Writing Wrongs

August 17, 2006

So Andrew wanted to be a character in the book I�m working on (The Geek Girl�s Guide to Cheerleading). First, he wanted to be the basketball star, Jack. In fact, he was a little miffed that I didn�t automatically assign his name to that role.

I had to break it to him. �If you�re the basketball star, you have to kiss a girl.�

Enthusiasm was immediately dampened. But I did promise to put him in. I have a gaggle of skinny freshman wrestlers in this story. They travel in a pack for the most part (safety in numbers and all that), but they have a ringleader: Andrew.

And it�s a little weird to write skinny freshman wrestler Andrew. I generally don�t give a character a name of someone I know really well, with one exception. I�ll often give antagonists the name of someone I admire simply to remind myself of their softer side (even the villain is the hero of his own story).

So having Andrew in my manuscript is odd. And I wonder if a long string of �ifs� ever materialize (if I get an acceptable manuscript/agent/editor/published book), he�ll at some point not like being skinny freshman wrestler Andrew. But if I ever publish YA, I plan to go with a pseudonym. There�s only so much embarrassment I want to cause my children in their teen years. I plan on doing that by wearing weird shoes and being eccentric in public.

And there�s one other thing I haven�t told Andrew. His namesake?

Is crushing hard on the main character Bethany.

But at least there�s no kissing.

Charity Tahmaseb wrote at 11:45 a.m.

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