Judy Waite's London Masterclass - Growing Pains: Writing for Young Adults

©John Shelley

What lengths are you prepared to go to in order to tap into your teenage protagonist’s mind and find their voice? Would you:-

• Run away up to London dressed as a teenage boy?
• Audition for a part in a boy band?
• Get locked up in a police cell?

All of these have been tried and tested by award-winning author Judy Waite!

With a confession like that, her SCBWI London Masterclass: ‘Growing Pains: Writing for Young Adults.’ promised to be an interesting and entertaining ride.

And that’s exactly how it turned out.

She took us through a series of fun and thought-provoking exercises in a bid to master the dark art of creating a credible and compelling teenage voice.

An interesting and entertaining ride!

Connecting With Your Own Inner Teenager

Working in small groups, we were set the task of remembering what it was like to be a teenager in ‘our day’. For some of us that meant beaming back to the late seventies/early eighties when Punk Rock and fears of being nuked by the Russians ruled. For others it was more about friends, boys and getting hold of alcohol.

But there was a strong consensus that it had also been about isolation and not fitting in. Or, as one member of the group reflected, is it that writers are just a pathologically insecure bunch?

What Matters to Teenagers Now?

Next, we considered today. Are there things that matter more to teenagers now than when we were growing up? No surprises for guessing that social media in all its many guises topped the list. Then followed material goods, self-image and employment.

...is it that writers are just a pathologically insecure bunch?

In essence though, we concluded that the young adults of today are not so hugely different in their passions and fears, hopes and dreams. The trick, as Judy pointed out, is to get into their heads and understand how they live their lives.

Reinvent Yourself

To try and help with this, Judy encouraged us to reinvent ourselves as teenagers today. So we wrote a couple of paragraphs to bring ourselves bang up to date. This proved a challenge. And some of us weren’t quite sure how to transform ourselves into a new, updated version.

Perhaps we're too much like Peter Pan, never wanting to be teenagers in the first place!

Getting All Cut Up

This exercise is based on a tried and tested approach to writing adopted by the likes of William Burroughs and David Bowie. Judy got us experimenting with a new and creative way into the teenage mind.

Perhaps we're too much like Peter Pan

We picked a selection of short phrases and sentences drawn from Facebook messages posted by real-life teenagers and from published teenage novels – including Judy’s own favourite, The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger – and used them to conjure up a teenage voice and a setting.

We had a little help from a special extra – a bit of meditative candle contemplation.

The results of this time spent ‘in the zone’ and focussing on our character’s needs and wants, proved both powerful and compelling and gave many of us the ingredients for a new and exciting teenage voice to go away and explore.

And we hadn’t even had to get locked up to do it! (By the way, Judy was quick to confess that the audition and the time spent in jail had been with the collusion of the organisations concerned – phew, that’s a relief!)

Thanks again Judy for a stimulating, creative and fun session – and to Wendy Allen for the pictures.

There are still a few places left on the next Masterclass: Fantasy Writing for Young Readers lead by Robert Paul Weston – Saturday 17 May 2014. For bookings and more information visit https://britishisles.scbwi.org/events/author-masterclass-fantasy-writing-for-young-readers-with-robert-paul-weston/ or email masterclasses@britishscbwi.org

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Alison Smith works as a freelance PR and communications professional for part of her week.

For the rest of it she is to be found clamped to her computer – when she’s not busy pursuing the usual writerly diversions of blog-reading, net-surfing and gazing out of the window – wrestling with her middle grade historical novel set in early Jacobean London..

JULIA GOLDING Masterclass - Voice & Characterisation in YA Fiction

By Linda Lawlor

What makes for successful characters in YA fiction, and why exactly do they work? What do Artemis Fowl, Skulduggery Pleasant and the Wimpy Kid have in common? Why are they different from Frodo and Bella?

These questions, and many more, were explored during a packed and lively afternoon spent in the company of Julia Golding, author of the 'Cat Royal' series and the new 'Young Knights of the Round Table'.

Add to this, the fact that Julia is extremely well-read and has written numerous books under her two pen names, it is not surprising that she was able to speak with great authority and a good deal of humour, using examples ranging from Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III to the pompous Mr Collins.

 

Julia didn't do all the work, though!

Time passed quickly as we interviewed our chosen characters, challenging them to describe their favourite animals, mental landscapes and sound tracks, and even (teachers and the parents of sixth-formers, look away now!) forcing them to write a personal statement explaining their suitability for their own role.
It wasn't easy, but listening to the comments of other participants, it was very fruitful!

The masterclasses have always had a special place in my affections. Running from midday to four o'clock on a Saturday, situated less than a minute's walk from Charing Cross Station, and with a generously-sized pub lunch thrown in, they are readily accessible to people from a wide geographical area.

They are just the right length to provide a good dollop of input without overloading the weekend brain, and the range of speakers over the last few years has ensured a richness of experience and plenty of food for thought on the journey home.

To me, they are definitely one of the shiniest of the many jewels in SCBWI's crown!

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Linda is currently busy with a book for the 9-12 age group, and is also playing about with ideas for a book for younger readers. She does quite a bit of reviewing, mostly for The Bookbag. Her two favourite questions are "What if?" and "Would you like some more chocolate?"

Writing Spaces - from clutter to creativity

An Interview with Julienne Durber
by Michelle Newell 

This week, we talk to Julienne Durber, an aspiring YA and MG writer based in Rugby. He is represented by Gemma Cooper at the Bent Agency and received an honorary mention in the 2012 SCBWI Undiscovered Voices anthology for his novel Vengeance (previously Springpunk). He also had an honorary mention in the 2010 UV for a murder mystery Wind-up World. He co-runs the dark, dystopian Demention blog and is one of the Network Coordinators for SCBWI BI Central West. You can find out more about Julienne at dementionblog.blogspot.co.uk

You describe yourself as having “an obsession with all things dark and demented, otherworldly and odd”, and I wondered if that was just in your stories and illustrations, or if that was reflected in your environment?

That was fairly heavily to do with all the Demention stuff, and I was into all the dystopia bits and pieces. There’s bit and pieces here and there that are reasonably dark I guess. 

I was expecting to see in the background some kind of steampunkish clock hanging on your wall, or a black feature wall! 

Bear with me. (Julienne leaves the Skype screen and returns holding up an intricate model ship). This is a chariot I made out of clock parts. It’s a life size model of some characters in a book that I did before the dystopian book. This is the room of creativity. I don’t always write in it but it has creativity oozing out of it. There is a jigsaw on the wall up there that I designed for someone. And there’s more of these little models hanging up and lying around, and old sketches on pinboards. 

You seem like quite a visual person, do your characters and stories come to you more visually in pictures, and then in the models and drawings that you make? 

I’d been a graphic designer for 10 years, and I went along to SCBWI wanting to be an illustrator. Everyone at the Birmingham SCBWI was much more into the writing so I had a go at the writing. And I find that I can write better pictures than I can draw, if that makes sense. I can draw stuff, and it’s a nice realisation, but it’s not quite what was in my head. I can write down exactly what is in my head and develop it a lot further. 

So you don’t write in this room with all your inspirational, creative stuff? 

Sometimes I write in this room. But recently I’ve found a hugely useful tool is my phone. I write on my phone on the train. I get maybe 25 minutes commuting time. And it’s not proper writing but it’s notes and it flows really well, and I can then Bluetooth it to myself and write it up in the evenings. If I can, I sneak in an hour at work – at lunch time, obviously, not when I’m working (laughs) – and I try to fit things in in the evening, and I do have a life doing other things as well. It’s just any spare snap of time. 

I got the impression that you were busy from your website with your drawings and stories, and your work for the Demention blog... 

It’s a bit mad. A couple of years ago Marcus Sedgwick was at one of the SCBWI things and he talked about going to bed worrying about a problem in his writing and waking up the next morning and it would be solved, and I try to use that sort of technique. If I know there’s a plot issue or something with my writing I’ll try to think about it before I get to work, and then let it churn away, or try and think about it before I go to sleep. 

It doesn’t keep you awake? 

No, no, I just think about it. I know it’s there, and hopefully it just sorts itself out in the morning.

Will is the main character in Vengeance, the book that got you long-listed for SCBWI’s Undiscovered Voices anthology. If Will had a desk to plot the downfall of his enemies, the people who killed his sister, what would his desk look like? 

His desk would be somewhere deep in a dank, slightly falling down concrete cellar in an area called Wasteland and it would be made up of two slightly rusty oil drums which haven’t been used for ages because of the lack of fossil fuels in Will’s world, with an old door across it. On top of it would be extremely battered but carefully folded and looked after schematics and maps of the areas of the Wasteland and the rich, nice area where all the bad people live, and in one of the oil drums would be a small alcove in which he had fitted a drawer, where he would be keeping all the ammunition for his clockwork gun, which is the one thing, apart from his sister, that he loves the most. 

If you had an ideal desk, what would it look like? 

I don’t have an ideal desk. I get very jumpy. Sometimes I’ll work on my big computer on its spindly metal desk that you’re sitting on (on his laptop on Skype) at the moment, and after a while I will then hop over to my drawing board. I will then go downstairs and sit on the sofa and write down there or sit cross-legged on the floor with my laptop on my lap, so I’m very non-desky. But of anything, I think my drawing board is my ideal desk, because it’s old, and it’s a little bit rusty, and it’s very sort of 50s styling, and it’s been sanded down, and varnished and it’s multi-use and it’s got a nice little foot rest. It’s normally completely covered in stuff so I can’t get to it. But absolutely the best thing about it is that because it was a drawing board it’s got at the top a winding handle connected to a cover that you’re supposed to put over your drawings when you’ve finished drawing for the day. 

Are you sure this desk didn’t inspire you to write dystopian steampunk? 

Well, no, but my predisposition towards winding things and mechanical bits and pieces I’m sure inspired me to buy this desk rather than a nice shiny brand new drawing board. 

Here are Julienne Durber's tips for increasing your creative flow...

• Clutter is your friend - surround yourself with things you love that don't necessarily relate to what you are working on, or even to writing at all. It will give your area a safe 'nesty' feel. 

• Mood boards - the idea of gathering images/textures/detritus that relates to the work you are doing - is a real ad agency cliche, but don't think neat, spray-mounted presentations, think postcards pinned to the wall, a slideshow of images as your screensaver set to come on after a minute of not typing, piles of autumn leaves or rusty metal on your desk (in between the regular nest-clutter).   

• Whenever I'm stuck on a plot point or key event, I do the washing up. The minute my hands are in the water and I'm unable to type, the solution will pop into my head. I'll then work it through while I finish the washing up and rattle off a few hundred words as the plates drip dry.

If you find inspiration for your work in an interesting, strange or unique place, we'd love to hear from you. Please email writers@britishscbwi.org

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@michelnewel

Michelle was born and raised in a country town in Australia. She taught History at an all-girls school before moving to England a decade ago to take up the thoroughly modern job of designing new schools. 
Michelle still loves anything old, and has compulsively collected ‘junk’, as her bemused family call it, since she was a girl. Her flat in London is crammed with fluffy 1950s ball gowns, daintily painted tea sets, and well-worn children’s toys. 
The stories she imagines behind each of her vintage treasures ultimately inspired her to fulfil a long-held ambition to write novels with an historic twist for young adults.
Michelle is currently working on her first novel and is represented by Jenny Savill at Andrew Nurnberg Associates.

Writing Spaces - where do we write, draw and dream?

An Interview with Kimberly Pauley
by Michelle Newell

In this series, we take a peek into the places and spaces where our authors and illustrators imagine, plan and create. This week, we chat to Kimberly Pauley, a full-time writer of YA fiction. 



She is American and lives in West London with her husband and five year old son. Kimberly is the author of Sucks to Be Me, Still Sucks to Be Me, and Cat Girl’s Day Off. 

You’ve had three Young Adult books published, with another on the way. Were they all written in the same place and space?

Oh no – we’ve moved three times since then. The first book I wrote when we were living in an 1893 Victorian in Kentucky. My office was in the former lady’s dressing room of this old house and I had this half-circular writing desk with a leather top. It was really lovely and completely impractical. I banged the first book out sitting in the front parlour window. Then we moved to Chicago and I had an office space with bookshelves all along one wall, a huge oak desk and big red leather chair, and I wrote mostly sitting looking out the window. That second book was written after I had a baby, so it was a little challenging to go out. My third book I also wrote mostly in that same office. My fourth book, which is going to come out in 2014, was written here in London, even though it’s set in Florida. I wrote most of it in one café around the corner from our house and at a pub called the Elgin in Ladbroke Grove. They have big cushy couches and sometimes they light the fireplace.

You’re experimenting with finding different spaces to write in now. What do you look for in a public writing space?

Since I have a really rubbish laptop battery I often look for somewhere I can plug in! Lately I’ve been trying to write with other people, because writing is such a solitary occupation. It’s nice to have other people there who are doing the same type of thing you’re doing. I posted on Facebook and I found a few people to join me, including some people I met at the SCBWI Conference. We’ve been writing mostly at the British Library, and we’ve also tried the Wellcome Collection and the Metropolitan pub at Baker Street tube. Our choices are determined by tube lines!

You write mainly humorous fiction for girls but you’ve also written something darker recently.

That’s the book that’s going to come out next. It’s definitely strange writing darker things around other people because what you’re writing is really intense. I had some scenes with more intense kissing [than my usual books] and it felt strange to be writing those private comments in a café with people walking around me. I felt sorry for my poor character! With funny books, it’s lighter and easier to write in public. If I crack myself up, people think I’m just the strange lady in the corner, whereas if I’m writing about killing somebody, I feel a little more exposed [laughs].

You also write at home, and I’ve seen on Facebook that you’ve succeeded in your quest to find the perfect writing desk!

I moved in September. Before that we were in a two bed flat and I was working on the kitchen table. It was hard, and my husband [the family cook] didn’t like coming home with the computer and paper everywhere! We moved into a bigger home with an office/guest bedroom. I like old things, and I didn’t want to go to Ikea and get a throwaway desk – there’s no romance to mass-produced stuff. We live near Portobello Road and we went through all the antique and restoration shops. I finally found a desk that I really liked – it’s black and has a weird rub to it with red undertones. We’re renting the house and it completely doesn’t go with anything in the room. But it doesn’t really matter. It’s about creating your own space kind of thing. It’s my everything room, with my craft things and then some writing books that I always like to have around.

What are they?

The ones I refer back to are Stephen King’s On Writing and another one that is probably more new-agey than I would go for, called Writing Down the Bones (by Natalie Goldberg). I write a lot of young fiction, so I also have a book called Writing Magic by Gail Carson Levine which I had signed by her. I’ve figured out what works for me now – and everybody’s different. You can read a billion bits of advice from a billion different authors, and it’s not necessarily going to be the thing that works for you. You have to take the things that work for you.

To wrap up, what one thing would you always keep on your desk - wherever you travel in the world, wherever you live?

I do most of my writing directly into the laptop, but I do like to have a notebook and pen because my laptop is a huge old brick of a thing and I don’t always want to take it with me! I write character notes and snippets of scenes as they occur to me in books. Sometimes I’ll even write out a chapter in the notebook and take it home later and type it in. My husband got me an incredibly expensive pen for my [milestone] birthday in January, with green ink. I like coloured inks because they’re more fun.

That colourful writing matches the tone of your books.

Yeah, I’m a little goofy.

• Any space can be YOUR space. You can spend hours trying to make a space the perfect space, but it's more important to spend that time actually writing. 

• Learn to adapt to wherever you find yourself. I’ve written in pubs, cafes, parks, trains, my mother-in-law's living room... Get a notebook for those times when an idea or a scene hits you. You never know where you'll be when you need it.

• If you can, try and write with other people sometimes. Writing is very solitary and it's good to recharge by writing with others. 

If you find inspiration for your work in an interesting, strange or unique place, we'd love to hear from you. Please email writers@britishscbwi.org

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@michelnewel

Michelle Newell was born and raised in a country town in Australia. She taught history at an all-girls school before moving to England a decade ago to take up the thoroughly modern job of designing new schools. Michelle still loves anything old, and has compulsively collected ‘junk’, as her bemused family call it, since she was a girl. Her flat in London is crammed with fluffy 1950s ball gowns, daintily painted tea sets, and well-worn children’s toys. The stories she imagines behind each of her vintage treasures ultimately inspired her to fulfil a long-held ambition to write novels with an historic twist for young adults. Michelle is currently working on her first novel and is represented by Jenny Savill at Andrew Nurnberg Associates.