Overthinking, underbaking and another story idea

Mia's Mask

 So I've spent much of the day overthinking my autism book. I fit my basic structure into Dan Harmon's story circle. Back at uni I would use Todorov's narrative structure for this, so maybe I should start there again. I also went back through my pre and final major project posts just to see how many re-writes and changes of direction my final picture book went through along the way. It was A LOT. 

I noticed I was getting hung up on this whole rule of three. Three scenarios to rule them all. But when attempting to tackle these with Mia's story, I found I was struggling to get her in and out of situations where her masking would occur. Or where her autistic behaviour would stand out/alienate her. And ultimately, I don't want her to feel TOO alienated, because this is for autistic kids after all. Even if it ends happily, I can't have this poor character be rejected three times before finally it all working out. I don't want the lesson to be 'You will be rejected a lot of times, but you'll be content with yourself eventually'. Maybe I need to think more on what the theme actually is.

It's OK to be autistic, would be a good takeaway. So focusing entirely on the strengths that come with it is a start. But I also don't want it to be false, because it comes with a fuck ton of drawbacks in my experience. So what am I trying to say? That there will be some who find you unusual, but others will really like you, regardless of, or even because of, your autistic traits? Is that too long of a theme? Self acceptance? Self love? 

With that in mind, I was thinking of a singular scenario where her autistic traits and social struggles would occur. Playing at the park, attending a party, first day of school etc. I'm gonna sit on these thoughts for awhile and see if I can whittle this concept down to something sharp.

Tom has a Temper

As for the second story, I'm hitting the usual roadblocks. I have a concept that I think works well, but when it comes to putting that concept into actual structured writing, boom, I trip. So let's just start with the concept; Tom has a Temper. The theme of this story would be that you are responsible for your own emotions. The Temper is an actual creature that Tom has, and whenever Tom is faced with something that makes him angry, his Temper lashes out, causing chaos. It slips it's leash. He 'loses' his Temper. It goes rogue, throwing food, knocking things over, screaming. Doing all that wonderful shit that kids do in the midst of a Temper Tantrum. The story would conclude with Tom's 'Bad' Temper learning how to be a 'Good' Temper. Essentially showing how empathy (or just imagining how it would feel if others responded to it how it does to them, for the kiddies) can help to regulate and control emotions. Not to say you can't feel bad feelings. Because all feelings are valid, it's about expressing those feelings in a non-destructive way.

So with that in mind, I started writing scenarios for Tom and his Temper to be in that would result in angry emotional outbursts. 

1. Losing a game
2. Wanting to do something he's not allowed to do
3. Being forced to wait for something
4. Struggling with a task
5. Change of routine/plans

I think these simple scenarios are good starting points.

My next issue is that Tom himself is a bit of a nothing character. He just has the Temper, and that's purely because I thought having an actual child (I don't want to draw a child either, tbf) acting out, causing chaos, might not look too good. But then where does that leave Tom? Writing about this just now makes me think back to the old blogs I read of my original scripts for The Takers, and how I ultimately moved from a child learning from fantasy creatures, to a fantasy creature itself. Being part of the culture. The more I write, the more I feel that the Temper is the character. I was becoming too attached to the original concept, which was basically formed around the title of Tom has a Temper. But that's working backwards. The title should be the last thing I write, really. The story matters most. So forget that title for now. Maybe it can be called Temper Tantrum, or Tommy Tantrum. Who knows. I think the premise itself is solid, and I've found writing about it extremely helpful. This puts my mind at ease somewhat. The protagonist should be the one going on a journey of change, not the protagonist's more interesting pet. 

Ok it's getting late now so I'll come back tomorrow and see where I'm at with either, or both, stories.

This helped :)

PS - Try writing your story as a blurb/summary. If you can't easily do that, then maybe the concept is flawed. I'll try and do this for both stories tomorrow.