Comments on: Better off dead?

By: Liz Carmichael

Liz Carmichael — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 05:32:59 +0000

Anyone who has been through a professional cost-a-packet Writing for Children course is told repeatedly that adults must be, mostly, out of the picture because the child protagonist must solve all problems on their own.

Nuff said?

By: Simone

Simone — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 22:20:58 +0000

I originally thought maybe my YA character's parents were too present in the story, but my agent told me he loved it. I certainly see why! I do think it's a convenience thing, when it happens in YA. I think that in literature in general, however, characters tend to be orphaned so that they are alone in the world, and can be admired for their independence, tenacity, etc. The Jane Eyre type.

By: Joelle

Joelle — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 19:34:22 +0000

I'm back again because I find this interesting. I think there's a difference between dead parents in fantasy or fairy tales vs. contemporary YA fiction and it's the latter where it becomes an issue. In fantasy, the hero is almost always destined to go at it alone. It's just sort of how fantasy works. But if you're writing a contemporary novel, then you have to ask yourself, "Why is the parent dead? Because I don't feel like writing them? Because my character could use the baggage? Because?" If you think about when you were a teen, or your kids and their friends now…how many of them really have a dead parent? I was eighteen before I met someone whose father had actually died. All my friends have parents because statistically speaking, a parent of a teen is only around 35 years old, and generally, people don't die in their thirties. Of course they do, and if your story needs it, then by all means, it is perfectly reasonable, but it's kind of like having someone die in childbirth in the US these days. It's pretty rare (it was 13 per 100,000 live births in 2006) If you're going for realistic fiction, you have to consider this angle, I think.

By: amber gilchrist

amber gilchrist — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 17:15:26 +0000

This is an interesting read to me. I honestly haven't read many books with a dead parent though I've read plenty with single parents or less than functional parents.

I do however, think there's a reason some tropes continue to endure even when everyone knows that horse is dead. The dead parent may be lazy writing, or it may be that this is an idea that speaks to the archetypal in all of us. Probably to avoid the risk of writing easy you should pick something else if it fits, but dead parents have been coming back to haunt characters, literally and figuratively, for time immemorial.

I only have one dead parent in all of my many stories. Ironically, it's the story i pitched to you, so I guess we can assume the answer to that one ;) But a well formed parental character isn't necessarily a boring one. Then again, well written grief, loss and regret isn't necessarily a big yawn either.

By: Tamara

Tamara — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 17:11:43 +0000

What about animated movies? The mother is ALWAYS dead and the father often is too. Says something deep and profound about our society, I think.

By: Kristi Helvig

Kristi Helvig — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 16:25:12 +0000

My critique group liked that the mom in my YA is a loving, fully functional (e.g. non-alcoholic parent). They said it was a refreshing change.

By: Suzi McGowen

Suzi McGowen — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 16:09:09 +0000

Hey! What's wrong with us red-heads! (Just kidding. I know we've been done to death.)

By: Charlie

Charlie — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 15:32:27 +0000

It really is super common, isn't it? Guess it's easier to have a rogue protagonist if said person has no family ties.

A lot of Disney movies--the majority of them--only have one parent, too. Where'd the other one go?

By: jseliger.com

jseliger.com — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 15:31:24 +0000

I was heartened to read Leila Sales’ piece in last week’s Publishers Weekly about the inordinate number of dead parents in children’s literature, for it’s a subject I used to bring up myself when talking to writers’ groups.

This isn't just common in YA -- it's common in the history of literature and especially Romance (not as in bodice rippers, but as in strange events, wild journeys, etc.). The number of youth who are "orphans" only to discover that they're actually kings and/or that their parents are dead under nefarious conditions is astonishing.

IIRC, Northrop Frye discusses this tendency in The Secular Scriptures and Joseph Campbell does in The Hero With a Thousand Faces. I know Bruno Bettelheim does throughout his work, especially in The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales. So if Sales is going to discuss or lament the recent inordinate number of dead or absent parents in children's lit, she's doing something wrong, but if she's merely going to note that tendency in general across history, she's doing something right.

As James Wood said, "it is always a good time to shred formulas." But formulas that last for centuries no longer seem like formulas: they seem like some underlying aspects of Western or human psychology or storytelling.

By: Shelley Watters

Shelley Watters — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 15:06:47 +0000

I have divorced parents in the ms I'm querying, and a dead father/remarried mother with an abusive stepfather in my current WIP. Even my MG has divorced parents. This is not because I'm taking the 'lazy writer's' easy way out. I came from a broken home, so this is what I know. I don't really know how to write a teen with a happily married parents - because I don't know how that feels.

And with the divorce rate as high as it is, odds are that the teen picking up my book comes from a broken home or knows someone whose parents are divorced and are able to identify with my character are pretty good.

Thanks for the post John!