Help a Writer. Reveal the Secrets of High School Prom.

[DZMom]

*puppy dog eyes*

I need some help from anyone who wants to tell me about your high school formal dance for a short story I want to write for publication, if I could find a magazine to purchase it. (It is a very short story. It will have about 1400 words.).

Even though I am planning on having the story take place in the USA, I would like to hear what prom planning is like from other countries.I'll have a foreign student as a supporting character. She will be living in the US with her family due to her father's job.

Open the Doors to the Secret World of High School Proms ... 

Just answer the questions.

1. What grade-levels in high school may attend the spring formal dance (prom)? Is a tenth-grader likely to attend a prom?

2. Does the "student council" (the governing body of elected student leaders) plan the prom and put up the decorations?

3. Is the cost of attendance so expensive that a significant portion of students can't attend.

3. How affordable is it to attend the prom?

4. Do students attend "stag" (without a date) if they don't ask someone to go to the prom? Is is typical for the boy to ask a girl to the prom?

5. For this question, try to answer with a thought to the general population rather than your own quirky yet loveable point of view: is going to the prom a significant event for females? For males?

Now I get down to the key question that is a cliche based on my perceptions from high school in the 1980s. It is also a theme in the grotesque plot I am attempting to mash up.

6. If a shy type of guy promises to go to prom with one girl and later wishes that he could go to the prom with someone else, would it be considered "bad taste" to tell Girl One that he doesn't want to go to prom with her, even is she has done nothing to offend him?

 

If you can think of anything else I should know about the "prom," please let me know.

 

I've been absent for how many months now, and I return only because I want something from you? What a jerk!

[DZMom]

Thanks for the comment about the drugs and alcohol. If I were to incorporate it into this extremely short story, it would be related to anti-anxiety medication and possible drug/alcohol interactions. I don't think I will cover that. As a matter of fact, I may target the article to moral and religious audiences in the US which frown upon even family-sanctioned alcohol consumption for the age group I'm targeting; I would have to select a publication which deals with mental illness issues like general anxiety disorder as a genuine medical concern rather than a moral concern.

I am not well versed in Japanese culture, so writing that character will require research and beta-reading for an authentic voice. By choosing such a gregarious personality for this Japanese character, I will have a bit of a challenge. Many Japanese women who I know in the US and their daughters act in a very reserved manner. On the other hand, I have met some rather outgoing and culturally-acclimated Japanese professional women in the US.

 

Thanks for asking about the "taking to the prom" issue. When I was a HS student, I would not have attended stag if a friend had not suggested the idea to me.

I appreciate you letting me know about going as a group. It was like that when I was a that age; however, through reading young adult literature and my own perceptions, it seemed like a big deal to have a date for the prom.

Your perspective is enlightening, as I have no private schooling experience or non-co-ed schooling experience. It also was a surprise to me that parents were involved in those social functions. It makes me think of high society, which I only know from watching movies.

 

[Omega]

Your note is kinda true - our drinking laws, re:ages are quite moderate compared to most of the US though.

 

Here it's 18 to buy alcohol, although you're allowed to drink with parental permission/supervision before this. Me and my little bro, tho more the bro and his scabby mates had acess from 16/17, so long as we weren't stupid. This isn't uncommon - something about getting drunk=awesome out of the system before it's legal, and therefore not monitorable.

 

Same goes for weed. Weed is everywhere in NZ.

[DZMom]

I've been told by my therapist that I'm a "verbal processor." Well, that's great and all but I don't have many social contacts and in particular I lack the kind who are likely to discuss writing with me. So here I am putting my thoughts into words. Feel free to join my "processing" party.

I'm thinking about making the story a humor genre instead of romance.

The working title "Angst in My Pants" doesn't work because it sounds like the poor guy soiled his underwear. It was a play on the phrase "ants in your pants"; that may have been obvious.

I thought the title "Guy Meets Hurl" was funny. It made me laugh. But I don't think humor about a guy so anxious about girls that he is nauseous will be all that funny. And it is worth noting that I don't plan to make this character conflicted over his sexual orientation, which the title could imply. Maybe next time I would be willing to tackle that.

Your thoughts?