Board Thread:Writer's Workshop/@comment-36393004-20181024015838/@comment-9041013-20181024092701

Well Locked... I am disappointed in you son... How could you have made Jacob so young? This is essentially my main concern with the story; Jacob is way too young. I think you should give us some exposition until Jacob is five or six and then give him a little sister. APD, Psychopathy and perhaps other eccentric personality disorders (Histronionic, Narcissistic) begin to show at the age of inter-social development.

If you choose to pamper him throughout his first few years as a sole child, you could make him into a narcissist where he becomes self centered and self aggrandizing in front of his peers at (pre)school and to his parents. It could also explain his violence towards his younger siblings.

If you want him to be a Psychopathic kid, have his parents be "neglectful" and harmingly stressed around him. By neglectful I mean hardcore career people or something not giving him just enough warmth. A neuroscientist whose name I don't remember concluded in his study that environmental factors such as a warm and loving upbringing overbears the biological factors that contribute to psychopathy. Basically a person can be a psychopath on a biological level (no moral compass, high needs for hormonal pleasure along with high output of pleasure hormons) but a perfectly functioning member of society you couldn't tell apart from the every day joe at all. Also if you go for psychopath, have him be a douchy kid at (pre)school and possibly abuse animals.

Other than that, if you're going for a very personal atmosphere in the story, sprinkle some personal details of the characters, like their names, important events to them, a moment or two of casual family behavior... etc etc

Overall the idea is great and the execution is far better than most, but yeah still needs some work.