Avoid Parenting Your Young Protagonist

The children, middle grade, and young adult literary markets have experienced a long period of unprecedented growth, as has the TV and film markets that target children and teens. Many aspiring novel authors and screen writers, as a result, are writing material for these markets. As an editor I have been receiving a lot of this type of material. Many writers I work with have been showing frustration over rejections they have been getting from agents, publishers, and producers. Writers feel their work is not understood or the agents, publishers, and producers select what they personally like.

After reviewing the writers' materials, I can see the reasons for the rejections. Their basic problem is they parent the protagonist. When a writer parents his or her protagonist the story will not work, and it will not sell. Here is my advice on how to correct this problem.

The main parenting problem is surrounding the young protagonist with adults, mainly mom and dad, who butt in, stop the fun, solve all problems, and constantly guide the protagonist through situations, instead if allowing the protagonist to get in trouble and get out of trouble on his or her own. Taking away the parents can advance and enhance the plot. Doing this allows the young protagonist to act and move forward while fighting against the odds so he or she eventually become empowered. Young readers and young audiences prefer to see the protagonist going on his or her journey or dealing with extraordinary situations without an adult always around. This is shown in popular books, movies, and TV shows such as the Harry Potter novels and movies and Nickelodeon shows such as Icary!, Avatar The Last Air Bender, and Dora Explorer.

There are different ways of getting parents out of the way. The most common way to get rid of parents is to allow the protagonist to be an orphan. Begin the story by introducing the protagonist as an orphan, or allow the parents to die in the early chapters of the story.

In reality some parents or guardians can be self-centered and self-absorbed. This occurs in the novel Grace Happens were the main character's mother is self-involved in her career as a movie star. This also occurs in the novel Howl's Moving Castle where the protagonist's step mother keeps herself busy and away from home.

Some writers want to give their protagonist normal caring parents, keep them in the story, and have them involved with the protagonist. At the same time they want the young protagonist to have freedom. The best way to accomplish this is to send the parents away. For instance, the parents could get kidnapped and the protagonist has to save them. Or keep the protagonist's parents busy with work. Send the parents away to work in a different country, off to war, or just busy working long hard hours. In Rules by Cynthia Lord the protagonist's mother is an accountant, and the story is set during tax season. Thus the parent, a good parent, is still in the picture, but she's too busy with work to take a major part in the plot. Seasonal jobs, travel jobs, or high pressure jobs with deadlines can keep parents out of the main story line. In much of the Japanese films, anime, and literature targeted to children and teens, work is used to keep parents out the story since in Japanese culture parents do spend a lot of their time working. This also occurs in American culture. So young readers can identify with such family situations.

A writer can also treat parents and other adults as obstacles in the story instead of keeping them out the story. For instance, the protagonist can have overprotective parents who try to solve every problem for the protagonist or trying to direct the protagonist's life. Throughout the story the protagonist deals with the overprotective parent by acting out, rebelling, or withdrawing into a shell. On the other hand, the adult can mean well, adore the protagonist, and the protagonist adores the adult. However, the adult's good intentions mixes up the protagonist's life.

There is an example of this approach in the novel Swoon At Your Own Risk. In the story Polly, the protagonist, has a grandmother who is an advice columnist. Polly writes to the column for advice on boys, but her grandmother's advice makes her boy problems worse.

If a writer plans to make the adult or parent an obstacle, he or she must balance between making them part of the problem and making them ridiculously dense. Remember that in real life, there are times when the adult or parent in a young person's life may not know exactly how to help or maybe unintentionally misguiding. However, for the most part parents and other adults in a child's life are doing their best at parenting, teaching, and coaching. Looking after children is not easy. So have some sympathy for the adult characters without weakening the story. Do this by giving them both good and bad traits, making them sympathetic.

Another way to minimize parental interaction in the story is to make the problems something the adults are incapable of fixing. In the novel The Dark Divine the young protagonist has a close-knit family. Her father is interested in helping her solve the problem she faces in the book, yet even though he gives her some information she needs the problem turns out to be something only she can resolve. In the climax of the story her father is far away on a plane while she is solving the problem on her own.

In reviewing material from conservative writers trying to produce middle grade or young adult stories with a positive protagonist, I found that they parent the protagonists by making them too good. I tell the writers that some bad, sneaky behavior is needed to make the protagonist realistic. Give the protagonist secret problems, and she or he has to sneak around to solve them. Young readers can relate to keeping secrets from parents. This behavior is realistic and makes a better story. Let the protagonist learn from small mistakes early in the plot so he or she will be strong enough to face the big conflict. The protagonist needs to show growth and increasing strength in the story. Not having parents in the way is pointless if the protagonist does not make mistakes which will make the story happen, lead to character growth, and lead to solutions. Readers empathize with flawed characters.

If a writer is worried about putting the protagonist in too much danger, then he or she is parenting the reader as well as the protagonist. No reader nor publisher is going to empathize with a protagonist who never makes mistakes, only has the perfect friends, never says a harsh word, and always speaks perfect English in complete sentences. If you want your protagonist to feel real. They have to act real.

If a writer just has to have some protective figure constantly with the young protagonist throughout all the protagonist's troubles, then make this figure non-human, like a talking animal, spirit, ghost, aliens, or mutant human.

As much as a writer wants to create stories that send a positive message and keep their characters and readers safe and pure, they fail to create literature that is believable, exciting, enlightening, and empowering. Have faith in young readers and in your young protagonist. Give them a chance to surprise and let you know they can handle it. You will even grow as a writer in the process.