Tuesday, March 16, 2010

I Like Her Novel, Mostly

Caroline is writing a book. She can't stop writing this book. She is obsessed with it, and if she isn't doing homework, she is absorbed in the creation of this novel. It is an adventure/mystery story, with the lead characters being teens, of course. She is an amazingly descriptive writer, using complex ideas and sentences. The only problem is that I am having a hard time enjoying reading it because it starts with a teenage girl getting kidnapped by a group of guys (ok, there is one girl abductor) when she visits an abandoned shed. She gets tied up, knocked out, and is carried off to some other location, where she is pretty roughly handled during the first chapter. I guess being the mom of teenage girls, and knowing that kidnappings and murders of girls happen almost daily, I am probably overly sensitive to the topic. I didn't want to listen to Caroline reading it to me, and she was so excited about it. I just couldn't get into the idea at all. I wanted to encourage her writing gifts, but also wanted to steer her in a more positive direction, just for my own sake. Selfish, yes. But I do worry about the "dark side" of bipolar disorder with the fixation on the morbid. She did change the tone of the rest of the book, but I feel badly that she doesn't have the creative freedom that I would like her to have. I know that if she chooses to become a writer vocationally that I won't have the power to influence what she writes, but for now, if I can, I am. I am not sure this is right, but it is what I can handle. And maybe there is guidance needed in terms of what is healthy for her to be dwelling on and what is not.

11 comments:

  1. Well, you know what you have to do first to make a good garden. Compost. It stinks. It's decayed material. Sometimes it's even manure. BUT it's what God uses to make amazing gardens. Even in our lives - and our books. Even in murder mysteries the murder is usually at the start of the book. It's all about redeeming the bad. Isn't that what the Bible is all about? SO, I think you encouraging her to bring out the good is right! And I think leaving the difficult beginning makes the redemption that much better. You are her editor ;-)

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  2. I wish I had someone to help guide my thinking when it started to get morbid. It's much better now, but only because I can tell myself 'no, this isn't the road I want to travel'. It does take a lot of personal practice, but it can be done :)

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  3. Thanks Stephan, I need to pass this along also to Hartley (Hartley's Three Boys) who just published a sensory processing disorder book for kids. She would be very interested. Caroline has dyslexia, so I need to check this out as well!

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  4. Thanks, Vampi and Kathryn for the encouragement about Caroline's book and my "editing" of it. She just printed off the first 22 pages of it. Maybe she'll get published!

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  5. Thanks, Vampi and Kathryn for the encouragement about Caroline's book and my "editing" of it. She just printed off the first 22 pages of it. Maybe she'll get published!

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  6. hi. i've been reading your blog for a while. i just started one about raising my son with bipolar. you can check it out here if you want
    http://battlingchildhoodbipolar.blogspot.com/

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  7. Any chance she's trying to freak you out?

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  8. I don't know a lof about the 'morbid' thinking, but my son does LOTS of death/war/star wars play. It isn't 'approved of', but it is hard to discourage it as little boys tend to play those things.

    I think it is great that Caroline has found a way to express herself. Writing has always been healing for me. Maybe this isn't her being 'morbid' but a way for her to get those thoughts out of her head and onto the page? Just a thought.

    I have heard of the listening therapy and have tried it with my son. It is a great resource. :)

    Thanks Megan,
    Hartley
    www.hartleysboys.com

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  9. Meg, I think it is mania actually. See my post today.

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  10. Hartley, morbid thoughts definitely increase when she is manic, as well as sexual thoughts. I think this is what has been going on.

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  11. I know what you are saying, but unfortunately, there are a lot of books which have that theme running in them.

    As for me, I love a good Young Adult or even children's fiction...most don't go to dark places.

    It must be exciting for you to see her using her gifts.

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