So I have been challenged, in a way that could have some positive professional ramifications, to write as much as I can of a young adult novel in the space of a week. I've spent the last few days thinking about the challenge, and here's my idea:
The book is to be called: Saving Scout. It is about a thirteen-year-old boy whose ailing grandfather comes to live with his family, putting additional strain on his parents' already tense marriage. An incident at school alienates him from most of his friends and leads him to a required community service stint at an animal shelter. While working there, he ends up taking home one of the rescue dogs, who has arrived in terrible shape. The story is about how the boy's relationship with this dog helps him through a very difficult period in his life and ultimately plays a huge role in his transition to adulthood. So it is a coming-of-age story that I would like to be as realistic as possible and to appeal to boy readers, as middle school boys are notoriously resistant to reading, and they are right to feel that they do not have as many options as girls in terms of subject matter, appealing narrators, and so on.
I am going to have to dive in tomorrow and start writing if I hope to have gotten anywhere by the Friday deadline, but I am still grappling with a few questions. What is this boy's name, where does he live and who is he in terms of his personality? I can't see him yet. What is the problem with his parents' marriage and why does the arrival of the grandfather push it to the breaking point? Do they actually split up or have to for there to be sufficient tension in the story? What is the incident at school? Does our narrator get unjustly accused of something or is he actually guilty of something. Either way, what? How can I have the relationship with the grandfather be background music and not the melody of the story? How can I make the relationship with the dog poignant and important but not schmaltzy? Is our narrator an animal lover to begin with or is it something about this dog in particular that strikes a chord with him? How can I avoid a wrap-it-all-up happy ending in favor of a more nuanced, although satisfying ending that is convincingly optimistic for the narrator?
Anyone? Anyone? I know. I'm hoping some of these answers may come to me when I am asleep. If I get anything good, I will post some of it tomorrow or later in the week. But I'm excited. A new challenge. And I have been tossing around this Saving Scout idea for a while. I think the idea has finally found its venue.
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8 comments:
Quick thoughts after reading your post:
The incident at school could be somehow involved in animal cruelty, resulting in the stint at the animal shelter. I'm seeing your narrator more as a witness to the crime,than actively involved, but charged because he didn't stop it. His friends are disgusted because they think he was an active participant.
Another thought is that the boy starts out angry, due to the issues with his parents, gets involved in an animal cruelty issue at school and is assigned the community service. The dog "adopts" the boy against the boy's will, and through his doggy loyalty turns the boy's anger into
compassion. There could be some anger at his grandfather too, whose subsequent kindness through his illness also helps the boy turn around.
The problems with the marriage could be a coldness that has developed as a result of financial crisis that has put too much pressure on the relationship. Perhaps Dad is taking out his disappointments out on the wife and the son. Maybe the grandfather is the wife's father who expected more for his daughter. Now that he has to come to live with them, the husband doesn't know if he can bear his father-in-law's criticism, since he's so critical of his own failings. Can the parents find each other again through helping the son save the dog while dealing with the illness of grandfather?
Maybe there are some parallels of the dog getting better, and the grandfather recovering...or more realistically, the dog getting better and the grandfather getting worse, to mimic real life?
Just some ideas to get your mind churning!
Good luck!
Interesting and I'll need to think it through a bit more, but my initial reaction is that you may want to refrain from drawing the grandfather as too kind. Sick old people often aren't. And the presence of a controlling or alcoholic parent would certainly exacerbate anyone's marital problems.
I think Liza'a onto something about the precipitating problem being related to animal cruelty. Could his friends have been involved in a dog-fighting ring and he could have inadvertantly posted some pictures of it on his myspace page? Then he'd certainly lose his friends and could get in very hot water legally. If it's dog-fighting, though, it should be set in the country and maybe you're not as familiar with country people?
My thoughts were a little less specific than those posted above, but here goes. I thought maybe the boy is guilty of a crime that he did, indeed, commit, but that he was pushed to do by his "peers" in order to gain popularity. The dog-boy relationship somehow teaches him the meaning of real friendship (corny, I know) and there is some spin on peer pressure.
Another thought I had was that perhaps there is some connection between the boy's connection to the dog and the grandfather's connection to a previous pet? a previous job with animals that he had to leave(??).
I guess I hadn't made the connection between the crime being animal-related. Not sure that would matter to me. But that he had to do community service and it was the dog or something really boring/unfun (like picking up trash along the highway). The kid of a woman I worked with stole a computer at school (presumably to gain entry into the "in crowd") and had to do community service as a result.
Great challenge - I am sure it will come off brilliantly.
No dog fighting. To complex and due to Mr Vick I would never touch it. Something simpler and less graphic would work. I wouldn't think you would want to make him an aminal hater and then try and get him to bond with an aminal.
Write about what you know. Use your home town or your college town as the background. The boy should be a mixture of people you knew in HS and Middle school.
Parents issue can be anything. The grandfather's maybe hard on his kid and or the spouse. Or just very angry about the death of his spouse and as a result in ailing now. The Grandfather can also be a source of stregth and guidance for the boy.
I agree with the poster who thinks the grandfather shouldn't be the kind, wise old man. Too predictable. You know how you like it when people defy your expectations? Please make the grandfather a little more nuanced than that.
Wow. I am sort of blown away by how thoughtful and helpful your responses are, Liza and your four anonymous cohorts. Thank you a million times over.
What am I, anonymous chopped liver?
Other ideas:
The grandfather and dad could have had a not very close relationship, which the mom can't understand,having had a good relationship with her parents. The dad is trying to reconcile himself to the grandfather, which the mom can't understand--causing some tension--plus whatever caretaking that is necessary falls more on her
The grandfather is better with the boy than he had been with his own son, watching how his son relates to the boy, even though the strains in the marriage are affecting the boy badly--he's angry at both parents and sees the granddad as the problem.
I think whatever the boy does to get in trouble shouldn't be too serious--it's more a way of expressing his anger. Maybe a stupid prank on an older person just outside the school grounds? His friends are confused by this change in behavior and freeze him out.
Through the dog, the boy finds unconditional love and comfort, a friend and steady companion. Could the dog have been a service dog that was stolen and escaped, only to be taken to the shelter? The boy finds that the dog can help people and sees that as a good thing? Maybe starts to help the granddad--whose illness could be failing eyesight, making him cranky and resentful, angry frightened. Could the dog help both of them? One physically and one emotionally? Too trite?
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