Dear Fred,

(Yes, your name is Fred. Blame MCA Hogarth. I was determined to give you a proper name, but after chatting to her I googled ‘fred’ and ‘subconscious’, ended up here, and the name stuck.)

MCA tells me I’m to trust you.

Now, I’ve been fairly happy with our working arrangement so far. You come up with the ideas; I write them. It’s simple. It works.

But now I have a problem.

You know that idea you gave me for a contemporary werewolf story? The tragic love story where their relationship spirals into darkness?

I love that idea, I really do. But I keep getting stuck.

I’ve tried everything–alternating points of view, changing protagonists, adding new twists, taking away other twists, making it a real-time account, making the story jump between timelines, starting at the beginning, starting at the end….

Nothing works, and I can’t figure out why.

So I’m going to take MCA’s words to heart, and trust you, and say:

Here, Fred. This project is shelved. Please figure out why it’s not working. I won’t think about it. I won’t pester you for answers. I’ll leave it entirely in your capable hands.

And hopefully, in a day, a month, or a year, you’ll have a solution.

In the meantime, I’ll be working on other stories that don’t make my head hurt.

You know where to find me.

With love,
Anna