What I'm Listening To: Beastly OST; specifically "Today is the Day" by Tim Myers.
What I'm Doing: Working on an outline for my nano novel "Incandescence" because the thoughts of revision have entirely taken over the actual writing of the first draft.
I was thinking about motivation (because of a lovely book I found in the library, "The Nighttime Novelist" by Joseph Bates) and it occurred to me that a major happening in "Incandescence" is Ayden's search for his father.
Then I realised that "Boy Next Door" starts the same way - with a search for Daddy. Then it occurred to me that in "Butterfly Gate" there is no father. In "Eden's Gate" there is no mother - she died before the story began. In "Eversong" both parents are there, but she runs away from them. In "Dormouse, Inc" the parents are missing, and the search for them plays a major part in the main character's motivation. In "Moonlight" - the parents are killed. "Snow Queen" has no parents, only a grandmother. "Pearl of Eden" the parents are dead. In .... wait, that's all of them.
All of my stories involve missing or dead parents. Sometimes the missing or deadness has direct relevance, and sometimes the parents are just... not there. This was a horrible revelation for me, because I had no idea I was doing it.
In my personal life, my mother is dead. October 25th of this year marked the thirteenth year since she died; more than half my life. My birth father has never been part of the picture, and he may as well be on the moon for all I know - though I'd like, one day, to find him. (!!!)
I don't know if this means something specific, or if it's just... well. I had no idea (until last night, when I was thinking "Major motivation for Ayden has to be his father, because it has to be personal, and he needs a reason for doing what he does, beyond just "because he wants to. Hm, this all sounds vaguely familiar, didn't I do the same thing in "Boy Next Door? And in Eden's Gate, the mother is dead. ... ... OH MY GOD, I HAVE A TYPE!!!") that I was doing this! It was a revelation. Am I alone in this? I must find other writer-types to discuss with.
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Discussion ahoy! Hello, darling~ I think that's a good theory of yours, but I think there might be another explanation, as well. In my adolescent literature class, we discussed the traits of both children's and adolescent lit. In children's lit, the parents or the family was usually the focus of the main character's exploits.
ReplyDeleteIn adolescent lit, however, the main character has to branch off and become his/her own person, finding her own way through the world.
I think how you treat this necessary lack of parents might reflect your own state, but I do think it's interesting that much adolescent literature has found ways to creatively remove parents from the equation.
...That said, look at the Lion King, something most of us watched as kids. Simba's dad dying and running away from his mom? Totally adolescent stuff right there. No wonder we were scarred.
"Simba's dad dying and running away from his mom?"
ReplyDeleteWow syntax. Way to make the Lion King turn into a zombie movie. Zombie lions ftw.
No edit button, or I'd fix that >>