Techniques in good story telling involve many dynamics. Building tension is one such technique to keep the audience's attention. That requires having a good premise. The characters need to have charisma but they also need to have flaws.
There need to be contrasts. "For Dad" offers them from the perspective of the adolescent, full of promise juxtaposed to the comatose adult. We wonder what the outcome will be. A good story has an ending that's a surprise each time you experience it. Should the audience expect this conclusion?
Enter the adolescent girl, probably 15 or 16. Her father has just slipped into a coma. In "For Dad," we meet the unnamed heroine of the video journal. She is saddened at the loss. She poses one ultimatum after another to her sleeping father in an attempt to force him back into consciousness and reunion with the family. But those ultimatums are deals she makes after filling him in on what's been happening in her current world without him.
It's fascinating how much we learn from our parental experiences. Those are the foundations upon which we decipher how to navigate Life. Our protagonist has her first boyfriend. He wants her to break up with him. And she expresses what she realizes Dad will say in response to that situation. It shows she has a good foundation upon which to reason through good decision.
Her journal takes us through nearly a year and a half of fighting through the range of emotions that come from loss - grief, anger, depression, determination, resolve, acceptance. But she continues to bargain with Dad to wake up while also keeping him up to date on her progression through learning how to live and be vital again.
That includes being a teenager and going to the mall. Although they aren't the focus, we see the seasons passing. She meets a guy. She likes him. Opportunity lost. Opportunity regained. Bargain with Dad to wake up so he can meet the guy.
In her determination to get Dad back, she rummages through some of his belongings that were boxed and stored. She finds some things that were hidden. Best not kept for public viewing, especially for teenagers.
Seasons come and go. Dad's birthday comes around. It's celebrated by her with a nose ring and black lipstick - and more bargaining. But all the while, a return to living is evolving in the protagonist's life. More bargaining; more pressing the story forward. The tension is rising. It keeps us riveted to this story coming from a young perspective, one filled with promise.
Being vital culminates in taking a bike trip with the new boyfriend and a few other friends. They start from home on a journey to the coast, 400 miles away. She's still challenging Dad. She's still bargaining with him. When she makes that 800-mile round trip adventure, it will be tantamount to Dad's having gone on his own adventure and the both of them will complete their journeys and reconvene to celebrate.
Sure enough, her determination, her faith, have a payload. She receives a text message that Dad woke up. Since she's still on her own bike trip and three hours away from home by car, she (now a licensed driver) uses the car of one of the members of the group to get home. She's excited. She's so thrilled that she doesn't realize some of the things she's doing that are putting them in harm's way.
This is a short-short. The tension isn't predicated on what's not told (names, location, time of year) as much as it is on what's going to happen. Identifying with the experiences is also easy. No matter what the race or gender, the scenarios are of the human experience.
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