t shy away from the drama in this one.
After writing around thirty chapters that took place in the same small room, it felt good to get my main characters out of that situation and into a different setting and move the story forward, even if it was far from over. I really enjoyed writing the Brian half of this chapter, which is really the most action-packed part of the whole story. It’s that scene that put this chapter at number three.
2. Nick’s Gunshot Wound
Like AHTIM, The Road to Bethlehem is chock full of drama. But there’s nothing more dramatic than a race against time, especially when someone’s life is on the line. My second favorite dramatic scene starts Chapter 15 and continues in Chapter 16, as Brian hurries to find help for Nick, who has been accidentally shot in the chest by a trigger-happy old man who mistook him for a bear.
Nick’s gunshot wound is like the cherry on top of the sundae full of delicious drama that is The Road to Bethlehem. Up to this point in the story, the Boys have already dealt with appendicitis, a car accident, a broken ankle, a back-breaking fall, and the aforementioned bear. Did I really need to have Nick get shot, too? No, probably not. But, after all that, I did need some kind of climactic moment, and a gunshot wound to the chest does make for a great climax in a crazy survival story like this one.
Believe it or not, I actually rewrote part of this scene to make it less dramatic. In my first draft, Nick lost consciousness immediately, and his heart stopped before the ambulance arrived. In the final version, I let Nick bleed out a little more slowly, giving him more time to talk to Brian before he loses consciousness. He doesn’t stop breathing until the paramedics step in to save him, giving him a better chance of survival than before. But it’s still a very dramatic scene that shows Brian’s desperation to save his little brother. You know I love me some Frick and Frack bromance! That’s another reason why this scene is one of my favorites.
1. Nick and Claire’s Car Crash
There is no scene more deliciously dramatic than the climax of my longest novel to date, By My Side. Chapter 196 picks up immediately after the end of the previous chapter, in which Nick’s car skids off an icy, country road and crashes into a tree. Claire, his stunned passenger, is shaken but uninjured. Nick is not so lucky. Claire finds him slumped over the steering wheel, unconscious and not breathing. As she calls for help, the car catches on fire, leaving Claire with no other choice but to save Nick herself. Realizing that his artificial left leg is pinned, she removes his prosthesis and manages to drag his body out of the driver’s seat, burning her hands in the process. Outside in the snow, she gives him mouth-to-mouth respiration until an ambulance arrives.
But that’s just the beginning of the chapter. The drama continues in the emergency room, where Claire hardly notices the burns on her hands or the frostbite on her legs. She can only think of Nick, who is being treated in the room next door. When she is finally taken to see him, Claire realizes that the only reason she’s allowed to be in the room is because he is dying, and doctors and nurses are giving her the chance to say goodbye. They tell her that Nick’s heart stopped in the ambulance and that they’ve been trying to resuscitate him for almost an hour without success. Still, they continue their efforts long enough to let Claire have some semblance of closure.
As Claire takes Nick’s hand and talks to him, begging him to stay with her, the emergency room scenes written from her perspective are intertwined with a near-death experience written from his. Nick imagines himself drowning in a deep sea. He can see light above him and feel its warmth, but as he floats toward it, Claire beckons to him from below, forcing him to choose between the comfort that awaits him on the surface and the crushing pain that lurks in the dark, cold depths of the water. In the end, he decides to let himself sink, bearing the brunt of the pain to prevent Claire from feeling it. And, in the emergency room, Nick’s heart miraculously begins to beat again.
This is the first really drawn-out, dramatic resuscitation scene I ever wrote, and although I’ve written many more like it since, I think it still holds up as one of my best. It may be overwrought and melodramatic, but that fits with the tone of the whole Broken series. After all Nick and Claire go through together, this story needed a big, emotional climax, and this chapter is absolutely that. I was really proud of it when I wrote it, and, eighteen years later, I’m still proud of it. There was no other place I could put it but number one on my list.
(But if you want a laugh, read the original version that still has Nickelback lyrics scattered throughout. 🤦🏻♀️ What can I say? It was 2007, and I didn’t know it wasn’t cool to like Nickelback anymore. This chapter is the main reason I later removed all the song lyrics from Broken and BMS when I redid my site.)
I’ll be back before the end of the month with one more Throwback Thursday blog to wrap up this year’s twenty-fifth anniversary celebration. Stay tuned!