Stereotypical characters

Stereotypical characters don't hold all that much appeal to me and in a similar way, in my life I am always looking for that quirky or unusual person with which to engage. I get a lot of stimulus and even energy from people who can offer me something extraordinary - something different.

Families don't necessarily mean 'nuclear families' these days. There are lots of single parents bringing up children; some children have two mothers rather than a mother and a father, and so on. As a writer looking to get away from stereotypical situations, I embrace those options.

Yet, some 'facts' cannot be denied. A study of 4,000 families over four years recently reported that children of married couples have better outcomes than children of de facto or single parents.

It should come as no surprise that the happiest families were the most financially stable families. Financial circumstances could well explain the findings but also important is how consistently a person can parent and that is harder for a single parent who has no other adult with which to share the responsibility or to discuss issues.

Of course, there are always exceptions to the rule and that's my goal - to generate stories with characters that are different or doing  unusual things, even amongst what would appear to be, an ordinary life.

Having said that, it is not easy to break away from what I know. Children flourish with an abundance of love; with unconditional love and support, and with a strong sense of right and wrong. It really doesn't matter what the makeup of the family is so long as the key ingredients of a happy family are in place. It is easier said than done and takes a lot of commitment. The story is in there, I think; the struggle and conflict to remain committed to the cause.