Entirely by accident, I just came across the notebook where I had put pen to paper for the first time ever for THE FAKE MCCOY. It was July 14, 2006. I scribbled two and a half pages of notes, figuring it was the only way I could get this kid out of my head and get back to what I was supposed to be working on.
Back then, I described this potential project to myself (which I never expected to actually write) as "The story of a social reject who falls in love with a somewhat popular girl."
It would be fun to type up the whole mess so those who have read the story can see how even though most of the details changed once I started in on it a couple of months later, in some ways, it is still the story I first thought up. Sadly, it's all so silly and embarrassing that I get tears in my eyes when I read it to myself. The idea of letting someone else take a look makes me very uncomfortable indeed.
But! Here are the first words I ever wrote for the character who turned out to be Seth (weird punctuation, missing words, and all):
I saw her crying: Great gulping sobs, tears dripping down her face and plopping on her white blouse. Her face was bright red and screwed into a mask of misery. She was very ugly when she cried -- which made her even more beautiful to me.
So, this doesn't sound anything like Seth, and I didn't end up using this -- nor did I ever write the scene I meant for this to be included in -- but I do have something about Rosetta's "ugly cry-face" in the story. It's one of my favorite lines, for some reason. Maybe because I know it came from those minutes when I was first imagining it all.