Hi I need some help with my novel. The plot goes as follows: a group of teenagers/young people, set in 1980s manchester, 6 characters, follows their stories. i want two characters, boy and girl, to have some sort of relationship going on. they love each other for most of the novel. the girl becomes pregnant at one point-after this i have the plot sorted, its not all cliche pregnancy stuff. but its leading up to this that's the difficullt part! neither can tell the other that they love the other one. im not quite sure how to do the plot. here are some possibilities: 1) A (boy) and B (girl) sleep together once and as a result B becomes pregnant and tells A. she has the baby, and afterwards they realise that they love each other. 2) A and B decide to sleep together on a regular basis, but B decides that it impairs on their friendship too much and ends it. becomes pregnant as a result. 3) A and B tell each other that they love each other, have a relationship, but B decides that their friends wont understand and ends it. 4) to make B jealous, A starts going out with B's friend who ill call C. B becomes upset, tells A she loves him, they sleep together. i would like some honest criticism-if you have any better suggestions then please put them forward! thanks for any help
Jelly, You have to answer the question by determining the theme of their relationship. Why are you writing about them and what do they say about your world view?
Well the theme of the story as a whole is personal problems versus 'political' problems in 1980s britain-ie the miners strike, unemployment etc. i like a lot of grittiness in my novels, which is why i dont want it to be a smooth, nice relationship. which is why option 4 seems like the best idea to me at the moment...
1) *shrug* It doesn't seem as interesting as the other ideas. 2) This could work, but it doesn't answer why they take the relationship that far to begin with. 3) If they actually love each other, the opinions of friends shouldn't matter at all. If their opinions do matter that much, then they don't even really love each other. 4) This could be your best idea, as long as they're just friends before this happens. Then, following the relationship with C, they each discover that the other loves them instead of just being friends. Correct? If I'm understanding this correctly, the boy and girl were close friends for a long time, but after one of these events they find out they love each other, right? If they were actually already dating as the guy gets together with C, then he's just an idiot. If however, they were just friends and unsure of how the other felt, then Option 4 is probably the best option.
I'm in the US and from what I understand that part of the country is very industrial and working class, correct? Since you mention politcal problems, you might want to make their relationship a reflection of the nation's health. For instance, if we had an Iain Banks, or Star Trek, utopia where there was plenty for everyone would people leave babies and play each other? Maybe, but would it have the same impact? I know that poor economic conditions lend themselves to all kinds of miserable human behavior and it's extra tough to get a family together, people see no point, etc. Perhaps something like that could be driving their behavior.
I tend to agree with Allegro - - To carry a commercial length novel you’re going to need a major conflict. Not really familiar with the 80’s political scene in England but I can suggest a social conflict. In the Scarlet Letter - - Reverend Dimmesdale had no problem presenting himself as pious and without reproach, all the while, letting poor little Hester catch all the religious (I think it was Puritan) flack for a transgression of which he was equally guilty of. Maybe your ‘Boy/Girl’ is struggling with a similar conflict...
It depends where in Manchester and not that sure it was that effected by the miners strike - certainly a middle class home in Manchester would not have been on any level. To me in a similar home in Liverpool it was something you watched on the news. Also 1984-85 it is highly unlikely they would have more than one incident without a condom. AIDs was scary at that point - schools were making a huge deal of it at least in Liverpool. 1&4 are your most likely.
1 & 4 seem the most realistic. But it depends what else happens in the story. There needs to be some conflict. I guess you need to do some research on that time and how the social/political climate affected people. I guess you are writing about working class people? Or some working class, some middle class? Since you say there are six main characters, it might be interesting to look at people from 'different' backgrounds & the experiences they have? Perhaps find and read some first-hand accounts as well when you research. At least that's something that's always helped me.
thanks for the replies. yeah, ive done a lot of research on the 1980s, politically, culturally, socially etc and have just completed an essay on thatcherism in britain. ill give a thought as to the location with regards to the miners strike-i know it affected the north east a lot more than manchester, the fictional town ive created is north manchester, ive given it some research. then again, always subject to change
make sure you check into the AIDs fear going on at the time it will affect your characters - at nine I knew to practice safe sex, not share needles and a toilet seat wouldn't kill me lol There was a talk in school. Even those that didn't know what sex was knew they had to use a condom..
I'm from that time period and most people I knew didn't worry about AIDS too much. If you were dating some girl you knew from school where did she get AIDS from? In addition, and this isn't valid thinking, if you met a girl that appeared to be on a middle class social track it was also unlikely she was infected. If was not uncommon to exchange sexual resumes and the less experience the better. There was lots of anxiety but it was aimed at medical care because the blood supply was infected at that time. It wasn't uncommon that drug addicts and whatnot would donate blood for cash. So, the target populations for the disease were not thought well of and ironoically it was thought that you didn't know any of those people.
im kind of exploring AIDS with another character, so ive done a bit of research but thanks for the info
