Parents of Protags

[moth]

I've always had them in all my stories, but I notice I write them differently since I became a parent myself. The teen faces danger, eventually the parents learn of it (sometimes all the details, sometimes not), and they (naturally) react. B.C., their reactions weren't that detailed. Now I find myself writing them doing what I'd do if something like what happened to my protag happened to my own kids. Way too logical and thorough, and I know it has to come out in revisions since it's not important to the YA story...but then I feel like I've left something out.

Hard to find that balance, just like with everything else in life. :D

How about you? How do your protag's parents affect you?

[Tish Davidson]

Are you telling the story from the POV of the kid? If so, you should consider that most kids (well, mine at least as teenagers) were almost completely oblivious to their parent's lives and didn't have a clue as to how upsetting some of their actions were to the adults who love them. So if it is from the kid's POV, I'd stick to relating only the actions of the parents that directly impact the protagonist. YAs are in their own little world, and a lot of the time parents are marginal to it.

[moth]

*nodding* Mm-hm, that's exactly it. I have her parents at the very beginning and very end (the rest of the time, she's facing the danger with the other teen), and I kept finding myself writing parents' reactions that the MC wouldn't notice, or care about if she did notice. Gah. I'm starting revisions on the novel today, so hopefully I'll be able to weed through it all with fresher eyes.

[Bufty]

My story didn't involve the parents so I left them way in the background.

[LeeFlower]

heh, maybe this is why so many YAs revolve around protags who are either orphans or at boarding school (or both).

My rec would be to go ahead and write the parents' reactions into the story, but then come back and cut most of it back out. That way, even if it's not directly in the story, it will color your characterization. But that's just me.

[Sage]

I've noticed a lot of children's/YA novels have the parents'/guardians' revealing their actions & reactions to earlier problems at the end of the novel.

I had a problem with one of my MC's parents knowing exactly what's going on with him, & as she was fairly overprotective, it was difficult to get him off on his journey without her approval. While it gave me a good excuse to have another character introduce the whys & hows of the world, it's a scene I fear has too much exposition.

[adi008]

nice topic budYYY! ;)

[C.bronco]

I think that in YA, particularly the more fantasy oriented works, the parents are either dead or absent so that the protagonists can work through their own problems and make their own decisions. In those stores grounded in reality, sometimes the parents are the problem.
Dale Peck had a new twist to the convention in his YA book Drift House: the kids were sent from Manhattan to stay w/ and uncle in Canada because of 9/11.

[LeeFlower]

Dale Peck had a new twist to the convention in his YA book Drift House: the kids were sent from Manhattan to stay w/ and uncle in Canada because of 9/11.

hm, kind of like what Lewis did with The Chronicles of Narnia-- the kids are staying with the professor because of England's kinder transport out of London. That's certainly a way to handle it. There are a lot of other ways to use that concept, too:

Natural Disaster: the kids have been sent away while the folks rebuild the house/find a new one (New Orleans, anyone?).
Gang violence: "In west Philidelphia, born and raised, on the playground where I spent most of my days..."
Disease (probably better in historical settings): Sending the child into the country to get them away from an epidemic.
Witness Protection: The parents are key witnesses in a very highly-charged case. They've sent the kids away to live with relatives for the duration, and plan to join them when it ends.

None of those resolve the issue that there's going to be some kind of guardian figure in the character's life, though. One of the biggest weaknesses I see in a lot of YA these days is that authors are so busy adhering to the 'parents may not resolve the problem' convention that they forget that the parents wouldn't ever allow their children into the dangerous situations they're getting themselves into. We as authors need to come up with a compelling reason that the parents wouldn't know or wouldn't involve themselves. Leaving them as bumbling/clueless background characters really detracts from realism, and I also feel like it prevents readers from identifying with the MCs. Their parents, after all, aren't dumb enough to let an eleven year old go up against the greatest evil in the universe when they themselves have the power to stop it... why should the MC's?

[Evaine]

In my story (being read by an agent now) the father of my main character is intimately involved with the plot, to the extent of having to be rescued by the main character - as he's out of action or not at his best for a good part of the book, it's up to his two daughters to sort things out.

[Kristen King]

My rec would be to go ahead and write the parents' reactions into the story, but then come back and cut most of it back out. That way, even if it's not directly in the story, it will color your characterization. But that's just me.

I think this is outstanding advice. I intend to use it!

I'm not a parent (yet), but after three years in "teacher school" working with high school kids, 12 years of hardcore babysitting, and a staff position at a parenting magazine, I find that I have a lot of parental reactions to children/teens in my life and children/teens in my writing.

Does this mean I'm turning into my mother? Oh, wait, this is the YA forum, not the horror forum. ;]

Kristen

[C.bronco]

Once the parents are absent, the protagonists can then choose which mentors or parental figures to latch onto (if any). It's interesting to consider who they choose & why.

[K-Mark]

In my story (being read by an agent now) the father of my main character is intimately involved with the plot

I have a similar situation. The single-mother in my YA story is trying to hide the identity of the real father from the main character (her son), so she is part of the plot.

Maybe that is your answer. Either make the parents part of the plot or totally cut them out. Then again, there is no perfect answer

[writeperch]

Hmmm. If you've introduced the parents, and IF they find out what's going on, you need to do something with them. If they fail to react, readers will think of them as "bad" parents (which is true for 90% of the parents in teenage movies, anyway). However, (like LeeFlower said), write it in and possibly pull most of it out later. Remember, this is fiction about your young MC, and if the parents get in the way of your STORY, you'll need to deal with them (get them out of the way logically).

Sorry, I have to think in terms of teenage movies. Think of the good movies that had "good" parents (i.e., believable parents). They're not in the movie all that much, but every second of their time on screen counts and adds so much to the movie. Just watched Basketball Diaries. The mom ain't in it all that much, but the times she's on screen really counts. Or for something fluffier, think of Pretty in Pink (though the dad actually has his own story arc in the movie).

[Camilla]

I have a similar problem with my WIP. My protagonist is around 18 years old and something of the supernatural variety happens to her. Dealing with her parents' reactions is becoming very awkward! But I don't want to write them out with some kind of "convenient" excuse, because I think their presence is important (even though I don't fully see why yet).

I'm going to keep plugging away at it, and probably follow LeeFlower's suggestion. And I'll keep an eye on this thread!

[emsuniverse]

My MC's parents are vital to the story... Her mother is murdered and my MC goes on a quest to find the killer. Along the way, she finds out that her father isn't really her father, her grandmother is a lunatic, and that she has a half sister out there that's a b*tch.

I'm working on it.

[PaperMoon]

Great topic! As a parent, I also struggle with this. All good advice here. I'll try to follow it myself!

I often go even further, trying to end the novel with the didactic approach of a parent and teacher, which so far has ruined my first novel. I completely watered down my MC from her attitude at the beginning to a "completely reformed" teenager.

I even abandoned this work several years ago because I couldn't imagine a "real" ending that didn't turn my young gal into a complete nun. I think I need to start over at about chapter six!

Again, love this topic. We really needed this forum, and I promise to be more active out here!

[Kersten]

In my last YA novel Tyger Tyger, book one of The Goblin Wars, the parents are integral to the plot--and fun fascinating characters as well. They--and other parental figures--have a *huge* influence on the main characters and remain important through the whole trilogy.

It is a Celtic story, and in Celtic stories you never journey alone.

[n3onkn1ght]

Since my fantasy book is about a stagnant, fascist society with strict, traditional roles (gender, class, hierarchy, et cetera) the main character's parents are really just extensions of the world they live in, rather than wholly characters themselves.

His mother is an empty shell of a woman who exists to cook her husband dinner and toil in a sweatshop for a pittance, while his father is a brutal "sweat-off-my-brow!" engineer who beats his children into submission to take the edge off the fact that he's been passed over for promotion. The parents are never really more than archetypical plot devices, but then again, no one in the clockwork city is ever really alive, they just kind of....keep on ticking.

[Jehhillenberg]

Parents pop in and out in my stories. My MCs always have some sort of relationship with their folks rather estranged or close so that it affects them in a way. I'm only able to see things from one angle and that's the kid's POV so it's an interesting take to be on both sides.

So far if/when my young characters get into trouble, the parents aren't fully aware until after the fact. And by then sometimes it's too late for their actions to do anything.

[Cyia]

Parents were a sticky situation in my dystopian, as several characters have recently lost theirs. Other authority figures sort of step in when help is required.

For the contemporary, the MC's parents are across the country while she's staying with her aunt and uncle who pop in to check on her at intervals between stints at the hospital. They're there, and she still reacts to them, but they aren't overbearing.

[froley]

I like to bring the parents in, sporadically, and have them build bonds and conflict with the protagonist, and then take them away halfway through the story. Muahahaha! Well, that's what I did last time, anyway. Protag had to grow up fast in act 3.

[OpheliaRevived]

I just sat in on a class about this. The adults in mg and ya have to have purpose, but the kid/teen should be the "agent of change". Otherwise the story becomes that of the adults, not the mc. Best class ever. You could "Google this: role of adults in children's lit.

[lenore_x]

In my first stories, parents were absent. (Well, more accurately, the kids were out on their own for one reason or another.) In my current WIP, it's about the protag's relationship with her parents, so their reactions are as important as anything. Three cheers for YA novels about family! :partyguy:

[Becca C.]

The parents/guardians usually become really important to the MC. One of my WIPs is all about the main character coming of age and learning to detach himself from his parents (with whom he's rather to close, for an eighteen-year-old guy), in another, the parents are the antagonists. In another, the grandparents raised the MC, and pretty much all of his conflict stems from complex relationships with them.

I think parental relationships are a goldmine for writing material in YA. I wish more writers would dig there.

[Zoombie]

There is always a solution: Muuuuuuuuuuuurderrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

[timewaster]

The first couple of books I wrote, soon after I became a parent, had this problem until I realised that many of the children I write for are already overprotected and constrained by parental expectations etc. It is important for me to give the children adult free imaginative space. My current WIP has a parent around but she is mentally absent- the rest of the time my children are isolated so that they have to cope alone. It can work of course, everything can given the right circumstances, but I try to imagine myself into the child role rather than the adult.

[Cecile]

My WIP has parents in it also, but not the MC's parents. Her father just passed away and her mother died when she was five and now she's living with her father's best friend and his wife. The parents haven't been in the story much yet (60ish pages) but will be important later as their back story, as well as the MC's deceased parents', back story is rather crucial to the plot. I'm kind of excited to have the parents in the story since it isn't done very often in YA. The teenagers are still the main characters, but the parents definitely have a role to play.

[Morwen Edhelwen]

In The Dutch Harbor Alexa, the heroine's close to both her parents, but especially to her dad, making it especially hard on her when he's presumed dead. In The Lady's Got Potential, the hero's supposedly an orphan. He's close to the woman who raised him.

[Kim Fierce]

*nodding* Mm-hm, that's exactly it. I have her parents at the very beginning and very end (the rest of the time, she's facing the danger with the other teen), and I kept finding myself writing parents' reactions that the MC wouldn't notice, or care about if she did notice. Gah. I'm starting revisions on the novel today, so hopefully I'll be able to weed through it all with fresher eyes.

I think that even if the MC doesn't notice or realize the full implication of a parent's action, it is still good that you have these fact in mind. Even if there is just a word or phrase that makes it into the story, if it makes the book seem authentic, then it will work.

But on the other hand, in the book I'm writing right now, the MC is an only child, whose world consists of her parents, cousin, tutor, and slaves. (it's set in 1862.) Her father means everything to her, and then when she finds out he isn't as perfect as she thought, this changes her world, and the outcome of the story. So I guess it depends on what your plot is, as to how much parental involvement you use.

[alicereckless]

When I sent one of my books around, I had HUGE reactions to the first chapter where my MC and her father are talking and joking around. It's like having an amicable parental relationship is abnormal in YA -- unless they're going to be killed.

[sambgood]

Are you telling the story from the POV of the kid? If so, you should consider that most kids (well, mine at least as teenagers) were almost completely oblivious to their parent's lives and didn't have a clue as to how upsetting some of their actions were to the adults who love them. So if it is from the kid's POV, I'd stick to relating only the actions of the parents that directly impact the protagonist. YAs are in their own little world, and a lot of the time parents are marginal to it.

I also had a YA Lit class this past semester, and we had a lengthy discussion about adults in children's lit. One of the points brought up is similar to Tish's: Most of young adult literature are narrated by an adolescent or dominated by an adolescent’s perspective, and generally these young people don’t view parents or adults or authority positively or see them there at all (even if they do have a heavy presence in the story). Because teenagers seem more concerned about their peers, their peers tend to have more prominent and visible roles in their lives.

If adults do play a prominent role, I think they and their actions need to have purpose (like Ophelia said). But although the MC might not notice them, maybe the reader will and catch a few things the MC misses...

[JMEM]

I'm writing the cliche "mom's dead, dad's a moronic a-hole". The first half of the first story is from the mother's perspective, though, then switches to my MC. So I show the process of her death and the father's "downfall" so-to-speak.

After the second half of the first story, my MC takes on a parental role for her little sister. Much of the series centers around this relationship, more so than the sisters' relationship with their father. Also, it's definitely NOT put there as an obstacle for my MC to overcome.