#verimelliott

Thank you so much!

Even though I’ll Be Home for Dinner was my first story, and it definitely has its issues (/understatement), I’m still very partial to that specific characterization of Sonny. Season 17 was when he truly started shining, and he’s also been very confident (if generic) in Season 18, but the overeager and try-hard Sonny of Season 16, the one yearning for approval, the one who’s kind, and empathetic, but constantly misunderstood and underestimated, that Sonny just speaks to me.

That’s the reason I started writing, in the first place. To give Sonny the voice I didn’t think the show itself would ever give him (fortunately, I was wrong). Reading that story now, for the first time, would be an interesting experience, lol. When I wrote it, poor Sonny was barely developed :)

So I’m very happy you appreciated the way I wrote him in that story. It’s like you said, I started with a dejected and boisterous but insecure Sonny, and I tried to build him up. To build up his confidence, and to build a better developed character around the few characteristics of his that we knew, back then. I wasn’t expecting the show itself to do the same, and to give us a more confident and take-charge (but still sweet) Sonny Carisi, so Season 17 was an extremely pleasant surprise.

And his relationship with Barba was the impetus. Sonny needed a win, and he wasn’t getting it in the squad room (even when he’d crack every other case, no one would treat him with respect), so I figured that getting closer to Barba would be a great confidence booster :D

The fact Barba came to respect Sonny (another thing I never expected the show to  give us) was my way of trying to demonstrate that there’s more to “Carisi the goofball.” Even in S16, when Sonny was serving as the comic relief, his character had some neatly defined traits, which I used to develop him further. In S17, the SVU writers did the same thing, for which I’m grateful :)

Also, I think I mentioned that before, but in my story Collateral Comfort, I use a somewhat similar Sonny characterization. A more sensitive Sonny, if you will. A Sonny who feels he might not fit in. If you haven’t already, maybe you would enjoy it.

Thanks again for this lovely message, it took me back :’)