A sassy young city girl struggles to heal a rift between her mother and estranged grandfather by collecting seaglass for his latest art project.

>>>Really low stakes, I know :^)

I beg to differ.? If you look closely, I think you'll see that in most movies, the protagonist can only achieve her objective goal by first building a new relationship based on mutual love and respect with a love interest or ally.? Or repair an old one that was destroyed by misunderstanding and selfishness.

Within the context of her family,? her situation, building an emotional bridge to her grandfather is everything.? After all, she doesn't have a father around, right?? And she's not getting along with her mother, right?? The grandfather is her only hope of finding a grownup who will provide her with the kind of adult love and attention she desperately needs (whether she realizes it or not).

>>>Really low stakes, I know :^)

I beg to differ.? If you look closely, I think you'll see that in most movies, the protagonist can only achieve her objective goal by first building a new relationship based on mutual love and respect with a love interest or ally.? Or repair an old one that was destroyed by misunderstanding and selfishness.

Within the context of her family,? her situation, building an emotional bridge to her grandfather is everything.? After all, she doesn't have a father around, right?? And she's not getting along with her mother, right?? The grandfather is her only hope of finding a grownup who will provide her with the kind of adult love and attention she desperately needs (whether she realizes it or not).

stevecleary:

I think you have the kernel for a very interesting human relationship story.? Sea glass is a great dramatic prop.

However, I'm not entirely sold on the psychological dynamics.

Since you categorize it as a "coming of age" story, I'm guessing the protagonist is in her early teens.? Even if she is in her late teens, the task? the story assigns her is, imho,? way beyond the psychological capacity of a teenage mind. That she would want to maintain a cease fire between her mother and grandfather -- yes, that's believable.? Because that's what kids consciously and unconsciously do.? That is how they cope in dysfunctional families.

But coping with a problem is not the same as solving it? Maintaining a cease fire is not the same as effecting a reconciliation.? A reconciliation takes wisdom, insight, and understanding -- skills that develop with age, that accumulate over time by trial and error,? I think such skills are far beyond the ken of teenage minds, even precocious ones, because their lives are so, well, unlived at that point. Their minds haven't "banked" much experience. And because (as we now know from advancements in neuroscience) their cognitive development is still a work in progress. The prudential executive functions of the neocortex don't fully come on line? until the mid-20's.

That said, it is quite realistic that the girl would use the sea glass as a way to reach out to him.? Not because she wants to end the family feud; she doesn't know how and doesn't even know fully why they are estranged to begin with.? Rather because she takes an interest in his hobby and develops a liking for the old geezer in spite of his eccentricities and in spite of her mother's hostility and resentment.? From her bonding with him develops the alchemy that leads to an eventual reconciliation between the generations on either side of her.

IOW:? the reconciliation? emerges as the unintentional consequence of her initial intentional objective goal.? (And loglines are about conscious, intentional goals, not about unconscious, unintentional denouements.)

Finally, I would like to suggest you might want to dig deeper into the possibilities of a mutually dependent doublebind relationship between her mother and her grandfather.? The mother needs him for economic survival (dammit!) -- his pension, for a rent-free place to stay.? He needs her for his physical survival (dammit!); he's too infirm to live alone and just lost his driver's license after a car accident that was his fault.? Et cetera.? They? hate each other -- and they need each other.

Whatever, best wishes with your story.

fwiw