Yesterday I attended A Place at the Table, a half day session of discussion, talks and networking for people interested in making British children’s literature a better, more diverse and inclusive place. It was organised by Inclusive Minds. It was great to meet like-minded people, and hear how others are trying to bring diversity mainstream. The Young Ambassadors in particular spoke powerfully. Candy Gourlay was an invigorating key note speaker. I’ll blog more about it when I have chance, but here are a few photos. For better photos head over to Inclusive Minds or Candy Gourlay’s facebook or Twitter feed! @candygourlay and @InclusiveMinds and #APATT and #EverybodyIn
Candy GourlayLetterbox LibraryIt was a packed room and a popular event
Yesterday we were really happy to welcome Patrice Lawrence, whose first YA novel, Orangeboy, has just been published by Hodder. Patrice delivered the third masterclass, a wide ranging session where we discussed trusting yourself to write, finding a structure and using the wealth of our own diverse backgrounds to develop characters. We also talked about the wonderful Long Paper – get a roll of it from Homebase or similar if you’ve not tried using it for plotting and visualising your stories. Personally I think it’s the best tool in my writer’s toolkit!
Patrice Lawrence (centre) and the Megaphone participants
We also discussed the psychological journey a writer takes when drafting a novel for the first time. This is something that I think is not much written about – there’s a lot out there on the art and craft and practice of writing, but less, perhaps, on things like the 30,000 word doldrums that typically hit any writer. It can really help to know that you’re not alone when you feel despondent about your writing, and that it’s part of a process most people go through.
Thank you Patrice for taking time out of launching Orangeboy to share your experience with us!
This fantastic speech delivered by Nikesh Shukla recognises the importance of representation in children’s books. I’ve heard people (white people, inevitably) dismiss those concerned with better, wider representation in children’s books as ‘worthy’. As a mixed race person like Nikesh’s daughter, I can assure you that worthy is not a description that’s ever occurred to me. Essential for my survival, yes. Worthy no. Hard to explain but to see yourself in books is to be assured you deserve to exist. For those on the outside, it may look like a worthy crusade; to those on the inside, it is walking across the desert to get to the oasis. Read and share: https://www.newwritingsouth.com/news?item=143
I’m delighted to read that Creative Access have found alternative funding to continue their essential work. Here, Josie Dobrin blogs about a topic that is very important if publishing is not only to recruit, but to retain, BAME employees. http://creativeaccess.org.uk/dont-believe-stereotype-affect-us
We were really pleased to welcome Catherine Johnson (and her cake) to the Writing West Midlands’ meeting room for the second masterclass of Megaphone. Catherine focused on story: from your first chapter, can the reader tell what the story is about or not? She brought us back again and again to the fact that a reader, especially a young one – or a busy editor/agent who has twenty more manuscripts to read that weekend – wants to know right from chapter one, what the story is shaping up to be; what the crucial matter at stake is, for the character.
Catherine and her cake.
I remember once, about ten years ago, taking a chapter of my work in progress to an SCBWI-arranged meeting with a well-known editor. I thought it was pretty good. I’d always been told I wrote well. The editor scanned my first chapters, and eventually stabbed her finger onto a (to me, unremarkable) paragraph on the fourth page. “That’s your hook,” she said briefly. “Start with that.”
I tell this story because I now see – with the benefit of ten years of experience of failure and success in writing – that that editor and Catherine Johnson are saying the same thing. The first chapter must establish not just the who’s it about, but the what do they want right now? and the why is this interesting? To a new writer, who’s struggling with and in love with language and the pictures it can paint, inserting such basic story stuff can feel clunky, commercial, paint-by-numbers. It certainly did to me back then – though, more to the point, I had no idea how to do it! But look at any great literary work, from Hamlet to Mrs Dalloway, and I bet you’ll see that all these questions are answered very swiftly, in a manner fitting the intended audience. And that, without sacrificing any energy and beauty from the prose. This is even more so the case in great children’s fiction.
The one where no-one had their eyes closed.
Reading first chapters is a great way of finding out how to make this work. Go to Waterstone’s, or use Amazon’s Look Inside function (other booksellers are available, etc.), and read the first pages of a number of books for the age range you’re writing for. Stop after chapter one, whether you’re enjoying it or not, and reflect: why am I enjoying this (or not)? Why do I want to read on (or not)? The answers will be illuminating for your own writing. Great prose will be mingled with strong character and a heart, a journey, a need or a want that hooks you and reels you in, like…
Kirkus reviews, for those who don’t know, is a highly influential, USA based body of reviewers. A starred Kirkus review is something that authors fling their hats in the air, squee and dance about. So I was really interested to read this: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/features/unmaking-white-default/
I think it’s a good move. I also like the fact that they’ve flagged up that one of their reviewers of colour didn’t agree with the decision. Because guess what, not all people of colour hold exactly the same views on what’s racist and what isn’t, what with us all being different people and so forth 🙂 . Kirkus have made this decision to try it this way, and I think it’s a good one. It draws attention to the white default, and that’s a good thing, I think. If you can’t see the problem, you can’t start tackling it.
Meanwhile, Nikesh Shukla has tweeted this relevant piece
I was at #LBF16 today to talk about diversity and writing for children and teenagers, with Peter Kalu and Tariq Mehmood, authors at HopeRoad Publishing, run by Rosemarie Hudson. I was only there briefly before having to run off to another meeting, but as usual wished I’d arranged to stay longer! Notable moments: the Bonnier dinosaur outside, Keris Stainton rescuing me from starvation by kindly swapping sandwiches, and spotting Chips, Beans and Limousines in exalted company…
Leila: Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your writing life so far?
Have you been writing long, and what drew you to writing for children
and teenagers?
Tina: About me? Well, that is quite a story in itself but I’m not sure I have enough room to fit everything in, so here is the condensed version! Are you ready? This is what I answer when I am often asked “Where are you from?” – I was born Maisie Chan back in the late 70s (the same year as Elvis died – RIP The King). At twelve days old I was fostered by the Freeth Family who then went on to adopt me when I was 8 years old. I was fairly good at school, went on to study American and Canadian Studies at Birmingham Uni as I liked basketball, rap music and wanted to live in America for a year (I had no career aspirations back then!), plus my Mom wanted me to stay at home and I lived around the corner from the campus.
During my year abroad, I read lots of Asian American authors such as Maxine Hong Kingston and Amy Tan, but on my return realised there were no British Chinese authors. I went to live in Taipei so I could learn Mandarin Chinese to feel closer to my Asian roots, but really I felt more British – so that backfired! In 2003 my Mom passed away and soon after, I decided I wanted to write. I had a few jobs as a grants writer for various charities, and in 2006 it was all change again as I decided to quit my job and focus all of my energy into writing and unexpectedly found my biological father when I was surfing the internet – he was a Tai Chi Master and was doing a show in London. I did his tai chi class and after told him I was his daughter. I started to write a book about it but never finished it!
I was accepted onto the National Academy of Writing diploma course at Birmingham City University in 2007 and also had a place on the Birmingham Libraries scheme for BAME writers Original Skin which culminated with a short story anthology.
Since then I’ve had a handful of short stories published in various anthologies and collaborated on two picture books for reluctant readers that were published by Franklin Watts. The characters in those children’s books were from an urban housing estate and looked like me and people that I had grown up with, such as the Pakistani families on my road, or the families that had the random child in the middle who was a shade darker than all of the others. Families are not only white, they aren’t always like the ones you see in the supermarket adverts buying food for their neat breakfast tables. I knew that it was important to have people of colour and to have working class people in books, especially children’s books as all children need to see mirrors of themselves represented in books. Society is made up of a mixture of different people and circumstances.
I had a break from writing to have my two children in 2010; one of them looks Spanish and the other one looks Chinese. They both love to books and we create weird stories together. I want to write stories for children and teenagers because I remember what it was like being a child and even though my Mom was not very literate, she always took me to the library and made sure I could read well. A librarian once told me that my writing ‘voice’ suited young adult fiction and I often work with children, either through storytelling, family yoga sessions or doing author events at schools and libraries.
Fortunately for me, in 2015 I was accepted onto the Writing West Midlands Room 204 writer development scheme last which has been wonderful as it has put me in touch with local writing community. I was one of the finalist of the Creative Futures Literary Awards last year which was a surprise as I hadn’t written for such a long time.
I’m super happy that I will be teaching creative writing to teens during this coming year which I am sure will help me understand that particular age group a bit more as it’s been a while since I was a teenager! I need to brush up on the lingo!
Leila: And can you tell us a bit about the book you will be writing this
year – what’s it about, and what inspired you to write it? What do you
think the biggest challenges will be in writing it? (the things you
think will be most difficult – e.g. researching, or structuring, etc.)
Tina: I have a tendency to write tragic comedies and I suppose the novel I am writing will be along a similar vein. I am going to write about a British Chinese teenager who is going to go live with a black foster family, I want to explore how my protagonist deals with the cultural differences that will arise from living with a family very different to your own. Originally, my idea was that her father had been sectioned for mental health reasons but now I am thinking of changing it to her grandfather (whom she lives with) who has severe Dementia and has to go onto a care home. He has looked after her since her parents both died. I often want to explore themes in my stories that I have experiences such as grief, rejection, being a young carer, or the effects of mental health issues on the family. I think many young people have to go through these issues, it’s not all about who you fancy or Justin Bieber!
I think the most difficult thing about writing the book will be carving out time to do it whilst juggling family life. My daughter starts school in September so I’m very much looking forward to that event! I also teach yoga once a week and it helps me maintain my own yoga practice which I think definitely helps me as a writer. It counters the sitting in a chair and tapping on the laptop. In essence I need to make more time and will start going to a local cafe to write instead of doing it at home with all the distractions of laundry and washing up. I tend to procrastinate a lot!
I also need to use my experience but then detach from it too and know that I am writing fiction. I am not the main character and the story is hers story not mine. Research for the story shouldn’t be that difficult as I have firsthand experience of many of the themes in the book.
Leila: Finally, what do you hope to get out of Megaphone?
Tina: I hope that Megaphone will take my writing to the next level. I have only written short fiction and short scripts but have always wanted to write novels, but in my mind I felt I couldn’t do it without some kind of support. Often on writing courses you are not taught how to write a longer piece of work, so having a mentor is going to be invaluable as she will read the novel as I’m writing and editing it and has so much experience in this area of writing. I am also looking forward to the masterclasses from visiting authors and publishing professionals. I’ve created a facebook group for the five of us from Megaphone to get to know each other better, to share resources and to support each other over the coming year. I’m looking forward to seeing the other participant’s novels take form as well as my own.
A writer friend once said her mantra was ‘BOOK IN WATERSTONES!’ and I am adopting that too, I want my book (s) in Waterstones (actually any large bookstore or independent ones too for that matter!) I want young people to read it and for that to happen it has to be published and to be out there.
Megaphone is an excellent scheme to make this happen I just have to live up to my end and write the best story I can. Thanks to all of those involved in making this happen. It really is a life changing opportunity.
