That is going to be the hard part, and will take a lot of time. But having read it, so far, I feel sure enough about everything else to just start adjusting here and there. First step after reading the full story will be to immerse myself back into books dealing with the people of Derry and let them permeate through me as much as possible. I'd say I'm 75-80% of the way there, but it needs to be as close to 100% as possible.
I am going to let Brendan be more apart from others, self-isolated except with his few close friends. It's almost like he's autistic, but if so he would be low on the spectrum. He just wants to be himself and doesn't feel the need to explain himself to others, starting at an early age. He is obsessive about being able to repair things...mainly by taking them apart and putting them back together...but none of this really fits into the idea of a developmental disorder.
I may add in some think he was born with an old soul and just doesn't have the time for most foolishness. He sees things more clearly than others, even though he can't articulate it, yet...or doesn't even really understand it. Almost like he's an empath...
There's a moment in the story I'd forgotten I wrote, where he's 12 and suddenly realizes his mother and father, who used to fight in vicious, physical ways, not only loved each other completely, they loved the fighting. He wonders if half the reason his mother disparages him and is physical in her punishments is she needs someone to take up that void in her life, now that her husband is dead.
She can't do that to his older brother because he's too important to her. His older sister just calmly accepts anything her mother does, so is no use. His younger brother is too young. And Brendan is always going his own way, doing what he wants when he wants to. She's also caught him lying to her...so he's her scapegoat. And he's finally beginning to catch on and it not only hurts him, it infuriates him.
Like it would have, his father.
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