I'm currently writing a piece about four girls who went to high school together. The MC (Main character) has gotten in touch with the other three girls through a series of letters. They try and get together, but life gets in the way and eventually they do all get together at a really low time in all their lives. What I need help deciding is whether or not I should write it all through the letters or should I include some narrative inbetween? The ending would be difficult if I stuck with just the letters, but I feel like the letters being a sense of uniqueness to the story. Thanks for any advice in advance! ~Eliza
The letters idea would be challenging to write but if you can get that to work for you it would be incredible! It would have crackin' style. I love the sound of it. Good luck with which ever way you decide to go. Did you have an ending in mind? I can soooo see your idea working and working really well! Go for it!!! (Sorry, bit excited for some reason - I should put all this energy into my writing!!! lol)
I was originally thinking that each girl will come a across a problem and a reason to postpone the get together and then they finally are able to get together and on the way to the get together, the MC dies. Therefore they all meet at the funeral, but that part is going to be tricky to do. Especially since the MC is such a mysterious character as it is.
You could definitely choose, but if you find the letters too limiting, use narrative. This reminds me a bit of a plot from a movie that I watched once upon a time that had Christina Ricci and Rosie O'Donnell in it. (Odd combination, yes I know...) It was about 4 childhood friends who then get together as adults...
The letters don't have to be limiting (this is an epistolary novel you are talking about). Check out the book Freedom and Necessity by Steven Brust and Emma Bull for a great book and a great example of what you can do here. The two authors apparently each wrote from one of the POV characters by writing their portion in letter form and sending it to the co-author for response, also in letter form. Though they undoubtedly did a lot of plotting and planning outside of that.
If you can pull of writing a story through letters than go ahead. I can see a lot of potential with using the technique. Yet if it isn't going well by all means try using narratives to add to the story
