Writer’s Shop Talk: The Thing About Jim That Most Perplexes Maddie

Writing and Storytelling

What’s the hardest thing about your hero for your heroine to understand? What prevents her from understanding it?

While Jim Garraty is nearly an open book, Maddie remains perplexed by his reluctance to convey his feelings for his high school “crush” despite having numerous opportunities from the latter part of the 1981-82 school year through to the end of Jim and Marty’s senior year in June 1983. Maddie reflects that although Jim saw himself as a “history nerd,” he could have been quite desirable to many young women at South Miami High – if only he had allowed himself to be vulnerable and opened up to new possibilities.

Considering what she knows about Marty, Maddie believes Jim would have captured her heart. Perhaps not immediately, but had he managed to overcome his insecurities and the emotional wounds from his breakup with Kathy “Cherry” Maraschino in ninth grade, Maddie is confident Jim would have eventually succeeded in winning Marty over, based on her intuition and her own interactions with “Professor Jim.”