1. Auratus

    Auratus Member

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    Why should a teen boy hate his mother?

    Discussion in 'Character Development' started by Auratus, Feb 28, 2014.

    I am thinking about male protagonist who go to the colony in another world for reason he thought can't answer. After a year passed and he settled in there. His single mom suddenly come to the boy which enraged due to what she done in the past and realize she is what he hate in his homeworld.

    I think what she done is for the boy. From his perspective, it's unacceptably bad. But when everything come to light. He realize his mom done it for his sake and cried for her.

    I just have no idea what this should be.
     
  2. minstrel

    minstrel Leader of the Insquirrelgency Supporter Contributor

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    I hate to play Cogito's role here, but what he'd say is true: This is exactly the kind of decision you have to make yourself. It sounds like this is the crucial part of the story you're writing, and you have to be the one who creates it. You're the writer, not us, and if it's to be your story, you have to invent the central crisis yourself.

    Your structure sounds good. I hope you can find the jewel you're looking for. :)
     
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  3. Tesoro

    Tesoro Contributor Contributor

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    I agree with Minstrel. That is something you should tell us, not the other way around. Part of the writers job is to come up with these details regarding your story. Because whatever we suggest would make completely different stories, and since this is YOUR story, you ought to know why. I'd suggest you sit down and explore the reasons this boy could have, and let your imagination work for you.
     
  4. jazzabel

    jazzabel Agent Provocateur Contributor

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    In my experience, it's best to ask yourself why you chose this plot. Do you have any experience of parent-child problems, or betrayals, or any of the feelings you can relate to? Then put yourself in your protagonist's shoes and ask, what would it take for you to leave your mother like this. Usually works for me, when I need to find motivations for my characters.
     
  5. Auratus

    Auratus Member

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    Well. I am lost now. I need some idea about it.
    I, of course, would shape what it actually like. I never meet or experience anything that good enough for me.

    I want to give MC his own problem. So he would not being an universal problem-solver or the best life-consultant of the world. Maybe I should search for forum full of depressed people. I might got some idea there too.
     
  6. jazzabel

    jazzabel Agent Provocateur Contributor

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    Or maybe you should try to do your own writing, rather than relying on other people to supply you with ideas? Just a thought.
     
  7. Auratus

    Auratus Member

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    Well, that was harsh. I got way too many idea that somehow fit in most part but this one I am asking.
     
  8. jazzabel

    jazzabel Agent Provocateur Contributor

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    I wasn't harsh at all, I just didn't give you the answer you wanted to hear. That's completely different from being 'harsh'. Besides, everyone in the thread tried to tell you this already. I also don't understand your barter system "I thought of lots more ideas so I'm asking for this one". In any case, good luck finding your idea.
     
    Last edited: Feb 28, 2014
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  9. Mic.Henry

    Mic.Henry New Member

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    Jazzabel is right when it comes to writing stories it has to come from experience or research. Joining a forum full of depressed people to better understand why a teen boy should hate his mother is comical when I think about it, but it may help. Personally I would brainstorm, make a list and give it the same title you gave this post of yours. List all the reasons you can think of on the top of your head, no matter how absurd they are, just keep writing out different ideas and eventually something will click. Your metaphorical light bulb will appear and you'll have the beginnings to a story. Take that idea and present it to the forums and ask if it has any merits worth pursuing, although when you get good enough you'll know a great story idea when you think it/hear it.
     
  10. GlPortal

    GlPortal New Member

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    Hi Auratus,

    a good reason for him to leave home in a hurry and hate his mother is abuse.
    How they would make up is kind of a complicated process, where both parties have to change.

    Sincerely,
    Henry
     
  11. Cogito

    Cogito Former Mod, Retired Supporter Contributor

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    Because she named him Guy. Guy Standing.
     
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  12. Mic.Henry

    Mic.Henry New Member

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    Hey, my last name is Henry too. :D
     
  13. Morbius

    Morbius Member

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    After a childhood of lies, deceit and treachery, the main character has grown harder of heart, colder of feeling and bitter from betrayal. After years of enduring life in the shadow of the lie, the MC could no longer bear the torment of that black-hearted harpy...or her lies about Santa Clause, with their corresponding extortion promises of bribes of toys for blind obedience and threats of lumps of coal for exercising free will.

    The burning hatred shall never die...
     
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  14. ChickenFreak

    ChickenFreak Contributor Contributor

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    I feel that there are too many layers here. You have three layers--he doesn't know why he left, then he realizes that he left because his mother did something bad, then it turns out that it wasn't bad and was in fact good.

    Do you need all three? What is their function?

    My problem is that someone who has but suppresses a great deal of anger at his parents is likely to be someone who had lousy parents. That suppression, IMO, is most likely to come from someone who's been led to distrust their feelings, and the person most likely to teach them that is their parents. I participate in a couple of support groups, and the people who are quickest to excuse their parents and to insist that they love them, tend to be the people who had the most abusive parents.

    So suppression, and a discovery that Mom was good after all, don't easily fit together for me. Suppressed anger at a genuinely abusive parent, followed by a choice to forgive, could work. Open anger at a parent who committed specific sins that the child can't forgive, followed by learning that those sins had an unknown explanation, could work. But I can't see a way for all three to be used, and for me to accept the result. I'm sure that it's possible--anything's possible--but it seems like an unnecessarily difficult task.
     
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  15. Auratus

    Auratus Member

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    I guess I put it wrong. I would make him look like he forgot why he move, at least he tried. Which ultimately proved to failed when he mad when he found out his mom have come to see him.

    Your suggestion, along with some other here, could work. I might rename him something funny and make him hate his mom for that :D
     
  16. Tesoro

    Tesoro Contributor Contributor

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    He forgot why he left, and yet he's mad? How could someone forget something like that? I'm sorry but this doesn't sound very plausible to me. I think you need to think this through a lot more, because right now it sounds like even you don't know what the story is. Maybe you should just start over from scratch? You want a boy who hates his mother? Start asking yourself questions. Why does he do that? Not "why would any boy hate his mother", but this particicular guy. What caused that? How was he raised. Where? When? Why was he raised the way he was? What does he want? then keep going with the conflict and the antagonist and all of that until you have something that looks like a story.
     
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  17. mg357

    mg357 Active Member

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    The boy could have been abused by his mother. Maybe she abandoned him at one point and he has unresolved anger toward her for abandoning him.
     
  18. erebh

    erebh Banned Contributor

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    how would that be for his own good? "sorry son, I left you at the bus stop when you were 6 months old, but look - you turned out fine."
    "oh thanks mom!"

    what if he felt betrayed because he found out he was adopted or his mam paid off the (hooker/drug dealer) he was in love with to disappear?
     
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  19. Man in the Box

    Man in the Box Active Member

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    You might want to have a talk to me then. My mom was overcentralizing, overprotective, extremely conservative, very strict and jealous of people. That's enough reason IMO. I wasn't the best son either, but she was guilty of many things.
     
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  20. Auratus

    Auratus Member

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    I don't sure if it's appropriate to... accept that.
     
  21. mg357

    mg357 Active Member

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    erebh: depending on a person's perspective on the subject. Spanking can be a form of abuse.

    if the son did some bad things when he was a little kid and his mother spanked him because in her mind she was doing this for his own good.

    But on several occasions she went to far and it turned from punishment to abuse.

    So the son thought about those times she went to far and now he hates his mother.
     
  22. ChickenFreak

    ChickenFreak Contributor Contributor

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    I don't see that working. if the whole payoff of the story is the "Oh, no, I misjudged my mother," moment, then the facts that lead to that moment need to make sense. A kid that was so traumatized by being given a silly name that he blots out what he's angry about doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

    Now, if the silly name was part of a lifelong pattern of the mother using child-raising as a source of entertainment for herself, without caring about the needs of the child, then the anger is certainly justified, but then the anger isn't really wrong, so the "Oh, no..." moment doesn't happen.

    I have a little bit of a vibe that you're thinking that anger at a parent is always wrong. I suspect that if you can't accept that sometimes that anger makes perfect sense, this story is either not going to ring true, or not going to be interesting. I say "not interesting" because if he's angry at his mother for no reason whatsoever, then we're not going to like him and we're not going to be all that concerned about whether his feelings change or not. If he's angry at his mother for a perfectly good reason, but forgiveness is forced on him for the sake if the plot tying up neatly, we're going to be dissatisfied with the story.
     
  23. Fitzroy Zeph

    Fitzroy Zeph Contributor Contributor

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    She had an affair several years ago that he only found out about recently. His dad had left quietly and suddenly way back. He always blamed himself only to find out it was his mothers fault. Unforgivable offense.
     
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  24. Tesoro

    Tesoro Contributor Contributor

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    The only scenario I can imagine working with this premise (kid hating mother because of something she did, then realizes it was for his own good) is if she had some problem with drug/alcohol abuse or mental illness and wouldn't be a fit mother. Maybe she left to undergo treatment, but he didn't know about this, and all his life he's been thinking she abandoned him?
     
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  25. Carthonn

    Carthonn Active Member

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    She loves the older kid more.
     

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