I mentioned in my author's note for chapter 54 that I was having a bit of a crisis in the middle of writing Chuck vs. the Sound of Music II. How much I still had to write was definitely a huge part of it. At the same time, though, I noticed readers were dropping away from the story. The chapters were long. The story was already long and only going to get a lot longer. This wasn't just my usual paranoia, however. I read on one fan fiction board, "I'm not reading SOM2 anymore. Nothing happens."
Ouch.
Needless to say, that shook my confidence a bit, even though I knew there were lots of people who were still enjoying the story. You know how it is. It's easy to focus on the negative.
After a therapy session with my fan fiction shrink, Frea, who wisely told me, "You can't please everyone," I decided to write for the people who did like the story and not worry about those who didn't. I chose to embrace the fact that it was going to be a behemoth of a story rather than be concerned about it. It was going to be the story I wanted to tell no matter what and if only a handful of people were there at the end, so be it.
In the end, I wrote it "My Way."
(Note: The following song has a couple of spoilers in it, so if you haven't read to the final chapter yet, continue at your own risk.)
