A question of depth

I was pondering the other day, and I turned to someone I talk to on occasion about my writing. I like the idea of writing about families (a lot of good writing involves them – just look at Dickens) and in my universe for Steve and Danny I wanted to explore, in depth, the conversation between two partners about expanding their family. Of course when it’s two male partners there’s virtually no margin of error for the “oops, we got pregnant” conversation, unless somebody’s gone out and knocked up some woman on their own, in which case the conversation becomes about a lot more than just having more children.

I said, “Steve and Danny want to have another child, their sixth, not including Grace,and I need a conflict.” The reply came: “I don’t see one. Does there need to be one?”

Well, of course there does. Even if the conflict is a simple as coming up with 20 large for an artificial insemination, there’s got to be conflict, or there’s no story. The series itself explores themes such as family relationships, loyalty, trust, duty, scapegoating, the nature of and the difficult line between good and evil, bureaucracy, justice, corruption, and loosely (very loosely) history of Hawai’i.

So far in my writing, I’ve tried to explore other themes in a departure from the canonical series:

First love, jealousy, misunderstanding and self-doubt (Hele On) 

Coming out, community, sexual assault (Na Aihue) 

Separation, longing, normalizing a new relationship (Moekahi) 

The catalyst of birth, the significance of names, the journey of parenthood (Na Leka No Na Keiki)

Realizing one’s parents aren’t invincible, that not all marriages are happy, not all deaths are grieved, not all lovers triumph (Na Hoa Mau Loa)

And this one – actually two of them.

In the first I’ve got Danny at home alone with two toddlers while Steve is away on deployment. With Steve’s death a very real possibility, he begins to discover Hawai’i’s inherent spirtuality – which is a rich pastiche which draws from traditions of Polynesia, Asia, and the West. Concepts of spirituality and the life/death divide are much more fluid in Hawai’i, and there’s a definite otherworldly presence – especially at night, which Danny will begin to encounter.

The second I mentioned earlier, but I want to look at the differences between Steve and Danny’s approach to parenting. Steve is what one would call a “natural” and Danny finds it more of a chore – he’s more fearful and pessimistic, and becomes increasingly wary of having children in a world he no longer understands and barely tolerates while Steve is a creative optimist who isn’t done creating yet. The concepts of “Family as Art/Creation” is one I want Steve to have to unravel and explain for his partner, which of course will be much more difficult when other events intervene (can’t give it all away, can I?)

In short, writing has the power to ennoble us. Our language is the language of Shakespeare and Byron and Faulkner – there’s no reason there can’t be some depth in transformative literature. It’s my aim to make sure there’s plenty more of it.