Help With Important stories

[Rosegirl2014]

Hello! I would like sensitivity advice on two books I'm planning on traditionally publishing. One of them is a sort of meta-narrative about neurodivergent teens with immersive daydreaming (like I was as a kid) and how they process secondary trauma (like hearing the news of a national tragedy), but the second one is a full-blown allegory about a certain tragic event within the past 20+ years, a sort of 'symbol reclaimation' story, sparked by a moment of culture shock I experienced irl. I'm a bit worried about reactions to these two specific stories, so would it be ok to discuss and get advice about them here?

 

[pmmg]

Thats what we are here for.

 

[Rosegirl2014]

Sorry for the wall of text: TW for discussions of violence and school shooting: So, the first one, I'm not going to sugarcoat it, is an allegory for Columbine. It was sparked from a moment with my grandmother. I was about 20, so if you mentioned the word 'Columbine' to me, my mind would instantly go to the shooting. I didn't even KNOW that Columbine was originally a flower, or that the school was named after it. She brought out these seed packets of various flowers and showed me a pack of Columbines. She said, "These would be beautiful to plant," something along those lines. And when I saw the name, my heart instantly pounded. After, I thought, "A flower shouldn't elicit that type of reaction." So I did some research on the flower. My way of processing things has always been to write about it in a 'mythical' way, which is why I joined this fantasy site. The idea was sparked to have an empire of flower territories, with Duchies, Kingdoms, Principalities, and more. I wanted to make sure it wasn't a 'Tinker Bell' type kingdom of flower people. They combine the whole history and symbolism of the flower into a unique kingdom. For example, the Rose kingdom is always divided and fighting, a direct symbolism of the historical War of the Roses. Since Columbine, the flower is a beautiful symbol of wisdom and resilience, growing in mountains where flowers usually can't grow. I wanted to make this type of story: Princess Caroline Aquilegia, last of her bloodline and heir to her throne, escapes captivity and execution after a brutal attack leaves her entire family dead and her kingdom in the hands of two invaders. She rallies both the people of her kingdom and others to defeat her enemies and take her rightful place on the throne. Big thing: I want this to be an ALLEGORY, not a retelling, so I want to know if having the invaders be 'two horrible men' would be too 1:1 a recreation, even if I change names) This is sort of like an Ash Princess by Laura Sebastian or Anastasia (1997) type of 'fallen princess' story. She starts off living an amazing, beautiful, sheltered, and naive life, symbolizing how this WAS just an innocent flower before 1999. After a devastating attack leaves her family dead, she becomes a captive of the new regime, kept alive for a short time to watch her kingdom fall. She goes from sheltered princess, to captive damsel, to broken and on the run, to liberator. I wanted to lean away from 'Disney Princess kingdom' to more of an 'upper YA/adult dark fantasy novel' kingdom.

 

[Prince of Spires]

I think you're overthinking this. Though that might just be a culture thing. Since I'm not from the US, I only vaguely know there was a school shooting at Columbine, but that's where it ends for me. So it might be that.

But if you're telling a story about a princess who's fighting in a fantasy world to liberate her kingdom, then I don't think anyone would see it as a retelling of a school shooting. That's just too far removed from it. You'd have to work pretty hard to even make it an allegory for the whole thing.

What's more, if you're going for YA, then your target audience wasn't even born when the school shooting at Columbine happened. Again, I'm not from the US, so I might miss a couple of things, but a 16 year old will likely not know the details of that shooting (like the names of the attackers), if they even know it happened at all. It's a minor footnote in history.

As for specific reactions to the stories, those are hard to give without the actual text of the story. That very much always depends on the way the story is presented. Any sensitive topic can be written about, and it can't be judged from the description of the story if readers will take issue with it or not. It's all about the execution.

 

[Rosegirl2014]

Well this will actually be an adult dark fantasy book. I just said YA because I was sort of inspired BY a YA novel.

 

[pmmg]

When I was reading this at 3:00am ish (why am I even awake?), I saw the green circle and was like, Why is ThinkerX writing this?

Doh...

Well, I was alive during Columbine, and many of the School shootings before and after, and they are sickening. Its just hard to grasp why anyone would think that is a cool thing to do. I even saw the videos of many of them, cause I like the world unfiltered. (Heck, the beltway sniper even shot a kid at the middle school I had attended way back when.)

I think it would be a great gift, if it were possible, to draw the allegory and show how beauty can still spring from horror, as was the way you presented to actual flowers.

What you presented above does not give me any pause. Heck, the story I write is full of worse violence than Columbine, and the war goes on for 5 books. The Evil things people do when there is nothing to stop them do not subside until there is something to stop them.

I hope you do write this. I would not hold back for fear of sensitivity (I am mostly opposed to sensitive types anyway). Tell the story that is inside, tell it true, and make it worthy.

PoS is right. Most people who would read this dont know much about Columbine anyway. I recall the day the Challenger shuttle exploded, and then the day I realized my daughter had no clue it even happened. The world seemed crazy for a moment. Things fade and time heals all wounds. Write on Rosegirl.

And with a name like 'RoseGirl' and the many ways one could pick an avi with that, dont be a green dot with an R in it.

 

[Rosegirl2014]

Thank you so much! I also have a different story to discuss, but I think it will be tomorrow because I have cleaning + finals to do today.

 

[pmmg]

Nice Avi.

 

[Mad Swede]

OK, given your background you won't need any sensitivity readers for that first book you want to write. In fact, your background is likely to make it a bit easier to find both an agent and then a publisher for the book.

As for the second book, write it and see how you get on. Allegory covers quite a lot of ground, and you should be OK with your concept. Personally I'd try not to make the allegory too obvious, keep it subtle and let the readers work it out. I'm not sure that many readers will even get that its an allegory...

 

[Rosegirl2014]

So, I've decided to spend a bit of time on here today. The second story idea is more of an upper YA meta-narrative. Sorry for another wall of text: Due to a loving yet volatile home life (mental health and addiction), the 'light and dark' scale balance depended on what was happening at the moment. If I were around fighting? I'd imagine fight/death scenes. If I were at peace and away from fighting? They were more heroic, sentimental stories. So, I was used to 'dark shifts' in stories. I noticed that at one point in early 2018, I started writing my characters going through REALLY dark things. That's normal for immersive daydreamers, but it was the content that led me to rethink them this year. I realized I was having my characters survive horrible, tragic mass violence in enclosed spaces. There were always happy endings, like them going back to fight the bad guys, but I realized that as a FL teen, I was processing hearing about PARKLAND. I'd just thought I was running out of ideas! One of my ideas is an upper YA story about maladaptive daydreaming. The protagonist is based on me at 14, and the stories I used to write. In it, she actually has the power to bring both fictional characters and original ones from her head, and they live in harmony with the normal world. She can also travel through their worlds. As a kid, I'd imagine "what if favorite characters actually lived with us in our world, held down jobs, went to cafes, made money, and existed in our society?" These 'fictional characters' won't be copyrighted, though. In the universe, it will be like "The warrior princess from the popular video game series Chronicles of Elara," instead of an existing IP. And this is a realistic deconstruction of that. In it, the main character (name not decided yet) lives a great life. Her parents know about her powers, she juggles crime fighting with being a normal student, and she's in love with a fictional (but made real by her magic) squire her age from a fantasy film. There will be a school shooting in a universe (Fictionalized and not based on Parkland, just a school shooting in general, also will move state this takes place in), and as soon as she hears about it, something CHANGES. I started putting my characters through horrible ordeals because I myself felt unsafe. I even remember looking at my school's front door and calculating whether a shooter could get in and hurt us. It was brought up in assembly, by teachers, and by parents. I did the math and realized the profoundly DARK shift happened in mid-late Feb 2018. Even then, I'd categorize the stories I'd write by real-world date. Her world around her started getting EXTREMELY dark and unsafe. Normal conflicts were dragon and orc attacks, but things like massacres, brutal coups, and tortures were happening. So, just like I didn't know back then why my stories got so effing DISTURBING, she and her group set off to defeat this villain. Now, he's kind of an evil sorcerer. In Feb 2018, I realized I started using the character Fierce Deity from Legend of Zelda as a villain and source of absolute fear, violence, and terror. He was the main villain for MONTHS. But I didn't realize my subconscious was processing the Parkland shooter, and my reaction to what happened in general, and used a character I was familiar with as a scapegoat. She defeats him in the end, and that's just the plot of the first book. I plan a duology of two main books with lots of novellas and prequels to flesh out the world and characters.

 

[Rosegirl2014]

This will be more of a straightforward 'adventure story,' about how neurodivergent immersive daydreamers process the world, but just made literal.

 

[pmmg]

The second wall of text is about the second story?

At the law firm where I worked, we had to have active shooter training, which amounted to, when there is a shooter you can 1) Run, 2) Hide, or 3) Fight. <--Like I needed training for that. What was four? Freeze and let them shoot you? I dont need to be train in Run, hide or fight. That's just all there is. After that, we were told, the company policy of no one stocking a gun at work, which really is the only way to deal with an active shooter...shoot them first.

At the place I work now, you won't get in and live, so....

I think the observation that the stories you are writing are matching up to phases of your life is a good insight. Stories may be good therapy in the situations of life we get into. Much of life is dark. We live in an imperfect world. And sometimes the darkness lives too close to home. The good guys are slow, but they are out there. With faith, love, and courage we can beat them.

I dont know if you are still hesitant to write, or put out in public, your stuff. But I think its worth writing, and letting people see. Since I am not really sure the question, I just encourage you to get it on paper.

 

[Rosegirl2014]

The second wall of text is about the second story?

At the law firm where I worked, we had to have active shooter training, which amounted to, when there is a shooter you can 1) Run, 2) Hide, or 3) Fight. <--Like I needed training for that. What was four? Freeze and let them shoot you? I dont need to be train in Run, hide or fight. That's just all there is. After that, we were told, the company policy of no one stocking a gun at work, which really is the only way to deal with an active shooter...shoot them first.

At the place I work now, you won't get in and live, so....

I think the observation that the stories you are writing are matching up to phases of your life is a good insight. Stories may be good therapy in the situations of life we get into. Much of life is dark. We live in an imperfect world. And sometimes the darkness lives too close to home. The good guys are slow, but they are out there. With faith, love, and courage we can beat them.

I dont know if you are still hesitant to write, or put out in public, your stuff. But I think its worth writing, and letting people see. Since I am not really sure the question, I just encourage you to get it on paper.

Thanks! That really helped! But which publisher should I go for?

 

[pmmg]

What do you mean by which publisher?

 

[Rosegirl2014]

Like, a 'big 5' traditional publisher. Like Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. Which publishing house should I pitch this to, or should I start out by self-publishing?

 

[Adam Scribentis]

Like, a 'big 5' traditional publisher. Like Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. Which publishing house should I pitch this to, or should I start out by self-publishing?

The "Publishing" forum of this community might be a helpful place to explore "traditional" vs. "indie" alias self-publishing. (I am an indie, but not everyone will want to go down that route.)

 

[Mad Swede]

Like, a 'big 5' traditional publisher. Like Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. Which publishing house should I pitch this to, or should I start out by self-publishing?

Well, first you should finish your books. That in itself may be a bigger achievement than you think, as it takes quite a lot of dedication to write a complete novel. As for finding a publisher, you're in the US so you'll need to find an agent who will then find you a publisher. Some small and medium size US publishers accept direct submissions. Finding a publisher takes time and patience. The alternative is self-publishing, but that also takes a lot of time and effort.