Dear Flyboy,
Thought I should warn you that Spencer is a girl. Yes, I realize that complicates things and puts the two of you in direction competition but cripes, you’re almost 17 years-old, there must be hormones in there somewhere and this is the only way I could think of for me to find them. Can you at least pretend, for my sake?
Me
(PS – no, I don’t think your gay.)
Dear Plant Kid,
You’re older than I thought. Hmmm. Not sure what that is going to do to things. But worms? Now I have to learn about worms? I’ll do it but you have to do something for me in return. As in, you have to DO SOMETHING other than plant plants and pull weeds.
Me
Dear Lost Boy,
I’ve done all I can for the moment to get rid of the BIG BAD THING in your life yet that doesn’t make you feel as safe as it should. Why not? What do you know that I don’t know? And why won’t you visit Max?
Me
Susan, I love this. Yeah, those darned hormones. How to write YA without them?
Okay, my question for the day. Caro, I know you want to go to work instead of going to college. But…given that they’re both equally hard for women in 1912, can you at least tell me WHY you want the work path?
Thanks, Becky. I’m at the point where talking to the characters is more interesting than the actual writing, probably not a good idea. 🙂
I hope Caro gives you an answer to your question.
I’m becoming really curious about this Max guy. 🙂
Max is the last story I should be working on right now. I keep telling myself to write a simple story, well-told, but Max wiggles into my head every time.
I’m afraid to write this one (which probably means I should) because it will raise some big stinks with some readers and editors and reviewers and yet when I do these letters, it’s Max that chews on my heart the most.
Argh.
Write about Max. The messy, dangerous stories can be the most powerful.
The readers and editors and reviewers can sort things out amongst themselves later. The things they worry about are never the things you expect, anyway, so there’s no sense writing to that.
And besides, I want to read about Max. 🙂
Well I know this issue will be a hot button. It somewhat relates (though not exactly) to something you posted about on 1/30. And I’ve known that it would be a hot button from the start. But I also know that I want to write it.
I wrote the opening scene yesterday so thanks for the prod!
Your letter to Flyboy reminded me of one of my recent mss. There were 2 people I always thought would get together at the end. But when I got there, they both refused.
I love that we think we know just where the characters are going and then it turns out, they have minds of their own.
I love these character letters you do. As I get ready to put one novel on hold and work on a different one, I’m going to give this a try.
It’s been an interesting process. As you know, I’m supposed to be working on the Flyboy one but Max and his story are getting rather interesting to me. I wouldn’t know that unless I was doing several of these at once.