So, I have been for over a year now been working on my novel. It's a dark "fantasy" novel. I put fantasy in quote because it's like a fairy tale with dark horror elements and it isn't magic, wizards rawr. The story follows a father and his daughter. The father has been sent away, for eight years of the daughter's life, to a mental ward for "hallucinations". Even so, the daughter has visited a few times. In which he has filled her head with fantastical fairy tales, all in order to protect his daughter from unknown specified danger. The father for those eight years is getting help for his severe "schizophrenia" and is then sent to a home with a doctor. This home is a recovery Home. The story segways that part of those two years the daughter no longer visits because her mother doesn't appreciate the tales the father tells. And this is where I feel a little worried. In my story before being introduced into society suddenly. The mental ward has a program to take a few of the members to specific homes and slowly introducing them back into society. At the same time that the father is now being placed into these psuedo households, his wife dies. Now the daughter originally was going to go with her aunt. But the doctor finds that it may help the father recover if the daughter comes to the home the father is being assisted in. This is more for the curiosity of the doctor who makes this request. They are "pseudo mad doctor". Cause I mean they are still grounded to reality as they deny the father's story of creatures wanting to take his daughter. ------- I think I need to make this short. To me the weak parts and the parts that are worrying are: -Mental wards setting up recovery style homes before releasing them -Doctors being given permission to let a perfectly normal eight year old live in a reentry home for mental patients Also probably I am not putting the daughter's perspective into any of this. If given the choice of your aunt's stable home versus your father's reentry home, what would you choose? A realistic and normal person would choose the stable aunt's home. But I think I considered the fact that the daughter saw the "goblins" a few times in near her old home when her mother dies. Maybe even further one of these goblins had killed her mother in order to get close to the daughter. So, I suppose she's drawn to the other offer because she knows no one will believe her when it comes to the monsters. But one person will her father who has been filling her head with these tales for the times she has visited. I also have been considering making her at least ten years old. So that way people don't freak out to much. Any ideas? Comments? Advice? Thanks. ~E.W.L.
It is your story, and it is a fantasy, so you can pretty much do what you want. I actually think the recovery style homes for weaning people back into society is quite a good idea, so as a reader I wouldn’t be bothered by that. And as for the doctors giving permission for a child to live with mental patients – well you said you wanted a “dark” novel, and the idea of doctors being twisted enough to allow a child to live with severally ill people, seems quite dark to me. Either that, or the father and other people that may be living there are nearly recovered, and therefore pose no real threat anyway – so I can’t see it being a problem the daughter living with her father. I would choose to live with my dad, because he is my dad. And unless he has done anything to harm her in the past, I’d say the child would be very likely to pick her dad, simply because he is her dad and she loves him. I wouldn’t worry too much about that. And young children are used often enough in many horror films, and people seem to accept that (almost as the norm sometimes – oh look, another horror film with a weird little child), so again, I wouldn’t worry too much about her only being eight. Hope this helps
