I am writing a bittersweet comedy where a twenty-eight-year-old night club singer is greeted by three little homeless boys who come to his doorstep. The youngsters claim that they are his sons, and after a blood test, he adopts them all, only to find that they are obnoxious, rude and destructive, as most boys 6 to 9 are. But after the three sing in a grocery store, they get a record deal. The only problem is, I don't know how to make the story have a problem. Help? [T A S H]
Well, I'd say one barrier is the relationship between the boys and their father. I can see the obnoxiousness coming from the boys' need to test the dad to see if he will abandon them when things get difficult. After all, they have had plenty of people disappoint them before. So then maybe the youngest freaks out over some misunderstanding and decides to run away. The father and the brothers have to find him, and bond in the process.
Did you just think of that? But I do like the concept of your first idea. I'm trying to do a Dave Eggers or David Sedaris kind of thing where it's witty, yet funny, yet sad. I'll definetely use the first idea, and as for the second idea, hey, it's a possibility. Thank you so much for your input! [T A S H]
As far as I can tell, you've already got one. The dilemna in the story is the relationship between the father and his kids. They start out hating each other, but grow fond of each other as the story progresses, and love each other by the end. What more do you need than that? Of course, you could expand on this by putting in a plot device such as the one Cogito described, but you don't actually need to.
what about other relatives?... where is the mother?... what about grandparents?... any/all of that could be conflict enough... and if the guy is the biological father, why does he have to adopt them?...
The dad who was planning on dishoning the boys before the record deal is now in it for the money and the boys while growing up learn to stand up to the greedy lovless father.
Have a creepy record exec try to exploit and ruin the boys for his own diabolical purposes. Dad is in on it because of the prospect of being rich, but he grows to love the boys and wants to help preserve their dreams because they are a reflection of his past life (He wanted to be a Rock & Roll star). Long story short, Dad sets out to stop Record Exec, they get canned, Dad works hard to get the boys on a legit label, all the while earning the respect of his boys and finally living his dream after he becomes their band manager. The boys, in turn, help him woo said romantic interest whom is their singing coach and the Dad's high school sweetheart whom he let slip away because he wanted to chase his dream.
I think if they were snow boarders it would be a bit..... much. I mean singers is good, its practical. I mean In the recent years the number of young singers is going up. So the market is geared towards younger audiences and younger stars. There are plenty of problems that can arise from it. Depending on what kind of plot you want to have. I mean, do you want an action driven one or a character driven one? You could have the entire plot based on the family trying to get along. Trying to BE a family. Or you could have problems with their career, they get exploited. Maybe the mom comes back after their famous and says, I want the kids back. First you need to decided what kind of plot you want. Then you can decided easier WHAT you want to happen.
