Index of Letters. Return to Story 290.
Hi from Anne.
This is one of the feature stories of the Letters Series. There has been an amazing amount of work spent on it for such a short story. I believe the original version was written in mid-2008, then it had a major rebuild in 2010. More recently, in 2013, more work was done. It then went through the major rebuild of 2026 as well.
You could say this is an addition to our earlier (Letter 43 Shanti was Painfully Shy.) Certainly, I believe it would be worth reading that one before you continued with this one here. You might also like to read (Letter - 56 Story Night), in the section talking about Letter 43, where Mike and Shanti are still sure her parents never found out about their sexual relationship.
Basically, the story is about Shanti discovering her parents knew about her and Mike’s sexual relationship almost from the beginning. We learn how they decided not to confront her about it when they realised how happy she was and how much this had improved her speech problems. They sound like fairly modern Indian parents if you ask me. More understanding than Shanti is giving them credit for.
I'm not sure Shandra's real parents, certainly not her mother, would have been so understanding.
This story is also unusual in that there is a small poem included as well. I think her sitting on the floor among her 'secret' treasures as she reads that poem is a special part of this story.
Basically, the story is about Shanti discovering her parents knew about her and Mike’s sexual relationship almost from the beginning. We learn how they decided not to confront her about it when they realised how happy she was and how much this had improved her speech problems. They sound like fairly modern Indian parents if you ask me. More understanding than Shanti is giving them credit for.
I'm not sure Shandra's real parents, certainly not her mother, would have been so understanding.
This story is also unusual in that there is a small poem included as well. I think her sitting on the floor among her 'secret' treasures as she reads that poem is a special part of this story.
The major changes made in 2010 were the scene where Shanti retrieves her ‘treasures’ and the idea of Greeshma going to live with Shanti’s parents. The reason for this second change will be revealed when we get to the other 2010 stories in Vol Ten. The poem was added at this point too.
Later, in 2013, some of us had another go at the story. Our intention was to make it into a story that flowed better when read aloud. Not much was changed in the basic structure of the story, but there were many minor changes, particularly to the conversations, etc.
Finally, Kim added that piece where Greeshma admits she watched Lizamoa and Peter having sex in the mud. In his story (Letter/Story 73), Joseph had wondered how much she knew. Kim wanted to keep the fact that Greeshma was watching secret in her story and then get Greeshma to admit she was watching, here in this story. That works for us, too.
In 2026, the major change we did was run this story through Grammarly's spell check and AI. Not many major changes were made to the text, but the coding was completely redone. It's neater and works on most computers and phones now. This background page was also reworked at the same time. One problem we did find was how badly the links were written. These were corrected, too.
Later, in 2013, some of us had another go at the story. Our intention was to make it into a story that flowed better when read aloud. Not much was changed in the basic structure of the story, but there were many minor changes, particularly to the conversations, etc.
Finally, Kim added that piece where Greeshma admits she watched Lizamoa and Peter having sex in the mud. In his story (Letter/Story 73), Joseph had wondered how much she knew. Kim wanted to keep the fact that Greeshma was watching secret in her story and then get Greeshma to admit she was watching, here in this story. That works for us, too.
In 2026, the major change we did was run this story through Grammarly's spell check and AI. Not many major changes were made to the text, but the coding was completely redone. It's neater and works on most computers and phones now. This background page was also reworked at the same time. One problem we did find was how badly the links were written. These were corrected, too.
Kia Kaka - Kia Kaha.
Be safe - Be strong.
Anne.
Be safe - Be strong.
Anne.
Interesting history.
ReplyDeleteIt seems like this happens often in your blog stories. I know it improves and makes the stories better but I would like to see what it was like beack in 2010 before all the changes were made. Is this possible?
Raymond.
Yes that is right Raymond. Our stories all go through a process of being reviewed by members of the team. It usually makes them a lot better but can also have the disadvantage of changing the original intention of the writer.
DeleteAs for earlier copies, in some cases yes but once a story goes into the final process towards publishing we have not bothered keeping copies of development stages. This would be interesting but time consuming to do. My role is to always keep the greater story in mind leaving others to work on the finer details. It works so we leave it like this.
Anne.