Writerly Ways

[cornerofmadness]

In this post we've come to the end of my thoughts on that conversation about YA fiction and some of the disservice we do it. I've talked about child soldiers and bad teachers. That leaves parents. In order for kids and teens to do half of what they do in so many YA stories (especially the fantasy/urban fantasy/action-thriller types) their parents have to be very negligent in order for it to happen.

So the biggest way around that I've seen is the orphan trope. That, of course, really fixes the parent problem. They just don't exist. No one cares about what happens to orphans. They're just out there raising themselves. This isn't usually reality but it does work well for fantasy novels and historical ones. there are some things that exist today that would prevent most orphans from just doing whatever they pleased. is it perfect, surely not. I've seen enough things with child welfare that have stunned me and made me wonder who exactly is in charge (most recently with a coworker who fosters children. she passed hard on one poor girl whose parents brought her into their sex games but still had visitation rights that she would have to bring the girl to and you're like what judge said this was okay, who is watching out for the kids?)

Then there's, as mentioned, the negligent parents who don't even know what's going on. This is another popular trope and personally my least favorite. It makes them look like idiots and generally not what I want from a character.


I think it would be far more interesting to have involved parents. They sort of tried that with Buffy. Joyce was not parent of the year and vaguely neglectful but she was a single mom trying to maintain a house that size in CA on one salary. She's out working but when she was there, she didn't listen to Buffy much. She was obstructive even after knowing the truth which got her in trouble with fans.

I've tried going this route with both of my YA novels. In the first one (that wasn't as good as I thought when I first went back, I have improved in the technical side of things) the parents are very involved and there are consequences for doing dangerous dumb stuff. In the second, the parents are also monster hunters bringing the young people up in the trade. It's one way to put them in danger without making the parents looks bad.

It occurred to me there could be another option. The parent is someone they need to oppose Darth Vader style. I haven't tried this yet

How about you? How have you tackled this issue?


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Advent Joy

Day 21 -Take a walk in the woods and observe your surroundings. No problem. We own 40 acres. I wandered out and took some photos. I observed there is A LOT of deer poop and some small canid/cat prints in the residual snow.

Day 21 tea - figgy pudding tea - green tea, currants, orange peel, raspberry and blackberry, cinnamon and figgy pudding flavor this was very nice



The driveway

The path looking back at the house


This used to be a path but no one cuts/walks it these days, just me today

Bigfoot is this your bed?

On a different path looking at the house. My childhood bedroom is on the right

Comments

[under_the_silk_tree]

Making the kid an orphan does solve some problems, but nowadays, with that being the prevalent option chosen, it feels like a bit of a cop-out.

I would love to see a series in which the parents are still around and helping in some way, like in the examples you gave.

Those pictures make it look like a very peaceful place to spend the holidays.

[cornerofmadness]

Yeah that was my feelings on making the kid an orphan (though it does make things easier)

Of course keeping the family around means I have to come up with ways of why they're allowing whatever it is they're doing.

It's a nice quiet town

[a_natural_beauty]

With Day 21 that sounds lovely! I need to go on a refreshing walk in the woods again - it's been a minute! S

And with the subject of tea - I like the ones you mentioned except for Figgy pudding tea, currants an orange peel. Those ones I haven't tried yet.

[cornerofmadness]

I try to go as often as I can but almost 4 years ago I suffered a devestating leg injury and can't go as much as I did.

the figgy pudding wasn't bad, certainly better than the red rooibos ones

[a_natural_beauty]

Oh gosh, I'm sorry to hear that! :(
*hugs*

[cornerofmadness]

thanks

[shipperslist]

It occurred to me there could be another option. The parent is someone they need to oppose Darth Vader style.

Oh, this could be interesting!

On the involved parent: I think Supernatural was a mix of this and the negligent parent because sure, John Winchester taught both his boys to fight but he also was obsessed with his wife's killer so he really didn't give a damn about what happened to Sam and Dean.

[cornerofmadness]

I suppose Disney has done the evil step parent to death but in YA fiction I haven't seen it a lot. It could be very interesting

John Winchester is a good example as you said. I forgot about him.

[suzume]

Most of my characters are adults, but there are some children- like in The Immortal Ambrosia, there's Fio, and in The Incredible Lives of the Brothers Cattaneo there's Persy.

Of course, in The Immortal Ambrosia, Fio (Rosafiore Veronesi) looks 10 but is actually 20. Her father is the governor of Ascalia- a former mafioso- and is desperate to get her back, because her half-brother, Michelangelo (Dante Veronesi) kidnapped her. But, after some initial woes, Fio is fine with running around the country with her older half-brother. She just wants to quell her father's fears once he sees her on the silver screen (her obsession with Leo Creighton (a Lon Chaney-type) brought her to New Los Rios) and gets in touch with her again.

Persy Lee has two living parents, but they never married and only for a time lived together. Her mother is the so-called "Red Fox" Anna Savoy, but as you can see, Persy bears her father's surname. He's a foreigner and a novelist, R.A. Lee. (but quoting from my novel: "(though with his absent-minded tendency to fall into his work to exclusion of everything else around him, if the Conductor had been more given to joking, he would have wanted to comment on his being impressed that R.A. had raised a child to the age where she could more or less manage herself)"). He's a little bit of a goofball obviously, but, c'mon, he is sort-of friends with Horatio ("the Conductor"), so.....

[cornerofmadness]

oh cool examples, thanks. I don't know either story. These characters sounds very interesting though

[suzume]

I figured some original character examples would go well here! (in this icon that's Fio tying up Leo with a string of lights)

[cornerofmadness]

Cool, so they're yours. They sound very interesting

[suzume]

Yes, they are!

[cornerofmadness]

thanks for sharing