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I've been having issues in my current WIP based on the motivation of my hero's mother. Because it is YA, I want the young heroes to solve the problem by themselves, but my male hero has a mother who is involved in his life. A good mother.
I've given her a new relationship to explain why her focus is elsewhere, but I still feel like she wouldn't let what happens happen without at least trying to solve the problem herself.
Anyway, does anyone have any idea's on how to fix this, or have any of you had similar problems in your writing?
I can't kill off the mother. I already killed the female hero's mother.
Thanks, ~Sheena
[This message has been edited by shimiqua (edited May 11, 2011).]
posted
Is the boy old enough to be left on his own? Could mom be out of town dealing with something really important, an extended family crisis, or something? Maybe there's an aunt or someone nearby that checks in now and then so it doesn't seem like anyone is abandoning him, even if he is sixteen or seventeen.
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Does the mom even know about the problem? Teen kids are notorious for keeping things to themselves and trying to solve problems on their own, for good or ill, without seeking adult guidance.
So even though the mom in your story is a good mom, maybe the son is simply good at acting like everything is fine. Or maybe the son goes through a lot of trouble to keep his mom out of it because he wants to protect her, he doesn't want her involved for fear she might get hurt.
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I have the same issue in my wip -- but it by design. Perhaps the mother is able to provide an aspect to solving the problem that her child cannot and vice versa. Is one the athletic one? Another the thinker?
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posted
In my current story, the mom was starting to be a pain for my MC as well. I dismissed the idea of killing her, it seemed like it would change my MC's life too much. She's a good mom, like yours, but just no place in the story. I settled for having her send my MC out of town to "keep him safe". I also thought about getting her arrested or having my MC hide the truth from her because he's trying to protect her.
You could also think about having her "fix" blow up in the MC's face.
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How about from the kids perspective? A lot of kids are unsure if somethings going to get them into trouble, so they try to solve the problem on their own or just avoid it if they can. Maybe your MC can be afraid he'll get in trouble if he lets his mom know.
Another alternative is that kids have no way of telling just how powerful or dangerous an antagonist is. If the person is threatening to hurt his mom if he tells her, it just might keep him quiet on the matter as he tries to solve it on his own. Ditto for any other authority figures he might go to.
You could even use it as an opportunity for character tension, as his mom knows something is wrong and is trying to find out what, and he's trying to keep it from her to, as he thinks, protect her.
I don't know if it would that much of a problem. There have been some good suggestion already, and I will add that I have read YA books where the hero(s) is-are involved with an adventure that their parents know nothing about. Like one where the parents thought their kids were having fun playing in a junkyard when they were actually being detectives, sometimes in life and death situations.
I started a series and evidently the hero's parents show up only part of the time with a certain problem they are having but most of the time he's off in another dimension saving the day there. Except for the problem his parents seem to be good parents but he still manages to leave them. I think he's twelve or so which means he can be gone all day.
And as one person said the mother may give a suggestion that helps even if she doesn't know what is really going on. Or she just shows up now and then.
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Example of an intelligent and highly effective mother: Theresa Wiggin in the Ender series (and especially the Shadow series). She pretends to be slow even when she's not so her son would not feel limited. She only reveals her true nature when it's vital to the survival of her son.
You could make the mother in your story act all ignorant and motherly but she could manipulate some circumstances to make her child's task easier, without the child knowing, of course. She could even deny it if her child asks her if she had any hand in it.
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