The Boy in the Woods (2014 Wattys Winner, Wattpad Version)

My Writing Process and The Boy in the Woods

However, I did have someone who could help me.

When I was still fairly new to Wattpad, an autobiography about a teenage boy who was in a gang showed up in my recommended stories. I was intrigued enough to click on it, and when I read it, I was blown away. Not only was it well written, which was astonishing considering the author had only just learned how to read and write the year before, but the story he told broke my heart. His gang was made up entirely of orphan kids, found dumpster babies or infants sold for drug money, which was how he'd ended up in the gang.

Their lives were filled with violence and drugs, and very few of them lived past the age of eighteen, but the author had been lucky. His gang house had been raided when he was fifteen and he'd been placed in a gang rehab. Posting his story on Wattpad was part of his therapy.

The thing that struck me the most as I got to know him, in spite of all the terrible things he'd been through, he was incredibly caring, with the biggest heart of anyone I've met. He was also super smart and funny. I'm sure this sounds familiar to a lot of readers of Boy. Over time, we became good friends, and I was able to put a lot of his personality into Marty. I think that's what helped Marty be such a wonderful and rich character that many readers have fallen in love with.

In case you're wondering whatever happened to my friend, he was able to turn his life around thank s to the dedicated staff at the gang rehab. He's in college now and doing really well, just like Marty. Sadly, he had to leave Wattpad, but I'm glad I could honor him and our friendship with such a great story. As I said in the chapter dedication where Marty is introduced, if it wasn't for my friend, there would be no Marty.

Why did you decide to set the story in the 1950's?

In order for the plot to work out the way I wanted, I needed to place it in a more innocent time. In today's world, kids are a lot more knowledgeable and get involved with the opposite sex at a much earlier age. Since family secrets play a big part in the story, it wouldn't be told in the present time and be realistic. People are much more open with each other now and aren't ashamed of things that back then were considered scandalous. Also, it was helpful for me to place the story in a time when women and children didn't have as many rights and protections.

The Boy in the Woods takes place prior to when I was born, but I have a log of memories of what it was like to live with the same technologies that Jess and Marty lived with: land line telephones, record players, television with only a few channels available, no internet. That helped a lot when I was writing, because I could imagine what life was like for Jess and Marty. But I still had to do a fair amount of research to make sure the little details were accurate, things like clothes, slang, food, etc.

How did you choose the cast for your story?

Normally I wouldn't cast a story so readers can imagine whoever they like as the characters. But having specific people 'play' the parts is helpful for me when writing physical descriptions, especially faces.

I had an image of Jess in my mind for a long time, but it's wasn't until a few weeks before I was ready to post the first chapter of Boy that I saw a picture of Mary Badham as Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird. She's exactly how I'd always pictured Jess, small with brown eyes and short brown hair. Mary Badham didn't find many roles as she grew into a teenager, which meant there were very few pictures available, so I switched to Natalie Wood to be able to imagine and write an older Jess.

For Marty, I chose the young actor I'd had a crush on for most of my childhood years watching TV westerns – Johnny Crawford who played Mark McCain in the Rifleman series. A bonus was that he wasn't classically handsome. I've always like my main male characters to have flaws and not be perfect , handsome boys. I think it gives them more depth and keeps them humble.