The Journey to Writing a Successful Story: a tip book

American Schooling Pt. 7 - Bad Boys

I've seen a lot of people asking about the American school systems, so I will like to provide you the information on them. I have been to over fourteen different types of schools in various areas, so I'm using my knowledge from that and from my siblings' schools. Do know that I'm no "knowledge-keeper" when it comes to this - I know a lot of the system, but there are things that I am unaware of. If you do have any questions that I did not answer throughout any of these areas, please comment below. I will try my best to find the answer from my most wonderful best friend, Google.

Now, let's get started.

I would have put this in the previous chapter, but I decided to break it up because it was getting too long. But in this one, we'll focus on bad boys.

Bad boys in stories do not exist in real life. What type of definition am I referring to? Someone who rides on a motorcycle, wears leather, doesn't give a crap about anything or anyone, a man-slut (in simple terms), arrogant, a bully, popular, and thinks he's cool.

Nope. I'm sorry ladies, but this is not true at all.

Bad boys are rather defined as guys who do drugs, alcohol, party animals, doesn't care, tries to act cool, skips school, and does pranks. Not all bad boys do all of this, but in a basic sense, yeah.

In fact, my father and brother were bad boys. My dad was in the principle's office almost always because he always played jokes (like egging a teacher's car). He tried to skip school a couple times, even told the policeman he was eighteen, but he got caught as they called his mom and she confirmed his normal age. My dad even blew up his high school's toilets (literally - blew up, like it broke the toilets, etc.), and I think he was in on a couple swirly days. But he couldn't do most of what others did because his parents were strict, not to mention that his mom was extremely religious. He did clean his act up, though, and joined the army. But he is a kid inside.

My brother, on the other hand, would do drugs, alcohol, partied, never really care for much, and skipped school.

Anyone can be a jerk, really, so you can't always make your characters be jerk-like. Since you know, we all have our bad days.

As far as the motorcycle, thing, well... let's think through that. Yes, high school students can get a parking space; depending on the school, you either have to be a junior or a senior - sometimes they may allow juniors to drive, and sometimes they may only allow seniors. But you don't get it for free. You have to pay for a parking permit on school grounds. Which from my last high school, it was two hundred dollars.

Now let's think about the prices for the motorcycle. Motorcycles are not cheap, even if they are used. I had looked up that they are a couple thousand dollars for used motorcycles, so a brand new one? Much more - we're talking a good seven to twenty-five thousand dollars. So the question is, how did your bad boy get the motorcycle? Most stories I see, he is not in a good relationship with his folks or anyone else, and he has no job. So how can a high schooler get it? You normally receive cars by your parents or grandparents; they either gave it to you as a hand-me-down, or they gave it to you as a brand new car, or you went to a junkyard/got it used from someone or somewhere (like in Herby Fully Loaded, where Lindsey Lohan got the beetle from the junkyard and her dad helped her get it started up). Another way could be that his friends gave it to him as a gift of some kind, or he bought it from a friend. And then there's a job. But apparently, bad boys don't get jobs... they're "too cool" for that, right?

So honestly, there can't be much of an explanation unless the story is altered. How so? Well, maybe instead of having a bad background, saying his mom is dead (and has been for quite awhile) or whatnot about her, and the dad is abusive and hates him and whatnot about him, then... you can't do much around that. Now yes, he could take the bike as it may have been in the garage for a long time and it hadn't been used and getting rusty, whatever. That could happen.

But it really depends on how you create your story.

No, it's not impossible for the guy to even have a motorcycle, but I'm just saying, it doesn't exactly add up with his image, you know? He's this guy who doesn't work, doesn't care, has beef with his family, and so on... so it doesn't make sense. But you tell me.

So you have to think through the process of the bad boy. Of his life; is it in good shape? Is he out there, starving? What is it?

And no, he doesn't get drooled over from girls. He could be a man-slut, but then again, about the entire teenage population nowadays sleeps around... But that doesn't mean that every. Single. Girl. Likes. Him. Let me tell you a little thing called taste. Everyone has it and not everyone thinks that someone is attractive. For example, I am in love with Johnny Depp, but some people do not like him because he isn't "hot" in their eyes. I am in love with Zac Efron. But some people think he is not attractive at all. So when you say that every single girl in your story, in the school, loves this guy, it's not true. Some people will, some won't. And you can't just have your character hate him. It needs to be multiple people for it to be realistic.

There's this thing that my sister and I created, we call it the Carlos Effect. This is where someone is in love with someone else, whereas, you don't see how anyone could possibly love that person. And just about every single person gets a Carlos Effect. We made it up because my sister and I don't see how our other sister could love her husband (because, if I have to be honest here... she could do better, but whatever, she loves him, he treats her well). So your characters could have that effect.

Another thing to think about is that not all guys are these muscular Hulks. Yeah, some may have abs, but others won't. And no, they won't look scrawny, but they also won't look like they're in the gym 24/7, as if they don't ever sleep or workout while sleeping. Trust me, I just came out of high school and barely saw a guy that had the body of Sylvester Stallone.

So you have to be realistic on body types, because the more the muscle, the more unrealistic it would feel. And you could give the guy a four pack - but you have to ask yourself if he works out a lot to get that.