Emailing the Author

Is it cowardly to publicly post what I can't tell you to your face? I don't think so. I would love to tell you all of this. To be there to have a drink and let you cry on my shoulder that writing does not come as easily to you as you would like.

But you do not listen. All my life you stressed how important it is to be a good listener, but that's only because you know you are a terrible listener. Maybe if you had been listening earlier in life, you would not be at this point—stubbornly trying to hock the first draft of your first novel.

So here I am, publicly stating what is really very private. Unfair? Perhaps. But I'd like to know I'm not crazy. And the only chance for that is to come here and release all the thoughts taking up real estate in  my head.

To try to be more fair to you, I emailed you after my last post.

Hi,

In the past, you've never welcomed any of my suggestion with great enthusiasm, but I still feel compelled to throw in my two cents on this idea of cutting 10,000 words. I think you could easily cut 250 pages. Pick one sister to be the main character and delete everything from the other sister's point of view.

I'm not sure which aunt of mine told you that the story was too long, but I'm sure she would support the notion that reading everything a second time didn't add much to the story overall.

Yeah, cut half the material and you'll actually end up with twice the story.

Later.

Love,

[me] 

You wrote back after a few days.

Hi

I got both your messages.  I'm not sure what you mean when you say there were complaints in the past.  Complaints from whom?  I didn't get any.

You may be right about the cutting the novel by cutting one sister's story. I'll have to give that a try, but I think it would really spoil the story.  I think cutting it down to 89,000 words is good enough.

Nothing else new.  Stay in touch.

love,

[author]

Ummmmm... Huh?

Hi,

> I'm not sure what you mean when you say there were
> complaints in the past. Complaints from whom?  I didn't get any.

Huh? Now I have no idea what you're referring to.

> You may be right about the cutting the novel by cutting one
> sister's story.

I'm not saying you cut a sister's story. Just pick one to be the narrator's perspective. Then you'll have a whole 200-250 pages to really dig into the problems these characters face.

Later,
[me]

It's been four days. You have not responded. Not even to ask me if I heard about the freak earthquake in your town. You must really not want to hear anymore about suggested changes to your novel. Which is unfortunate. Because I'll just keep publishing them here.