Hello Gordan Korman,

I have a question that has been bugging me, it’s pretty trivial but I can’t seem to find a straight answer anywhere so I was hoping you might help me solve this issue. I was also hoping for advice on a problem that’s facing me and the person I’m co-writing a story with.

My question is: When a character has a knick-name, and it’s used as much as the real name because it’s often spoken in dialogue, does the actual story need to be written with the characters original name or the knick-name?

My problem is: My friend and I are co-writing a story together. We’ve started writing a lot of these stories together but we each have our own books that we are working on individually. My friend gets distracted quite easily, as a result, I’m far more into the stories I’ve started than she is in hers. I have no problem with writing at a slower rate, it’s just that it affects how much we are able to work on the things we collaborate on. I understand that we are both teenagers and we are not particularly known for our dedication and focus, but I don’t know how to help her. I try to make it easier to keep on track by talking to her face to face when writing, but that’s not always possible, so Skyping is another solution. Unfortunately, when I’m not there physically, she can always find a way to distract herself. I love writing with her and she is a creative and hard-working person, but I don’t know how to get her to really focus on the story. We have several stories started that are half way through because she ghosted away from one and into another as soon as she got the idea for it. How do I get her to finally sit down and focus on one story long enough to finish it?

I would really appreciate your input. Thanks in advance.