Wednesday, October 17

Posted by Laurel Garver on Wednesday, October 17, 2012 10 comments
moreguefile.com
Today I'm over at Tyrean Martinson's blog, discussing "Why dads matter." This is a helpful post for anyone who has read Never Gone and wondered why I put my character into some of the tough situations I do.

I told Tyrean, "I was especially interested in exploring the father-daughter dynamic because girls first learn how to relate to boys from interacting with their dads."

But what happens when that teacher and protector figure is no longer in your life?

Pop on over to read more.

How much does psychology inform your writing? Do you agree or disagree with my premise about a father's role in a teen daughter's life?

10 comments:

  1. Thanks for the awesome guest post! Dads are hugely important in a teen daughter's life, as protectors, and as healthy role models. Dads really matter.

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    1. Thanks again for hosting me. I was so thankful to have a chance to explain a bit of the underlying psychology that drives some of the edgy content.

      Dads do play a special role--and why it was frustrating when agents wanted me to rewrite the story with a dead sibling. That would have been a TOTALLY different kind of journey for the character.

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  2. Psychology is everything in my writing. Everything. As a psychiatric nurse I've seen so much that I wish I could respond to and what I can't say at work, I can in my writing.
    And I agree with you about fathers, that is one of the main themes in my novel THE NEWSTEAD PROJECT, absent fathers and how that affects their sons.

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    1. I imagine you deal with some very tough yet fascinating situations every day. And your theme sounds like a great thing to explore.

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  3. Great post! I think the importance of dads is overlooked too much in our society. Whether an absent dad or an at-home father, the child's affected.

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    1. Thanks, Kitty. Dads need to know that they matter. I think that may be one of the problems our society could be more intentional about-- encouraging dads to take their role seriously and do it well. Boys need things from their fathers also, something Melanie mentions above.

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  4. Absolutely. The first male a girl usually falls in love with is her dad and he becomes the model of how a good man should treat her. It is a precious platonic relationship that no one else can teach a girl.

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    1. My husband quipped that is was "very Freudian" of me to come to these conclusions, but my experience bears them out. In the places where my dad loved me well, I have emotional security, where he didn't do well, I have insecurity.

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  5. I just bought Never Gone and will start reading tonite!!!! Very excited. Off to read this guest post.

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    1. Thank you! I hope the post helps make sense of Dani's interactions with male characters in the novel.

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