the adult problem
Dec. 6th, 2016 11:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
marycatelliI'm working on what I suppose, from the age of the hero, has to be YA. I have the adult problem. . . .
That is, in a YA novel, if the problems are not adolescent in scale (what courses should I take? etc.), but threatening anything from the school to the world, the adults must be absent, incompetent, or evil. Because there needs to be some reason why they aren't intervening in the problem when the person trying to face it so young.
Well, unless the youngster is in a supporting role in the main conflict. That is possible, hard to pull off, and not really feasible for my current work-in-progress.
I haven't had it before -- even in A Diabolical Bargain, the hero's in college, not secondary education -- but this involves a boy in his last year of secondary education. A fair amount of leeway, but he is facing a grave problem.
Somewhat assisted by the way the youngsters (our hero and some younger ones) are shuffled off to somewhere safe. Somewhat hindered by the way they actually are trying to keep them safe.
I think the hero's found a spell that will let him get into the thick of things.
That is, in a YA novel, if the problems are not adolescent in scale (what courses should I take? etc.), but threatening anything from the school to the world, the adults must be absent, incompetent, or evil. Because there needs to be some reason why they aren't intervening in the problem when the person trying to face it so young.
Well, unless the youngster is in a supporting role in the main conflict. That is possible, hard to pull off, and not really feasible for my current work-in-progress.
I haven't had it before -- even in A Diabolical Bargain, the hero's in college, not secondary education -- but this involves a boy in his last year of secondary education. A fair amount of leeway, but he is facing a grave problem.
Somewhat assisted by the way the youngsters (our hero and some younger ones) are shuffled off to somewhere safe. Somewhat hindered by the way they actually are trying to keep them safe.
I think the hero's found a spell that will let him get into the thick of things.
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Date: 2016-12-07 07:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-07 11:18 pm (UTC)Being the subject of a prophecy helps there.
no subject
Date: 2016-12-09 05:41 am (UTC)Oooh, for magic there's always the "no man of woman born" route-- adolescents are neither man nor child, it's a borderland, so they can sometimes squeak through. In physical situations, they're large, strong and have the mind without being QUITE as large as a full grown adult.
The villain can be competent, and be blocking those that are reasonably threats-- aka, the "damsel picked up a brick and pegged him one" route.
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Date: 2016-12-10 01:13 am (UTC)But no man of woman born would work marvelously. I wonder why I've never seen it.