Yesterday I posted an excerpt of a letter written to me by the narrator of my new project. I figured my writer friends would appreciate it. We like stuff like that.
Well, last night I made the mistake of letting Zippy read it. Zippy is not a writer, he’s an engineer. Zippy doesn’t read lots of fiction, much less ponder the fiction-writing process.
He turned from the computer screen and frowned. Then he said something like "How old is this kid and was this letter written in the future, like when he’s in his twenties?"
I swear, I wanted to strangle him. And I still wanted to choke him this morning.
But I didn’t.
Instead, I reminded myself Zippy only read a portion of the letter. He had no way of knowing the letter ended up being less about finding the character’s voice than some strong advice from that character on how to go about writing the book. Zippy didn’t know that although I was disappointed in not getting a "flash" of voice in that letter, I did map out my approach a bit more. And because of that, I consider the letter a success.
But Zippy’s reaction got me thinking. For those of you who read the excerpt, were you wondering if the letter was written by my character in his future twenties?
Tracy Abell 
How ’bout Zippy writes THAT story?
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I’ll pass along that idea. At this point, he’s still so baffled by why his remark upset me so much that he might try anything to make amends. Even tackling a novel-length work of fiction.
Or not.
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I’ll pass along that idea. At this point, he’s still so baffled by why his remark upset me so much that he might try anything to make amends. Even tackling a novel-length work of fiction.
Or not.
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I must have missed your post yesterday, so I just went back and read the letter. How cool that your character did that for you!
So, what exactly are you asking us? I think you’re asking how old we feel your character is? In which case, I’d say he’s about seventeen. And skinny. I don’t know why, but I see him as having a lanky build.
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Once again you call me out on my rather unclear question. I think it’s funny and pretty cool how you zero in on my posts that I’m unsure of, too. Are we psychically (psychotically?) connected?
I guess I wasn’t so much wondering what age you thought the character was but if you recognized the fact that I wasn’t getting “voice” from the letter as much as a kick in the pants about my process.
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I like the sound of it: I am psychotically connected to Tracy.
Makes me sound important.
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And, it’s a great name for a band: Psychotically Connected.
(I play a mean….hmm, I don’t play a mean anything. How ’bout I dance back-up?)
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I must have missed your post yesterday, so I just went back and read the letter. How cool that your character did that for you!
So, what exactly are you asking us? I think you’re asking how old we feel your character is? In which case, I’d say he’s about seventeen. And skinny. I don’t know why, but I see him as having a lanky build.
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The letter was great. I thought he sounded at least sixteen, maybe older. (But I also assumed you were being a little facetious, which probably altered the voice somewhat.)
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Yes, facetious definitely played a part in that letter. I swear, the more I think about the whole thing the more twisted it feels inside my brain (sometimes). These conversations with the products of our imaginations can get a bit strange…
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I keep forgetting to tell you how much I love that photo of you!
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You’re sweet. Thanks.
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He sounded a bit younger to me (12-15 maybe)–although very bright.
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He’s ten but I know that’s not how he sounded in the letter as he advocated for him and his story. I can’t wait until I figure out his voice!
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I read it, and it didn’t seem that old to me. More like typical teen arrogance and angst.
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I guess he did sound that way even though he’s ten. It was his more mature self advocating for me to get out of the way of his story.
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That works 🙂 After all, you know him well enough to know what he’ll be like in five or six years — I think that makes sense.
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Once again you call me out on my rather unclear question. I think it’s funny and pretty cool how you zero in on my posts that I’m unsure of, too. Are we psychically (psychotically?) connected?
I guess I wasn’t so much wondering what age you thought the character was but if you recognized the fact that I wasn’t getting “voice” from the letter as much as a kick in the pants about my process.
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And, it’s a great name for a band: Psychotically Connected.
(I play a mean….hmm, I don’t play a mean anything. How ’bout I dance back-up?)
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