When someone we care about goes missing, there is conflict. It could be a mysterious disappearance, a runaway, a kidnapping, or a death.
Abandonment wounds can lower Jane's self-esteem. It can color how she interacts with the world. It can make her more sensitive to someone’s absence. A child whose parent is absent or abandons them can become clingy. It can make Jane a suffocating friend or lover. It can make Sally an overprotective parent. It could make Dick assume that everyone leaves so why try to connect? On the flip side, it can inspire Jane to be a better parent, friend, or lover to compensate for what she didn't have.
Abandonment strikes a person all the way to the core. It is a trigger that, even if dealt with, remains. It doesn't take much to set it off. If Jane's father abandoned her, she won't be able to view fathers and daughters on television or out in the park without feeling a twinge of loss. Jane might be jealous of a step-sibling who has a father but doesn't appreciate it. She might be jealous of a friend's relationship with their father. In a thriller or paranormal tale, it can inspire Jane to usurp the friend's place. Jane may avoid relationships because she can't handle the possibility of being left again. She may avoid having children. Her husband or boyfriend might not understand. Mother hunger works the same way.
What if Jane found the parent that gave her away only to learn the parent was a serial killer? It would make a terrific suspense thriller. Jane could find out that the parent was simply an ordinary broken person who lacked the ability to love another in a healthy way and she was better off without the parent. This would make a touching literary tale with a down ending.
If Jane disappears, Dick will take steps to find her and won’t keep hoping or trying until he is successful. Dick will go to any lengths to regain someone he has lost. It can be a friend, lover, child or parent. The more personal the connection, the higher the stakes become. Each layer of separation from the protagonist and the stakes become diluted, unless the person they have to find can save the world. Add a ticking clock and you are at thriller level. The obstacles are in trying to get them back.
Getting them back can create new conflicts. Dick can get Jane back and it all ends happily. He can get Jane back and find she has changed. Dick can find out Jane didn’t want to be found. You can twist this plot in many ways in every genre.
Attempting to locate someone who has died makes a great overall story problem in a Horror or Paranormal Fantasy novel. It can also be used at scene level. If Jane needs to talk to someone and can’t find them, she will be unable to achieve her scene goal. If someone disappears in the middle of a scene, she has conflict. She is either forced to give up the scene goal to look for them or muddle on without them.
If a Jane takes her child into a store and the child decides to play hide and seek, Jane has conflict. If she is trying to overcome a scene obstacle, little Sally's stunt will make Jane's goal that much harder to overcome. If little Sally has been snatched by kidnappers, Jane has an overall story problem.
You could argue the thematic statement that absence makes the heart grow fonder. The flip side is to argue that it doesn’t make the heart grow fonder. Absence makes you realize you don’t really need or want the person after all.
What if Dick chased the one that got away only to find out he didn't like them? That would make a fun romantic plot, providing the right girl was there all along. Dick could pine for an old girlfriend, see her in passing and realize she isn’t as attractive as he remembered, or that she is now a centerfold model. This could be used in a literary tale about a marriage gone stale.
At scene level, an inspector can locate a suspect and realize the suspect is innocent. He must abandon theory one and investigate theory two. The inspector can be haunted by a partner that left without explanation. He can be haunted by a missing person case he did not solve.
In any genre, Dick can be abandoned by someone in a crowded park or building or left on planet Zircon to solve the situation by himself. It will frustrate, if not panic, him.
You can play abandonment in a different way. If extroverted Dick takes introverted Jane to a party and goes off to talk to other people all night, Jane will feel abandoned. She might get mad. She might leave. She might hold it against him for a really long time. The next time he asks her for something, she will refuse. She might deliver verbal zingers until he finally asks why she is being so mean.
If Dick and Jane fly to Africa for a safari and Dick disappears, Jane has a massive problem. She has to find Dick or face the possibility of returning to America without him. Finding someone in a foreign country is a difficult thing to do, particularly when their laws, society, and language are foreign to you.
Abandonment is a terrific theme and overall story problem. It adds poignancy to a love story or motivates a character at scene level. Being alone, even in a crowd, is a universal fear that everyone can tap into.
For more about using obstacles to create tension in your fiction, pick up a copy of Story Building Blocks II: Crafting Believable Conflict in print or E-book.
Story Four of the 2013 One series is now available.
You Are a Million $ Baby
by Sudè Khanian
My friend Sudè returns to the
One series with a touching story of how we define ourselves and how we view others in our life. What we get is a tapestry of ideas flowing together with her unique way with words. If you have ever seen her paintings, the way she writes is an extension of that energy. It is easy to identify with the narrator of her story. However, as a father, I saw the conclusion a little differently. A lot of this piece is about inner strength and how we react to people in our life. Do we run away screaming or do we embrace our differences?
100% of the author’s proceeds will be donated to Bridge to Ability Specialized Learning Center, a not-for-profit organization serving the educational and therapeutic needs of fragile children with severe physical and cognitive disabilities. www.BridgeToAbility.org. The authors, creator and publisher are in no other way affiliated with this organization.
Mark Miller’s One 2013 is a spiritual anthology examining True-Life experiences of Authors and their Faith. As the series evolves expect to discover what it means to have faith, no matter what that faith is and no matter where they live. Remember that we are all part of this One World.
Story Four is a touching look at us all. This story could take place at any time and to any person. It is a story of love lost and life abandoned. The author asks us if our imperfections can be seen as beauty. She also explores where we find strength and hope?
Also available on Nook and Kobo
Please visit the Authors of One on Facebook
When someone we care about goes missing, there is conflict. It could be a mysterious disappearance, a runaway, a kidnapping or a death.
A parent that abandons a child, or dies, leaves a psychological wound that influences the child’s entire life. A parent who simply disappears creates an anxiety-riddled need to understand why and how. The child often blames himself. Send a character on a journey to find out why and you have a story problem.
Abandonment wounds can lower Jane's self-esteem. It can color how she interacts with the world. It can make her more sensitive to someone’s absence. A child whose parent is absent or abandons them can become clingy. It can make Jane a suffocating friend or lover. It can make Sally an overprotective parent. It could make Dick assume that everyone leaves so why try to connect? On the flip side, it can inspire Jane to be a better parent, friend or lover to compensate for what she didn't have.
Abandonment strikes a person all the way to the core. It is a wound that, even if dealt with, remains. It doesn't take much to set it off. If Jane's father abandoned her, she won't be able to view fathers and daughters on television or out in the park without feeling a twinge of loss. Jane might be jealous of a step-sibling who has a father but doesn't appreciate it. She might be jealous of a friend's relationship with their father. In a thriller or paranormal tale, it can inspire Jane to usurp the friend's place. Jane may avoid relationships because she can't handle the possibility of being left again. She may avoid having children. Her husband or boyfriend might not understand. Mother hunger works the same way.
What if Jane found the parent that gave her away only to learn the parent was a serial killer? It would make a terrific suspense thriller. Jane could find out that the parent was simply an ordinary broken person who lacked the ability to love another in a healthy way and she was better off without the parent. This would make a touching literary tale with a down ending.
If Jane disappears, Dick will take steps to find her and won’t keep hoping or trying until he is successful. Dick will go to any lengths to regain someone he has lost. It can be a friend, lover, child or parent. The more personal the connection, the higher the stakes become. Each layer of separation from the protagonist and the stakes become diluted, unless the person they have to find can save the world. Add a ticking clock and you are at thriller level. The obstacles are in trying to get them back.
Getting them back can create new conflicts. Dick can get Jane back and it all ends happily. He can get Jane back and find she has changed. Dick can find out Jane didn’t want to be found. You can twist this plot in many ways in every genre.
Attempting to locate someone who has died makes a great overall story problem in a Horror or Paranormal Fantasy novel. It can also be used at scene level. If Jane needs to talk to someone and can’t find them, she wil
Over on FaceBook I've written a few things, mostly questions about what will happen after the rapture. Last night my friend Vicki Cheatwood blogged about the rapture in such a deep way that I realized my questions were just dancing around on the surface of what I was trying to ask. What I am actually feeling.
I was asking things like will I still be able to garden, and what will happen to all the animals that get left behind, and who is going to deal with all the stuff that is left behind by those who rise up ... Vicki asks a more serious question: if you knew the date and hour of your end time today, what would you be doing? are you anywhere near where you want to be? are you doing what you want to be doing? are you with the people you want and need to be with?
I am. Finally in my life, I am. I am writing every day. I am with my daughter and grandkids. I am in touch with my son and his daughter. I talk with my Mom every week. I am surrounded by great friends whom I see regularly. I have a garden again. So, yes, this is exactly where I want to be.
Am I ready for a whole host of my family and friends to rise up in the rapture and leave me behind? No. I have abandonment issues. The truth is I'm no more ready to lose them one at a time. It's this whole topic of death, letting go, being left behind.
Which is really the issue of attachment -- and time for me to go back to sangha, find a Buddhist sangha group and renew my own spiritual practice.
What has all this talk of the rapture brought up in your life?
By: J.R.Poulter,
on 9/5/2008
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Publishing a Picture Book - Getting it all together
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LATEST: "Mending Lucille" is "Book of the Month" in Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane, Perth - "Melbourne's Child" parenting magazine has made "Mending Lucille" their book of the month. Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth editions of the paper have followed suit.
The Highs and the Lows of Creating a Winning Picture Book
"Mending Lucille" written by J.R.Poulter & illustrated by Sarah Davis, Lothian/Hachette Livre, hb, 2008, ISBN 9780734410337:
The book has had the most amazing reception.
It sold out the first print run in its first week of release.
It was picked up by ASO.
Within its first fortnight has become a recommended book for counseling and biblio-therapy by Monash Medical Centre's Australian Centre for Grief Education and a site devoted to counselling parents/carers of children suffering the trauma of loss/bereavement.
The following story of the creation of "Mending Lucille" is based around a presentation Sarah & I were invited to give at SCWBI International Conference, Sydney, February 2008 - a huge honour for 2 relative newbies.
INSPIRATION
• First version written in one sitting – started with the first line ‘A raging and roaring and rolling in the sky like a storm –’ the next line came immediately I committed the 1st to paper. The whole story took less than 15 minutes to write.
• It was submitted to Lothian almost as an afterthought - they were looking for more humorous material at that time.
• Later submitted the 2nd version - more like a poem – this version wasn’t used.
• The story behind the story – can’t be told in its entirety, as it goes back generations and many folk affected are still alive. I was motivated to write by the pervading sense of loss and grief that hung, mist-like in the homes of relatives who had suffered terrible loss as children.
THE PROCESS
• The story was to have been released pre the Hachette/Lothian merger.
• Helen originally contracted Caroline Magerl to do the illustrations.
• I very much like Caroline’s work. My favourite example of her style and what I imagine she might have used for “Mending Lucille” was her utterly beautiful “Grandma’s Shoes”- see below:
THE HUNT FOR AN ILLUSTRATOR
• After the takeover by Hachette, the pace quickened.
Caroline Magerl decided to devote herself more to her art and withdrew. [http://www.cmagerl.com.au/]
• I was sent an example of Leith Walton’s work. Couldn’t find the picture the publisher sent, which was very different to Caroline's work but still well executed. This is Leith’s submission for the ‘Book of Pi’ competition.
• Hachette decided against Leith for my particular project and the hunt was on for another illustrator. [Wonder what he’s doing now.]
• Jenny Gibson, art teacher/web designer, had submitted her portfolio. Jenny had done the humorous illustrations for my education series, “Poetry Action for Classroom and Stage”. This is one of her line drawings. Hachette decided against using her work for this particular project. [see more of Jenny's work: http://www.jennygibson.com ]
• At this stage, I asked Helen if I could “have a go at finding an illustrator”. Helen gave me my head!
MY SEARCH
• I Googled ‘illustrators’ specifying ‘pages from Australia’ – two sites came up worth checking. The SCBWI site was one.
• I found two artists – one on each site and contacted the sites. Sarah Davis was the artist I found on the SCWBI site. Site Coordinator, Susanne Gervay, responded to my enquiry almost immediately and sent me Sarah’s contact details. Susanne has been an enormously encouraging mentor to both Sarah and I and subsequently invited us to present our story of the book's creation at the SCWBI International Conference, Sydney February 2008.
• This is the picture that drew me to Sarah – it was so multi-layered! [http://sarahdavisillustration.com/artwork/243867.html]
MAKING CONTACT
• Rang Sarah and told her I had a contract with Lothian. Would she be interested in doing a couple of sketches for Helen? I couldn’t guarantee she would get the contract & I couldn’t pay her.
• Sarah loved the ms and submitted sketches. [ I got first peak within 48 ours.]
• I contacted Helen, my wonderful editor at Lothian. She was wary, Sarah not being a ‘known’ illustrator and pairing her with me, not exactly a ‘known’ myself! I was so excited at discovering Sarah that I didn't hesitate to say to Helen, ‘Sarah’s the one – just wait till you see the samples!’
• Helen loved the samples - the rest is history!
SARAH’S FIRST SKETCHES
Lucille, the ragdoll:
MORE CHALLENGES
• Sarah got underway with the illustrations, sending me updates - the two of us just gob smacked at how unified a vision we had of the book!
• This is an early picture Sarah sent me. It visualised a key element in the story, one Hachette now felt should be changed. The dead bird:
THE FURTHER EVOLUTION OF THE STORY
• The story was as originally written when Sarah started illustrating. However, at about the same time, Hachette took over Lothian.
• I was told I needed to eliminate any reference to or hint of ‘death’ from the text.
• This was no easy task as the dead bird symbol was one of the key elements to the story.
• I had seen the need for a story like Mending Lucille. So many children have been and are being left without one of their central carers/parents and popular opinion was always that the children were not affected adversely.
• Re death/bereavement: It was generally felt children ‘got over it’, ‘they were too young to be aware of what was happening’. Death's very finality allowed for recovery, for moving on, it gave a sense of closure.
• Re loss/abandonment: Of more devastating proportions for a child, however, is the loss of a parent on going - a parent's abandonment of the child. The general consensus was ‘it was better for the child than living in an unhappy home’ etc. There is no easy moving on from this type of loss because the parent is still alive somewhere...it is a profound loss, an inconsolable loss – it does not go away.
A CHANGE TO THE ORIENTATION
• I had used the reference to ‘death’ in relation to the bird to gentle the story down – the fate of the mother was to be deliberately left ‘open’. Whether literally dead or gone from the child’s life, she was effectively ‘dead’ to the child I was not looking at pros and cons – not looking for reasons why – this was the child’s story, from her perspective.
• Children are not generally told reasons and even of they are – they are too young to take them in – it is the loss that registers. The ‘unspeakable’ grieving – no one speaks to the child in a language he/she can understand about their loss till someone like Chrissie comes and starts to reach out to them at their level & so begin to console and mend the child.
THE PROBLEM
• I needed to find a way to still tell the story without compromise, but keep the publisher happy. I found a path through but fought for some of my more resonating text.
• I drafted changes and ran them by Sarah – would this still fit with her vision of the whole? Yes, Sarah could see how it could be interpreted visually!
BOLDER, BRAVER, BETTER!
• We both feel that what we now have, the final book, is a braver text, more controversial in ways, more honest! This is Sarah’s revised version of the bird and the rosebush:
• The changes to the text introduced the cage that is loss and grief…Sarah’s evocative illustration:
• The bird becomes the spirit soaring! The end flaps:
"Mending Lucille", Lothian, 2008, hardback, ISBN 978-0-7344-1033-7
To read the illustrator's side of the story of "Mending Lucille" - go to:
www.sarahdavisillustration.com
http://pseudoarmadillo.wordpress.com/page/2/
and
http://www.jacketflap.com/megablog/index.asp?blogid=515
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Thanks so much for posting this, Jennifer. I'll send the link to all my fellow Children's Book Council committee members.
It's a wonderful book that should be awarded.
Best wishes,
Peter Taylor