He knew the precise psychological moment when to say nothing.

[thatswhthesaid]

I wish I did.

I keep doing this thing where I've got great storylines, but I've no idea when I'm rambling. How much junk is too much? How jumpy-out of sequence is too jumpy and out of sequence? How much explanation is too much? For example, right now I'm working on, what I hope, will be a long term project. Four boys coming of age. They all live in

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[thatswhthesaid]

-Yeah. I originally had them that way...And I'll go back and look at that.
-Yeah, that grammar probably needs editing. And I'm pretty sure the semi-colon is *technically* correct, but upon rereading I realize that it seems wonky, stylistically. Really, I just need to read this thing aloud, but finding a moment when I'm alone to do that is very hard.
-I was trying to be a "teenage-slang-but-with-someone-who-speaks-proper-English-mostly" but I see how that could be failure to do that and instead just look wrong.
-Awww. Thanks. <3 I was also hoping that implied that Benjamin (Who may be renamed Thomas) knows Charlie really well.
-DAMN SPELL-CHECK.
-Yes. It is meant to be sarcastic. Maybe I should up the sarcasim from Paragraph One and exploit it more?
-That is a good idea. I will have to pick one at some point, but I kind of like the idea of leaving it for the readers to piece together.
-And yes, I was sort of imaging Pete as the...sort of average teenage guy. He's a little stocky, a little short, plays football, but isn't professional quality, not a genius but not an idiot, so of course, I imagined that, through years of Charlie, Elliot and Benjamin (Possibly to be named Thomas?) friendship they always hoped that Pete would become Charlie's BFF. It's obvious now that 1. Elliot + Charlie =BFFS4EVAHH and later Charlie and Benjamin will become closer (v. homoerotic, possibly even outright dating) as Elliot begins dating Vivian, which will add more tension, and Elliot's dad msytery will be explained, which will add yet more tension, and then there will be some big thing with Pete and Charlie, who've never really been that close (I always imagine that Pete kind of hangs out with them because, when they were younger, Pete called himself "Elliot's Best Friend" and didn't care much about the whole "color" thing, but being an oblivious little boy, Elliot didn't realize that Pete thought so much of him, and instead was bffs with Charlie. Then, I feel like Benjamin moves to town, and Charlie, despite having punched him in the nose, decides that other kids making fun of him isn't cool, and decides to be friends. So, then Pete, who's kind of informally been the lowest-ranking member of the group feels like he's moved up in rank or whatever, and doesn't like that Charlie and Benjamin are closer than Charlie and Pete, even though Pete's been there the whole time. And Pete's kind of jealous that, even though Charlie and Elliot are best friends, Benjamin rarely feels left out and fits in better with them than Pete does. Which will later lead to Pete and Charlie's falling out/possible fist fight...
So, yeah?