NBR-Weird dilemma-LONG
BrideBuddies
member
Ok ladies, this is an odd one.
I have a high school friend who is in the state penitentiary a few hours away from me. Big drug user in his 20s and was stupid and carried off some armed robberies. He's nearing parole and has been incarcerated for 20-some years. He was a decent guy growing up, but troubled. Crappy homelife.. .chip on the shoulder type. But fairly popular, etc. Did some stupid stuff even back then and his dad shipped him off to juvy hall right before graduation. No one ever knew really what happened to him.
A couple of years ago, I was researching our classmates for our reunion and my letter found it's way to him. We've corresponded a little bit since then.. no big deal for me, but it means a lot to him. He just wrote that his wife is divorcing him so he's feeling very lost. And facing the outside world soon without much going for him now...
While in the pokey, he's written a novel.. 40 chapters, handwritten. He just asked if I could look at it and give him advice/guidance. Biggest problem is how I'd get it, since the guards probably won't let him send out a huge manuscript. And I certainly wouldn't be able to get it back to him. So it could be a mute point.
Long story short.. .I think I'll ask him to copy just the first chapter for me and we'll go from there. He's an educated guy living in a world of uneducated people, so what little feedback he's gotten from a few inside the prison has been positive. But I don't want to give him any false hope or shoot down his dream.. ya know. I feel I need to be honest in my assessment, so if it sucks, that would really be a disappointing thing for him. Not to mention, novels aren't exactly my forte... I was a TV journalist.
Some FB friends (who don't know all this background, mind you) are encouraging me to help the guy out but be honest in my responce.. dont' sugarcoat anything. Others say to decline so as not to hurt him.
Thoughts????
Re: NBR-Weird dilemma-LONG
My Blog
I agree, it really can't hurt to look at it. I think even if it weren't great, it would still mean the world to him. Tell him the truth, it doesn't have to be sugar coated or hurtful. I'm positive you have the diplomatic angle down!
I know not everyone (or most people) come out of prison and make something of themselves, but the very fact he's put the time and effort to write a novel sets him apart from most inmates. There's no risk to you here, but the payoff (emotionally) may be big for him.
ETA: If you do need help, I'm able. One of my majors was English, I've edited a lot (newspapers and books). It's been a few years, but I still do it to books I read (I'm sure the authors wouldn't appreciate what I did to their books).
IMO, I'd keep my distance... There just are a lot of warning whistles going off... I have high school classmates that also served time and the best thing for them was moving the heck away from the area and starting fresh. We have contact at reunions and when they come back to the area but it's never the same because of the choices they made.
I've been published and one of the main things that he's going to need to overcome is that he's going to need to take it from print to typed and rejection (my trainer/main author was turned down I think 82 times for what became his best-selling book that is now published in at least 13 languages). After he has it typed, then proceed from there as he has the option to self-publish or link up with a publishing house to sell his idea. He needs to start working on the editing himself thinking about who the core audience that is going to read the story is and maybe consider it for a mini-series of books instead of 40 chapters.