I think that the only two ways to go with this is 1. to have forgotten something because it was tramitic. Maybe the kid was adopted after growing up in an abusive home but he still had a stong conection with one parent so he didnt want to fully forget the one who tryed to take care of him? Something of that nature. It usally would be a very large thing that your brain would push out.
Or 2. That he has time travled in to the time when he was eight and left a message for himself. Seeing that it has not happioned yet he would not remember it. It could have been written like a child so that the adult him wouldnt have taken the message as a prank. The message coule be something as simple as “dont gpo out with this girl” because she trys to kill him lator or as complex as “Go to ‘x’ place to find something and save the world by….” ect. (Ya, I dont know. Im sleepy, but you get the idea.)
I really hope this helped. I know it can be hard because others do not know what sort of feeling yolur book has so trying to help you can just be frustrating.

I know its a little lame to say this, but be sure to be true to what you want to write. Writing something just because it sounds good is just as easy to mess up all your work with. Stick to what sounds fun to write about, not what sounds like it would just work well.

again, good luck!!!!

what came into my head straight away was the impression that the child him had wrote the note to himself knowing that he would read it at a certain time and age. i had a supernatural feeling here – as if there is something that he was able to do or did once, something possibly that couldnt be understood or he feared as akid, some kind of event caused by the child; and now this event or power or skill was what helped him to create the message knowing that the older him would need to use it now.

The man finds a note from his eight year old self explaining about how he witnessed his father (rape??) and kill a women. His father made him promise not to tell anyone one because it was a ‘grown up’ thing. And as an obedient son he didn’t, but he wrote it on a note for himself in the future, having a feeling that something didn’t add up. The women who was killed ended up as a cold case, and it hasn’t been brought up for fifteen years. But now them man realizes he needs to bring justice to the women who was killed, and now he’s on the hunt to finds out more evidence to convict his father of the crime. He teams up with a long lost friend to help bring his father down, but before long, his dad is on his trail. Realizing his son is on to him, he hires men to ‘take out’ his son. Father vs. Son. Who will win?? It’s up to you.

That’s my ‘help’ for your story but it’s up to you on what you want to do.

Secondly–again, this is just *my* habit: if I have a question (especially one that’s essential to character/plot/theme/anythiing in that vein), I write my way out of it NaNo is about accumulating words…okay, so take a side trip and have a conversation with your character; ask him what HE thinks he wrote in that book and don’t stop until he tells you. Or, ask a different question–maybe of a different character. Did his mother or father come across the book during the intervening years? (Again, this might seem like a waste of time, energy, and words–and if it’s not the technique for you, ignore everything I’m writing. The way I figure, NaNo doesn’t have any rule(s) besides accumulate 50,000 words during thirty consecutive days–so I just kept solving any problems I ran into the same way I usually did/do).

That’s all I have to say…you’ve probably worked it all out by now, but maybe this comment will be helpful to another reader.

I used to write notes to myself just like this, on inside covers of my favorite childhood books. Usually i kept them cryptic – or at least a cryptic as an eight year old thought they could be. Usually they involved “secrets” I had about the other people in my life AND often I gave those people secret nicknames so if anyone did read my note – they wouldn’t know who snicklefritz was….. only I knew that was my mother.

Good luck with this. I love the intrigue this post has created!!

I like the idea that the letter will lead the main character to the next clue, like a treasure hunt. Perhaps the letter could be saying something along the lines of: “Don’t whatever you do, dig up that old biscuit tin that’s buried near the shed.” The character is so curious he can’t help but do exactly what the note tells him not to do, and mayhem is unleashed…

Leo,thanks for the suggestions. I may well go with a single clue that leads to the next clue angle. I just need to think of the first clue.

caveblogem , that penny thing is a story all of it’s own. That isn’t stupid. It’s brilliant!

Well, I always hid old pennies at my grandma’s house hoping to go back when I was older and reap the rare coin harvest. But that was just stupid.