The Right to Write - Great Writing 2014

1

The right to write…write to right: Writing

representative voices in Young Adult Fiction

Bio:

Vanessa Harbour is a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Winchester and is the Programme Leader for the MA in Creative and Critical Writing. Her PhD explores the issues of representing/representation of sex, drugs and alcohol in young adult fiction. She is editor of the journal Write4Children (www.write4children.org) and is currently working on a book, commissioned by Palgrave, entitled: Writing Young Adult Fiction: Creative and Critical Approaches (2015). Her blog chaosmos – out of chaos comes order (http://chaosmos-outofchaoscomesorder.blogspot.co.uk) explores all aspects of creative writing and has an international following. Vanessa also works with The Golden Egg Academy (www.goldeneggacademy.co.uk) where she mentors aspiring children’s authors. She writes young adult fiction and her research interests are: creative practice, writer as researcher, reflexive practice, writing for teenagers/young adults, writing for children, writing fiction, creative non-fiction and creative employability.

Recently on a programme about his writing processes

the scriptwriter Peter Bowker stated that with

everyone’s ability to give an instant response to

events with the onset of social media and the

internet he felt the one place to find the truth was

fiction.1 For me this seemed quite pertinent as I feel

1 Bowker P A Writer’s Journey From There To Here BBC4 Sunday 18 May 9.30pm

2

and have said elsewhere that young adult fiction2 is

somewhere for teenagers to go to find the answer to

many a question and a search for the actuality. Lydia

Kokkola has also said:

Fiction for teens is a place where adults can

communicate directly with adolescents … is a site

less imbued with embarrassment and the need to

maintain personal boundaries.3

I would suggest that young adult fiction is a place

where readers can happily and safely go back to the

same pages over and over again without anyone else’s

knowledge if they so wish. I think we can probably

all think of those well-thumbed pages with the turned

down corners from our own teenage years. And it is

for these reasons that, as writers, we need to ensure

2 Melrose A., Harbour V., ‘Junk, Skunk and Northern Lights – representationof drugs in children’s literature’, in Drugs and Popular Culture: Drugs, Media and Identity in Contemporary Society ed., Manning P., (Cullompton: Willan Publishing, 2007) pp.176-1903 Kokkola L., Ficion of Adolescent Carnality: Sexual Sinners & Deliquent Deviants, (Philidelphia: John Benjamin, 2013), p.210

3

that the voices we use within our own narratives are

as true and representative as possible.

Firstly, it is important to realise for me when

writing and, as Webb has stated, that:

‘Representation is not about substitution and

reiteration, but it is about constitution: it

constitutes – makes real – both the world and our

ways of being in the world and in communities.’4

Therefore the aims of any of my young adult fiction

is to ‘make real’ for the reader the potential world

of some young adult characters and which may include

the consequences of some risk-taking behaviour if

that’s what the story requires.

As Webb also suggests, crucial to any

representation, are three questions: Who’s performing

the representation? What does it mean? And what

effect does it have?5 It is with these questions in

4 Webb J., Understanding Representation (London: Sage, 2009) p.105 Webb J., Understanding Representation (London: Sage, 2009) p.2

4

mind that I approach the issue of representation

within my creative work. I often base my creative

decisions on an awareness and consideration of how

the answers to these questions are portrayed within

the wider media combined with an understanding of

what is actually happening within society. This is

because these decisions can potentially have an

impact on my choice of words in my creative piece

where I am ‘representing’ these acts. I recognise the

need, whilst absorbed in the creative activity of

writing, to remain conscious of the image or

potential message I am depicting as a writer.

Accordingly, I believe that I must also be aware of

the ethics involved in any portrayal of my characters

in my creative work particularly as often my

characters may be only sixteen or younger even and

therefore are hypothetically breaking the law if I am

writing realist novels dealing with sex and drugs as

5

I have done in the past. As a writer I believe that

my ‘representing’ must be as accurate and as well

informed as possible as there is the potential for

any reader of my text to use the information

portrayed as the basis for any real life decisions.6

We live in a culture where information moves fast

and is freely accessible to young adults.

Consequently it can mean that they can be aware of

issues but this awareness does not equate to

knowledge necessarily; or as Melrose & McCaw have

indicated, if they do understand them they may not

yet be able to articulate them in any meaningful way.

7 Therefore I, and all other writers, have a position

of power which can influence and inform others and

subsequently we need to consider what impact our

writings may have. I consider ’impact’ in this

6 Interview with Melvin Burgess on BBC Radio 4s Front Row 5 June 2009 7.15pm.And see Zipes J., Why Fairy Tales Stick (London, New York: Routledge, 2006) p.417 Melrose A., McCaw N., ‘Crabs (and Stories) Walking Sideways: Life Beyond the Death of the Story’, in Story: The Heart of the Matter ed., Butt M., (London: Greenwich Exchange, 2007)

6

instance refers to how an issue is presented with the

thought that if an issue is portrayed irresponsibly

and in such a way as to sensationalise it,

potentially, it could encourage the reader to partake

in the activity and therefore break the law. Thus I

need to think about how I write in order to provide

the ‘right way of knowing’ for the reader. This

‘right way of knowing’ is important though because as

Diane Hodge in her recent piece in the Conversation

quite rightly pointed out that and reiterating my

earlier point ‘Reading novels dealing with social and

personal problems is a safe way to bring these issues

into focus and gives adolescents a chance to talk

about their own experiences or relate their own lives

to what others have gone through.’8 So what young

adult fiction does is it allows them to ask questions

of the text and of themselves in the page turning

8 Hodge D., ‘Young Adult Fiction’s dark themes give hope to cope’ http://theconversation.com/young-adult-fictions-dark-themes-give-the-hope-to-cope-27335 date accessed 22 June 2014

7

safety of a book and without as Robert Graves would

put it in his poem ‘Warning to Children, untying the

string.9 They can work out who they are and just as

importantly who they are not. Vicariously they can

consider how they would react in any given situation

so that if are ever faced with such a situation they

may have some idea of what to do.

Having said that there has also been a brouhaha

this week when Kevin Brooks won the Carnigie medal

for his book The Bunker Diary 10. Once again there has

been a complaint that this book was doom laden. The

Carnegie Prize does have a tendency to go for this

type books having previously been won by Patrick

Ness’ A Monster Calls, John Boynes The Boy in the Striped

Pyjamas, Melvin Burgess Junk and Sally Gardner’s Maggot

Moon and is a prize chosen by librarians rather than

9 Graves R., ‘Warning to Children,’ http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/warning-to-children/ (date accessed 25 June 2014)10 http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/doomladen-childrens-books-may-impress-prize-juries-but-its-the-ones-that-offer-hope-that-will-be-remembered-9560706.html

8

readers. It is worth considering even with doom laden

books as Melvin Burgess has previously said that any

young adult can deal with anything as long as it is

in context and these books seems to be proving that,

once again it is about getting the voice and the

representation right. At the end of the day the book

has to be about story that the young adults can

relate to and want to read. If they are not enjoying

it, they will put it down. Young adults are no where

near as tolerant as adults when reading. They will

not persist to see if it gets better. As a writer you

have to ensure your story is going to hold their

attention.

When writing I am conscious that my

interpretation/construction of any representation is

going to be influenced by multiple identities. The

fact I am an academic, a writer, female and a mother

of adults who were drug abusing and sexually active

9

teenagers is going to influence how I interpret and

portray any representation. As Webb states ‘What we

see is not what is there, but what our social and

cultural traditions and their contexts gave us,’ 11 as

‘...we constantly, if subconsciously produce meanings

out of the material world.’12 I perceive these as

layers of interaction and understanding. Bakhtin,

however, would call it ‘heteroglossia’ where the many

layers become the multiple voices of the author, the

characters, the narrator, the genre, the influence of

an editor if you are working with one and even, the

reader.13 These multiple voices will not intentionally

‘mis-represent’ an idea, however, it may be subject

to an ‘interested’ representation that has been

swayed by my myriad of identities and the particular

cultural moment I am either reading or writing in.14

11 Webb J., Understanding Representation (London: Sage, 2009) p.212 Webb J., Understanding Representation (London: Sage, 2009) p.1113 Bakhtin M.M., Trans., Emerson C., Holquist M., ‘Discourses in the Novel’ in The Dialogic Imagination Four Essays ed. Holquist M., (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2008 [1981]) p.26314 Webb J., Understanding Representation (London: Sage, 2009) p.37

10

As a writer we know the voice I use is a form of

this representation and it is Al Alverez who talks

about the idea that when you read a novel it is the

voice that tells you the story.15 We also all know

how important the voice is, as how often in

rejections letters that people receive do you hear

them saying they had the comment: ‘the voice just

wasn’t strong enough for me.’. When we start writing

you become a bit of a tart don’t you. Trying on lots

of different voices, falling in love with them and

then equally as quickly disregarding them and moving

on to the next. These voices might be influenced by

books or poetry you are reading, favourite films you

have watched. But these are all important parts of

developing your own voices particularly as your voice

never stays the same and will be different for every

book. As the renowned editor and author, Beverley

Birch importantly says, ‘”Voice” is so much more than15 Alverez A The Writer’s Voice (London: Bloomsbury, 2006)

11

tone of the writing and what the characters actually

say.  It's a web of impressions, speech, and thought,

and perceptions, and physicality, and a whole lot

more. It rises from the writer’s subconscious, but it

is also something that has to be worked at, refined,

honed, made apt and truthful.  It's instinct and

inspiration, but also craft and technique...it

requires boldness and exploration, and a finely tuned

ear for the detail.’16 Voice is all about pulling all

these influences and representations together to lift

your story and bring it to life. Giving those young

adults the narrative that they can ask questions of

with characters that they can relate to and empathise

with.

It is always my aim, as John Gardner states: ‘...to

make up convincing human beings and create for them

basic situations and actions by means of which they

16 Birch B http://chaosmos-outofchaoscomesorder.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/finding-your-voice.html dateaccessed (22 June 2014)

12

come to know themselves and reveal themselves to the

reader.’17 This is particularly relevant when writing

for young adults as they look for characters that

resemble themselves and are imaginable; whilst

providing opportunities for the vicarious experience

within a world that ‘rings true’.18 Therefore, as a

writer, I can hope that the characters I create are

met with empathy that show similar cognitive

development to those of the readers. They start to

develop identities, and form a code of ethics, but

most importantly, ‘... the use of systematic thinking

begins to influence relationships with others.’19

Consequently, allowing me, as the writer and as

Foucault suggests, to withdraw and for the text to

survive as a witness but not as an authority.20

17 Gardener J., The Art of Fiction (New York: Vintage books, 1991) p.1518 Brice Heath S., in Literacy Myths, Legacies and Lessons by Graff H.J., (New York, London: Transaction Publishers, 2011) p. xi19 http://www.lpch.org/DiseaseHealthInfo/HealthLibrary/adolescent/cogdev.html (accessed February 2011) Also see p.21920 Foucault M., Essential Works of Foucault 1954-84 vol. 3: Power ed., Faubion J., (London: Penguin, 2002 [1994]) p.51. See p. 216

13

Importantly, I also use the idea of Bakhtin’s

carnivalesque as a narrative device with my voice

through representation. It allows me to interpret

reality as if through a distorting mirror showing

plot lines that only deviate slightly from the

‘norm’, therefore, allowing me the freedom from

perceived social restrictions.21 This approach means I

can write openly about potentially illegal pastimes

in an informed but not didactic way. Amanda Boulter

offers an explanation of the process for the author:

We need to find some distance between our own

point of view and our characters’ and this can

only come through the deliberate work of

critical-creative imagination: exploring our own

perceptions, cultural prejudices and social

ideologies and thinking and feeling beyond them.22

21 See Bakhtin M., Trans., Iswolsky H., Rabelais and his World (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1984) and Nikolajeva M. Power, Voice and Subjectivity in Literature for Young Readers (Oxford, New York: Routledge, 2010) p.1022 Boulter A., Writing Fiction Creative and Critical Approaches (Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan, 2007) p.92

14

Any research I undertake informs the identities and

narratives I create. This allows me to distance

myself from the characters, whilst informing the

story, and at the same time ensuring depth in the

authenticity by reacting to the ever changing

contemporary social and cultural mores.

However, research should not be obvious but

subsumed within the text so that the reader merely

perceives a depth of narrative. My research has not

always been the obvious type of reading books and

delving into the Internet, I have spent a night

sleeping on the streets, I have visited drug

rehabilitation centres spending time with drug users,

I have worked with horse whisperers all in the name

of research but there have been other moments when

Grahame Greene’s splinter of ice in the heart has

felt very true to me. As I mentioned earlier I am the

mother of children that were drug abusing young

15

adults and as such I have dealt with some situations

where there has often been this voice at the back of

my head saying ‘Remember this, remember how it feels,

remember what happened, it could be useful. Am sure

you could use it.’ And yes there is a real guilt

associated with this voice and yes I have used some

of those moments but I have also asked my children’s

permission and ensured they could never be

identified. But it all adds to that sense of

authenticity to my voice and a ring of truth to my

representation.

Since writing the abstract for this paper and even

starting to write it an article came out that has

made me stop and think and actually even reconsider

what I am saying. The article was by Ruth Graham, in

the Slate and was entitled ‘Against Young Adult’ and

was suggesting that adults should be embarrassed to

16

read young adult fiction.23 This, quite rightly,

caused absolute uproar with a flurry of articles

written in response. On my part I was furious that

anyone should suggest that someone should feel

uncomfortable for reading perfectly legitimate books.

Who cares what people are reading as long as they are

reading?

I checked the figures and in 2013 79% of young

adult fiction was read by adults. 21% is read by the

age group13-17, 34% by the age group 18-29 and 26% by

the age group 30-44.24 For me this made interesting

reading. Graham claims that adults are only reading

young adult fiction because it is all about nostalgia

and that in fact we are looking to indulge in

childlike pleasure and instant gratification. She 23 Ruth Graham http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2014/06/against_ya_adults_should_be_embarrassed_to_read_children_s_books.html date accessed 22 June 2014 She is an American writer – other articles are faithbased looks a bit of a weirdo24 http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-industry-news/article/61167-children-s-books-a-shifting-market.html date accessed 22 June 2014

17

obviously hasn’t read some of the young adult fiction

that I have.

Firstly I want to deal with my thoughts on this

before I relate it to my paper. Perhaps in part she

is right. Let’s be honest, we do all still want to be

teenagers at heart. I know for one in my head I am

still maybe not a teenager but I am certainly a lot

younger than my body tells me I am. However, I

wouldn’t claim to wanting a child-like pleasure. What

she seems to be ignoring is that what a lot of young

adult fiction does is deal with the big questions –

questions that we, as adults, are still looking for

answers to, such as what’s my purpose, why am I here?

Questions about love, about death? Young Adult

Fiction has a habit of dealing with them head on and

in a straight forward manner.25 Going back to Robert

Graves poem, they deal with them without over

25 Private conversation with Imogen Cooper, Editor Chicken House Publishers and Director and of Golden Egg Academy, June 2014

18

thinking and burying the questions/potential answers

in a myriad of words that are impossible to fathom

and untangle.

Her next point was ‘instant gratification’ – again

maybe in a way that is correct too in that teenagers

aren’t going to hang around while you have pages of

description and build up to a moment of action. They

want to be straight in there. But everyone knows that

a lot of us have also developed micro moments of

attention spans these days and perhaps that’s why we

adults are also drawn to young adult fiction. We want

fast paced stories that are full of drama and action.

But I still don’t think these are things to be

embarrassed about as she suggested.

Plus I know that, yes there is some dross out

there, but there is some beautifully written and

challenging young adult fiction while there are also

some really badly written adult books as well. It is

19

no different. They are all books and stories. Please

also do not misunderstand me I am not advocating that

anyone should only read young adult fiction. What I

am suggesting is that people should read books they

want to read and nobody should tell them what they

should and shouldn’t do. They should read good

stories and we should be aiming to write excellent

narratives with strong voices.

I have been talking about voice and representation

here and being authentic but I actually stopped and

decided to think about my own writing process. Do I

really consider my audience when I am writing? I have

decided I have a confession since I finished my PhD.

No I don’t. I have a story in my head that I want to

get down on the page and that needs to be told, not a

message that I want to get across but an adventure I

want to share. I suppose the nearest I get to

considering my audience is the development of my

20

characters. My latest WIP has a 14 year old boy as a

main character. What right do I have to write from

the POV a boy, I’m a middle aged woman after all (in

case you hadn’t noticed, but I’ve sons, my daughter

now has a near teenage step son, I lecture teenagers.

What I do is observe. The author, Miriam Halahmy,

recently was asked a similar question and she pointed

out that once you start to live with a character you

walk in their shoes and gender is not the issue.26

This is something I also find. My writing is story

driven which happens to be aimed at young adults but

only because the characters are teenagers.

Young adult fiction is still a source of

information and truth for young adults, and now we

can see for older adults too, and its ongoing

influence should not be ignored. It will continue to

address those ‘BIG’ questions no doubt in a

26Miriam Halahmy talk Finchley Literary Festival https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAFdF8GSVrY

21

straightforward and approachable manner without

‘untying the strings’. Therefore those of us who

write for this market need to continue to produce

exciting story driven narratives which open vistas

for readers young and old to vicariously explore

activities and life experiences which will help to

inform their future choices. As writers we need to

acknowledge the need to do research but also the need

to accept that the world around us is fluid and

therefore we have to be prepared to respond quickly

to any changes. As a writer, I need to understand and

accept that ‘the writer never knows if the work is

done’27 and that I will just keep writing my stories

using truths and whatever voice comes to mind because

yes I do believe I have the right to write and I hope

that whoever wants to read it can and no one will

27 Blanchot M., Trans., Davis L., Auster P., Lamberton R., Blanchot Reader: Fiction and Literary Essays ed., Quasla G., (New York: Station Hill, 1999) p.402

22

ever feel or is made to feel embarrassed by reading

my books.

23

Bibliography

Alverez A The Writer’s Voice (London: Bloomsbury, 2006)Bakhtin M., Trans., Iswolsky H., Rabelais and his World (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1984)Birch B http://chaosmos-outofchaoscomesorder.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/finding-your-voice.html dateaccessed (22 June 2014)Blanchot M., Trans., Davis L., Auster P., Lamberton R., Blanchot Reader: Fiction and Literary Essays ed., Quasla G., (New York: Station Hill, 1999) Boulter A., Writing Fiction Creative and Critical Approaches (Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan, 2007)Bowker P A Writer’s Journey From There To Here BBC4 Sunday 18 May 9.30pmBoyne J., The Boy In Striped Pyjamas, (London: Definitions, 2008)Brice Heath S., in Literacy Myths, Legacies and Lessons by Graff H.J., (New York, London: Transaction Publishers, 2011) Brooks K., The Bunker Diary, (London: Penguin, 2013)Burgess M on BBC Radio 4s Front Row 5 June 2009 7.15pm.Burgess M., Junk (London: Penguin Books, 2003 [1996])Cooper I., Private conversation June 2014Foucault M., Essential Works of Foucault 1954-84 vol. 3: Power ed., Faubion J., (London: Penguin, 2002 [1994]) Gardner S., Maggot Moon, (London: Hot Key Books, 2013)Gardener J., The Art of Fiction (New York: Vintage books, 1991) Graham R http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2014/06/against_ya_adults_should_be_embarrassed_to_read_children_s_books.html date accessed 22 June 2014Graves R., ‘Warning to Children,’ http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/warning-to-children/ (date accessed 25 June 2014)Halahmy M talk Finchley Literary Festival https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAFdF8GSVrY accessed June 2014Hodge D., ‘Young Adult Fiction’s dark themes give hope to cope’ http://theconversation.com/young-adult-fictions-dark-themes-give-the-hope-to-cope-27335 date accessed 22 June 2014Kokkola L Ficion of Adolescent Carnality: Sexual Sinners & Deliquent Deviants, (Philidelphia: John Benjamin, 2013)Melrose A., Harbour V., ‘Junk, Skunk and Northern Lights – representation of drugs in children’s literature’, in Drugs and PopularCulture: Drugs, Media and Identity in Contemporary Society ed., Manning P., (Cullompton: Willan Publishing, 2007)

24

Melrose A., McCaw N., ‘Crabs (and Stories) Walking Sideways: Life Beyond the Death of the Story’, in Story: The Heart of the Matter ed., Butt M., (London: Greenwich Exchange, 2007)Ness P., A Monster Calls (London: Walker Books, 2011)Nikolajeva M. Power, Voice and Subjectivity in Literature for Young Readers (Oxford,New York: Routledge, 2010) Webb J., Understanding Representation (London: Sage, 2009)Zipes J., Why Fairy Tales Stick (London, New York: Routledge, 2006)http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/doomladen-childrens-books-may-impress-prize-juries-but-its-the-ones-that-offer-hope-that-will-be-remembered-9560706.htmlhttp://www.lpch.org/DiseaseHealthInfo/HealthLibrary/adolescent/cogdev.html (accessed February 2011)http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-industry-news/article/61167-children-s-books-a-shifting-market.html accessed June 2014

25

The Robert Graves Poem in full:

Children, if you dare to think

Of the greatness, rareness, muchness

Fewness of this precious only

Endless world in which you say

You live, you think of things like this:

Blocks of slate enclosing dappled

Red and green, enclosing tawny

Yellow nets, enclosing white

And black acres of dominoes,

Where a neat brown paper parcel

Tempts you to untie the string.

In the parcel a small island,

On the island a large tree,

On the tree a husky fruit.

Strip the husk and pare the rind off:

In the kernel you will see

Blocks of slate enclosed by dappled

26

Red and green, enclosed by tawny

Yellow nets, enclosed by white

And black acres of dominoes,

Where the same brown paper parcel -

Children, leave the string alone!

For who dares undo the parcel

Finds himself at once inside it,

On the island, in the fruit,

Blocks of slate about his head,

Finds himself enclosed by dappled

Green and red, enclosed by yellow

Tawny nets, enclosed by black

And white acres of dominoes,

With the same brown paper parcel

Still untied upon his knee.

And, if he then should dare to think

Of the fewness, muchness, rareness,

Greatness of this endless only

27

Precious world in which he says

he lives - he then unties the string.