A Sense of Belonging

[Henckel]

Have you written a story where your character's “sense of belonging” was a dominant factor?

Any advice on approaching this?

[disgruntledpeony]

My Q3 finalist may have been along those lines, but in order to understand what sort of advice you're looking for I'll need more context. Feel free to PM or e-mail me so we can have a more in-depth discussion.

[Dustin Adams]

I recommend writing from the heart, and a place of honesty.

The theme, the core of both my finalists were of a personal nature.
My stories that I write from my mind aren't ever quite as good.

[amyhg]

In a way, my winning story dealt with this theme. I think this theme requires additional conflict--in terms of why they don't feel they belong or what's stopping them from belonging--to add more complexity. For example, my story was about my character wanting to have a sense of home, but he feels he can't because of three things (which I guess are kind of his 3 try and fails): 1. that people will recognize what he is and hate him, 2. that he will endanger anyone who gets close to him, and 3. that anyone he comes to care about will abandon him in the end. The story deals with all three issues. And I definitely agree that bringing personal elements into it helps it to ring true.

[JVAshley]

My HM was about that, but I didn't realize that was the heart of the story until I tried turning it into a novel. It's probably lucky I got the HM without getting my focus right to begin with.

[Henckel]

Thanks everyone.