Rosamunde or "Write What You Know"

Rosamunde was a boring girl.

She was the kind of girl that people would look past when scanning through the crowd. The kind they would describe as a "nice girl" because they could find nothing specific to say.

Nothing about her stood out.

People would quickly forget ever meeting her, and nobody could pick her out of a criminal line-up.

That was her main strength.

She was a seventeen-something businesswoman.

She created her own career in retail by selling cosmetics and accessories to the shallowest fringe of her school's society. They couldn't afford to be found with said items at home, so they paid Rosamunde a "pretty up" fee in the school toilets each morning.

They got the popularity, she got the cash, and the store had insurance against petty theft.

Everyone won.

But she had no friends.

Nobody cared.

Well, aside from "Tourette’s girl" from math class.

Rosamunde knew that Kathy was faking it, but she also knew the chain of command. You needed a diagnosis to be special and sit with the popular ADHD kids in the cafeteria. Kathy's theatrics were the next best thing.

Not that she had much to talk to her peers about anyway.

Her stupid parents never allowed Rosamunde any screen time.

And they called her Rosamunde.

And they were also dead.

All good reasons to hate them.

She lived with her grandparents, who couldn’t work because of their “disabilities,” so they didn't give her any allowance — yet, somehow, managed to spend all of her inheritance.

That’s why she took what she was owed from them... and from the world.

She would save it in a box, buried in the garden, until she had enough and could finally get away from the stupid town and the stupid people inside it.

***

This is the beginning of yet another book idea that has been rattling inside my brain. The story continues with Rosamunde collecting enough money but realizing that she doesn't feel comfortable fleeing the town alone, so she takes Kathy with her.

During their stay in a neighboring town, a few things happen. Kathy confesses her feelings to "Ros" — the only one who treats her normally, and she is happy to be herself with. Rosamunde rolls with the tide and enters a romantic relationship without feeling anything at all.

Then something (probably a weird conversation with the police) makes her think that Kathy ratted her out and they get in a big fight, during which Ros finally says out loud that she always thought Kathy was faking her disability.

She gets dumped — obviously and brutally.

They go back to the small town where Rosamunde celebrates her 18th birthday alone by going to that one store "where they are always too dumb to catch her" and steals a few makeup items while buying a pack of gum.

When the cashier asks her, "Will that be all?" she treats him poorly, as usual, and walks away.

That's when she is apprehended for Grand Larceny. All those small thefts over time have been documented and aggregated. Being 18, she'll be tried as an adult and risks serious jail time.

She is forced to use up all of her savings for a good lawyer and manages to get away with community service.

That’s when the story hits a turning point. But I am not entirely sure about what (maybe she meets someone else with tourette’s during the community service and realises that Kathy was not faking it?)

Whatever the reason, during the community service, she slowly comes to understand that she was the problem all along. And maybe she will realize how much she hurt Kathy and will try — and fail — to win her back with some big romantic gesture. But, maybe, Rosamunde gets some hope to rebuild a friendship, gets herself a real job, and heads into adult life with a higher emotional intelligence.

***

At the beginning of the book, Rosamunde is a liar, a thief, and in general a selfish people-hater who is so busy pretending to be a "good girl" that she completely loses sight of herself. We see the world through her eyes and her belief that everyone is fake, mean, and abusive.

As the story unravels, we learn about what happened to her parents and how it stunted her development because she never received any treatment for the trauma derived from it.

Additionally, nobody ever took the time and care to explain how feelings work and other soft skills to her, so she literally doesn’t know how to interact with people.

She mimics her behavior based on a few sources — I haven't decided what yet, maybe an etiquette book or something similar — but it's all facade, and her understanding of people's motivations and emotions is severely distorted.

When she gets community services, the person in charge will notice her developmental issues and help her. They will teach her the basics of human interaction and help her cultivate her emotional intelligence.

There are so many things concerning social interactions that normal people learn "implicitly" (by imitation and almost sheer proximity), but a developmentally different person needs to learn "explicitly" (having it explained and rationalized in the context of their own experiences).

Rosamunde's main issue was that she was too good at "looking normal" and, thus, nobody noticed she needed help.

***

As Mark Twain famously advised, we should write what we know. At the moment, I just don't know enough to write Rosamunde's story.

And not because I have never written a full book before and lack that skill set. I'm a firm believer that a lot of reading, deliberate writing practice, and humble feedback acceptance can get anyone there. With those three, it's only a matter of time.

No, the knowledge I lack is of a different kind, both factual and experiential.

Factually, I need to learn more about human psychology.

I want Rosamunde's mental condition to show through her perception of the world as provided by the narrator, and for it to change when she changes.

This would also help fill a few gaps in terms of plot — you may have noticed a few "maybe" sprinkled here and there — and character development — what kind of trauma can block her emotional development like that?

But it's the experiential knowledge I am most worried about.

To me, this story only makes sense if it is set in the US.

No country I have ever lived in has the concept of purposefully aggregating petty theft to convict someone of Grand Larceny.

Nor that of trying someone as an adult for a crime they committed before they were 18, only because they turned of age by the time of the trial.

Nor would it be possible for two teenagers to run away and check into a motel on their own and stay there without the police alerting their parents.

And don't get me started on the welfare system, financially taking care of its disabled people and traumatized children.

But I have never been in the US, and probably will not get that chance in a long, long time. Maybe never. So how can I write inside a setting I have only seen on television?

And how can I conjure a town where I don't know what the air smells like?