Topic: A worthy goal

[hairaplenty]

My characters goal isn't a life or death desire.  It's certainly important to her, and I infuse as much angst into her needs as I can without going over the top.  (Hopefully)  But I'm worried that the stakes are now higher than ever in YA because of some of the current bestsellers--(Hunger Games, I guess would be one.)
My novel would be labled contem/YA/Romance with a strong coming-of-age element.  Similiar to The Sky is Everywhere (though please note-I would not EVER compare myself to this writer-It's one of my fav's) where the romance plays a huge part of the story but the story/character growth is much deeper.  Whew!
For a good portion of my novel all my character wants/needs to do is apolgize to her last boyfriend for treating him so poorly. 
I'd love to hear of some of your thoughts in this area, and what does your MC want/need?     

[AdamV]

I don't think you should get into a game of "top this" with the stakes in your book. I teach Comp I, and when my students are writing personal essays, some tell the most extreme story they can, reasoning that the highest stakes will be the best essay/most attention grabbing, and it never works out. I understand we have a marketing aspect to worry about, but I think you should do what you do well. You need the stakes to be high enough to keep the reader interested, but I wouldn't try to outdo another book.

[hairaplenty]

Oh, well, I'm not changing my novel.  I'm just trying to get a discussion going on Stakes.  I know agents/editors look at them, as I had a previous novel that was questioned about stakes from an agent.  So I'm just wondering if others think about this. 

[LTMadison]

I've been thinking about this topic a lot lately -- in the context of my own writing and a critical reading I'm in the midst of.

I'm also reading a terrific book by Printz winner Gary Schmidt --OKAY FOR NOW--and I think it's illustrative of how you can build terrific narrative drive without cataclysmic consequences. As my agent-in-waiting keeps telling me, "build layers and layers of tension and stakes." In other words, perhaps if the ONLY issue is apologizing to an old boyfriend (clearly not a book for boy readers!), it may be too thin.

I'm just a third of the way through OKAY FOR NOW, but the narrator/main character has this on his shoulders so far:

1. Moving to a new town
2. Becoming ostracized by the whole town due to the antics of his psychopathological brother
3. Worrying over a favored brother in Viet Nam
4. Developing a crush on a local girl, but largely making a fool in front of her
5. Reading disability which he hides successfully
6. Abusive father and older brother
7. Passive depressed mother
8. Stresses of a new job as delivery boy to people who distrust him

On the plus side, he's found a mentor who is teaching him art, and on his delivery route immediately bonds with an eccentric older woman writer who is widely feared. Hence hope to balance the downers. Will these new adults in his life help him overcome his family liabilities? Will he get past his bumbling and connect with his crush? Will his brother survive the war? Will the MC survive his father and brother? Will he learn to read? Will his drawing (art) prove to his salvation? Lots going on and it makes for a compelling read.

[MysteryRobin]

Have you ever read Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum novels? Stephanie has a pet hamster named Rex. In one of the first books (maybe *the* first book?) Rex is in danger. Some guy is holding him by his little neck and about to inject him with something to kill him. It's a terrifying scene. Yet it's a hamster. And I don't even like hamsters. It's just the way she wrote it. That always stuck with me, because I've read lots of high stakes plots that never moved me as much as the danger to that hamster...

[hairaplenty]

THERE MIGHT BE ****SPOILERS** HERE FOR Okay For Now.

Oh, LTMAdison--What a great answer.  I love Okay for Now, and have given it much thought. And that's considered a MG!   Certainly my novel has much more going on disguised by a simple, yet difficult, need to aplogize.
The way Gary Schmidt layers his plot threads and characters needs, is genius.
So, if you had to write the query for Okay for Now, what would the one need be for the MC?  That you would focus said query on?  Because I don't know.
The emotional arc of the abusive father I think is the deep heart of this story.  But what would I write for the MC's surface desire? 

[LTMadison]

At the risk of insult and embarrassment (I'm not lying!), here is my take.

For fourteen-year-old Doug Swieteck life is a downward spiral. His abusive father drags the family to a stupid small town in up-state New York, where Doug gets a stupid delivery-boy job and can look forward to a humiliating eighth grade in stupid Washington Irving Junior High. One major problem: he can't read. The year is 1969 and if his father isn't beating him, his pathological older brother is. Meanwhile his favored oldest brother is trying to survive a draftee's tour of Viet Nam.

And yet there is hope. His new crush moves from mockery to a grudging admiration. An old librarian begins to nurture an emerging talent in art, using the drawings of John Audubon as a model. A kind teacher takes him under his wing. He discovers a bond with a wealthy, much feared and eccentric woman writer. Will this be enough to reverse the downward drag of his family, his legion of shortcomings and the cruel twists of fate?

The unexpected answers come in a flury as OKAY FOR NOW, my 68,000 word Middle Grade novel, accelerates to a surprising finish. [I'm guessing here -- haven't finished it yet!]

By the way I've won a Printz and have had two Newberry Honorees. You have 24-hours to make your offer.

(My apologies to Mr. Schmidt -- I hope everyone who reads this runs out and buys a copy.)
 

[hairaplenty]

 

I stand in awe and I'm sure Mr. Schmidt would actually be very impressed. 
Who argues with two Newbery's and a Printz?

What stands out is a whole bunch of plot threads, and again, this is MG.  Can't wait for you to finish the book--
I have hope for my novel.  However I have little hope for my query.  You punched this out beautifully in record time.

[TracyH]

Most contemporary fiction (both YA and MG) that I can think of follow the "lack" plot, where the MC is yearning for something they don't have (and might not even know they need). The plot itself then helps uncover what the character needs. I do believe these types of stories are built a bit differently than stories where there is a problem to solve or a goal to reach because so much lies in the subtext and the character work. I found that raising the stakes came with the character's gradual understanding of how very much she wanted and needed something that she had no idea how to get for herself. Once she had the awareness, and tried to get what she needed, she'd fail (because she is missing the important skills required). Failures abound and those failures have consequences. That was how I built the plot (I wrote a series on Quiet Books that has more ideas like this if you want me to link it for you).

So much of what I've read on plot structure hasn't worked very well for me because there is no "goal" or "problem". It took me years to figure stuff out. But the best book I've found for this is From Where You Dream by Robert Olen Butler. So helpful if you're writing lack. Anyway, good luck!

[hairaplenty]

Yes, please send and thank you.  I'm working through Plot and Structure by James Scott Bell.  For me, right now, it helps for my character to have this simple goal to focus on.  At least it helps my plotting or lack thereof.  While I mention the surface goal for my MC as her need to apogize, it actually parallels the deeper goal that she needs to face with herself and her father.  She of course, doesn't know this.  I didn't know this until I'd rewritten the things a billion times:)
If you have examples from current or past books, that would be very helpful.  Thanks so much for chiming in!

[TracyH]

Part four is at the top, so scroll down and start with part one: http://www.throughthetollbooth.com/tag/quiet-books/

What kinds of examples are you looking for? Goal setting in contemporary stories or just goal setting in general? Finding examples are what helped me, too. There's a great breakdown of Bridge to Terebithia in The Writer's Guide to Crafting Stories for Children by Nancy Lamb. This is another great example of a character who doesn't have a goal or problem - just a yearning for self-expression.

[hairaplenty]

Yes, examples like that and any other's that you think might help.
Thank you so much.  I feel hopeful   

[Amanda Coppedge]

I think sci-fi and fantasy usually call for some bigger conflict/stakes but realistic fiction can be more like real life. Little things or big things can be life-changing or devastating.

***Spoilers*** for "Try Not to Breathe" by writerjenn:

Something I really, really appreciated about this book was the main character revealing his reasons for attempting suicide, which to an adult might seem trivial or silly. But if I think back on my teen years I remember how *important* everything seemed and how easily I could be elated or devastated. The character is able to move on from his past and see that this event will not shape him forever. And I feel like in the future he will be less likely to react so strongly to a similar event. But neither does he belittle or beleaguer himself for his reaction. He's just in a more mature place by the end of the book. A suicide attempt is definitely high-stakes but this book is set in its aftermath, and it's very much about the emotional healing journey, which is more subtle.

[hairaplenty]

Thanks, Amanda--As fate would have it, I've reguested this from local library.     

[TracyH]

For the Sky is Everywhere, I think the MC needs to find a way to live in the world without her sister to blaze a trail for her. As she tries to blaze her own trail, she makes lots of emotional mistakes. By then end, even though she's still grieving, you can see how she'll be okay. I had the hardest time parsing these things out at first. I would have thought the character's problem was the death of the sister. But that's just the event that kickstarts the story.

The trick is finding an emotional lack that is big enough to sustain an entire novel, and universal enough that readers can relate. Twisted is another great YA by Laurie Halse Anderson that you might want to pick up for comparison.

[hairaplenty]

It's true that so many of these "quiet" novels, that I happen to love, are hard to define and take apart, as a writer.  While I love The Sky is Everywhere, I, too, have had trouble putting my finger on what exactly is the MC's issue.  Certainly the loss of her sister pushes her into some inappropriate choices that she probably wouldn't have turned to had the sister lived, but it's done in such subtle layers, that you have to really think about it far after you finish the book.   It's similiar to my current WIP.  (Unfortunately, not the subtles--Right now I have plot points in neon, to direct me on how to proceed to acheive subtley.)She needs to figure out how to not only live in the world with her father in his current mental situation, but also forgive herself for what she believes is her part in this.  Talking these out helps so much, TrachH.  I can't thank you enough.  I actually have Twisted here somewhere.  And who can't learn from LHA?

[TracyH]

Glad it was helpful. You can do it