Six Ways to Get Rid of Your Parents

As a writer, I spend a lot of time reading. I read to see what others have written, to gain an understanding of how a story was put together, to see the story arc, and to keep up with stories that are being published.

Recently, while working on a story where I wanted to include a father and son relationship.  It's a story about a rogue cloud and as I head toward the ending, it becomes a big boring didactic mess.

I have heard before that you need to get the adults out of the story to allow the child to solve the problem. But, I kept wondering how do you do that when the story is about family teachers.

So I read. I read picture books with families and teachers in the stories. I discovered that you can have family stories and get rid of the parents in a variety of ways. Here is what I discovered.

1: Turn them into Children.

Arree Chung's Ninja: Attack of the Clan is a story about family. Maxwell wants to play, but his mother is too busy, his sister says no, and then his dad says yes, but not really. Maxwell is in charge of his world, but in the end, family does come in and play. It's just that they let go of their adult selves and let their inner child shine.

2. Be brave, and let the child go.

Miranda Paul's new book which will be released on Tuesday, October 16th, the parents allow Mia to "move out," so she can discover the things that are truly important to her. When I read an ARC (Advance released copy) of the book, this was a very poignant moment for me. I thought about how hard it would be to let your little girl go off and make her own discovery. Many parents would be too afraid to let their child go, but it's those times of letting go, where everybody grows.

3. Just stay in the background.

Spencer loves books. His mom and dad read to him every night. When his books begin to disappear, his parents don't get involved. They let Spencer go off to solve the mystery and come up with a solution on his own. OK, so this might be the same as letting your child go, but it's on a different level as the parental stakes aren't as high. So in my opinion, it feels more like knowing that they are in the background rather than letting their child go.

4. Go off and do your own thing, and let the child do theirs.

This is much easier to do when you are an anthropomorphized cloud. Claudette has bigger clouds in her life and they invite her to go and do big and important things. She is not ready to try those things, but she does want to do something special. Claudette is blown away in a storm and her journey to make her mark takes place when she is on her own.

5. Give up on the kid.

Rufus' parents are worried that he won't survive in the big cruel world so they send him to The Big Bad Wolf Academy. All the other wolves do as the teacher tells them, But not Rufus. The teacher teaches all the other wolves, but doesn't spend much time on Rufus. Of course, in the end Rufus is the one to save the day when the hunters come.

And the 6th way: Just don't have them in your story at all. 

Squirrel and his friends Hedgehog and Bear wake up to spring. Hedgehog falls in love and squirrel helps hedgehog win the heart of the lady hedgehog. There are no adults in this story, just childlike animals on a Don Quixotesque quest.

So as I writer, I am learning that even if you have a family story, somehow you need to get rid of the parents so the child can solve the problem. If one way doesn't work, then try another. On my cloud story, Carrie Charley Brown, founder of ReFoReMo, suggested in her wonderful critique ninja critique on 12x12, that I try reworking the story without the father. It has taken a lot for me to let go of the father. A new attempt moved the cloud to cloud school with a teacher, but right now, the story is using "way to get rid of your parent" number 6. No adults allowed. I am not yet sure this will be the right path for this story, but I am learning a lot about getting rid of parents, the dangerous didactic woods, and the importance of rewriting your story.

So if you are a writer and struggling to keep your parents from taking you into didactic woods, you may just want to get rid of them in one way or another.