Dear best friend
--
Dear best friend,
Trust me, I know how this feels. When I was working on a short story for school about a character named Jack, he was mysterious to me. Revealing slowly his dark family trauma, it was difficult and I remember feeling like it was hard to relay... Much like John’s even more terrible past with her mother, but it truly is revealed for a reason.
These things can be incredibly hard to get out. The character needs to say it. Needs someone to hear it.
Letting them have that platform, soap box to stand on, so to speak, will give you the room to also finish the story the way you need to after.
The darkness inside of the character does not have to define them. It does not have to engulf them and carry them to a hellish abyss. It's like a strange halo hanging in the bright summer sky. It is a weird thing to see... But it's there for a reason. Fighting it and ignoring it won't make it go away.
It can help them on their journey to salvation. To love. To hope.
Sometimes, to real atonement with God. Like my John.
I know that you know what's best for your plot and characters. If you need to tone down the darkness, do so, and keep the important parts.
I believe in you, my dear.
Keep me updated!! I can't wait to read this story. I'm very excited to see it!
Love,
Melissa
About the Creator
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More stories from Melissa Ingoldsby and writers in Poets and other communities.
A Dart at Dusk
Seconds ago, the sullen sun set on the two of us… my exuberant furry companion and me. A fresh breeze embraces us, delivering welcome relief from the day’s oppressive heat. His typical stumbling and staggering along — apace with a sloth — has turned into trip-trapping, high-stepping, almost skipping along.
By Angie the Archivist 📚🪶7 days ago in Petlife
Comments (19)
Nice read! Interesting. Great!
This is wonderful. Congrats on the TS
Thats great! And I’ve written a few new characters myself recently. I like your writing a lot!
nice piece and congrats on the TS
I love this. I have a character knocking around in a novel/novella I will write. I fear the character is too like me, and I am revealing too much of myself, so it's ground to a halt right now. So she is left in the darkness at the moment. I'll have to go and give her some light. Thanks for writing this; it's awesome.
I can't wait to read the story, too. Will we ever have the opportunity. It is said the addicts need to hit rock bottom before they will seek help & get better. Only when the darkness becomes whelming will we turn to seek out the light.
Wow! Nice💕😊
Epistles are like key holes into conversations. Reading them is like listening at doors. It is lovely when you find kindness and empowering words. ❤
Great words and congratulations on your Top Story Sis
This is such great advice and I just love how kind you are ❤️
Amazing & thanks a lot!
You certainly pen letters with flair! Congratulations on Top Story 🎉
I have enjoyed this series so much. Even though it isn’t written to me, it sometimes feels as if it could’ve been. This letter especially, because of this paragraph: “The darkness inside of the character does not have to define them. It does not have to engulf them and carry them to a hellish abyss. It's like a strange halo hanging in the bright summer sky. It is a weird thing to see... But it's there for a reason. Fighting it and ignoring it won't make it go away.” My fiction is never really fiction, because the protagonist always ends up being some version of me. And I never get to control what they say or do. It’s an aspect of me that just needs to get out, and isn’t defined by what happened to me. That isn’t where the story ends. The way you described this is so succinct and poetic. Congrats on Top Story! 🥂
Congrats on TS 🥳
The most recent issue of Writer's Digest talks about this very thing. There is a lot of focus on nano writing because it requires a different skill set and critical way of thinking about what is essential. But a novel, as you speak of here, affords the latitude to expand. Congratulations on Top Story!
Great job on this one, Melissa! Congratulations on Top Story!
Awesome ✨ and Congratulations 🎉❤️😉
This is heart healing and beautiful. I need to read this twice a day. I adore it x
Fantastic!!! Left some love!!!