Another thing I discovered from the feedback luncheon was where I have blind spots in character development due to the particular nature of my life. One of the characters in this novel has father issues. His father is driven by legacy and trying to maker sure his son can be the powerful politician the ensure the family’s long term placement in the history book. The son wants to be a military officer, but follows his father directions because no one ever disobeys father.
The guys, and they were all guys except for my sweetie-wife, mentioned that that they expected or wanted see a moment when this character basically tells his father to shove and goes off to follow his life and not the one his father has planned for him. They discussed how they saw this this is an important aspect of establishing your own identity as a man.
The thought had not occurred to me. My own father passed away when I was young, my mother did not remarry, nor did she date, so after Dad died there was no father figure in my own life. I never had to rebel to establish an identity distinctly from my father’s.
The plot element is a good one and I plan to incorporate it into the new revision, but I can’t help but ponder what other blind-spots are waiting to surprise me?
I cannot deny that I expected it due to the Cliche` nature of the act however the fact that you did not use it I thought was a bonus. Most people do not rebel against the money/prestige the character was not a primary role and sometimes people do knuckle under.
I lay no blame at anyone’s feet. This was just an interesting blind-spot to discover on a Sunday afternoon in the middle of a discussion about an SF military novel.
And your older brothers were off and out of the house for the most part; judgmental in many cases when they came to visit the “little” brother.