Article written by Ashleigh Lowry.
I am going to be honest with you, I don’t believe in getting out of bed before 10am on a Saturday, but there was an opportunity at the State Library I couldn’t pass up.
The Children’s Book Council of Australia hosted a panel about young adult fiction and teen voices this past Saturday and I was so enthralled by the one-hour conversation, wishing that it could have been longer. Panellists were authors Cath Crowley, Simmone Howell, Fiona Wood and Charlie Archbold, all of whom had taken part in this year’s CBCA Book of the Year competition. Howell, Weed and Crowley co-won with their book Take Three Girls and Archbold’s novel Mallee Boys was short listed.
The panel focused on having the author provide a look into how they create their characters to be authentic in voice and plot. The books that are at the centre of this talk are fantastic examples of this.
Take Three Girls looks at the relationship between three girls at boarding school who all join a wellness program after being bullied online. Each author took one of the three main characters, Ady, Kate and Clem.
Mallee Boys is about two brothers, Sandy and Red, who are dealing with the sudden loss of their mother.
The first part of the panel had the authors discussing how they created authentic and relatable teen voices within both their current and past novels. They all agreed that for this genre it is the characters that drive the story. They talked about how many times when writing that they, as authors, felt that the characters created the story as they learn to deal with circumstances in their lives. Howell, Weed and Crowley discussed how they co-wrote their book. Which, in my opinion, is in a very unique style I hadn’t thought of before. Each writer had autonomy with their character, however, they had to collaborate and sync together on the overall plot of the novel for it to work smoothly. There was mention of there being multiple meetings and a whiteboard being involved in the process. Archbold talked about how her experiences both growing up and being a teacher contributed to her novel, which is her first.
As they discussed how they went about creating their novel the conversation naturally drifted to the theme of the panel and how each of the authors have been able to write with an authentic teenage voice. Wood brought up that modern teens possess “A very high bullsh*t detector” and that authors that write literature with primarily teen characters need to be able to remember their own teenage years if they wish to be successful in the genre. Crowley, Howell and Archbold began to reminisce about defining moments they remember from their teen years and how they used these to find their authentic teen voice. Archbold added that, being a teacher, she is “surrounded by teenage voice.” This gave her a unique understanding of contemporary teens. The authors all agreed that these years were very much a defining point in their lives, where teens discover who they are. The physicality of teens in their actions and interactions was brought up, which intrigued me to think of the different periods of our own lives and our body language and ways of speaking at those points.
Soon the topic turned briefly to writing for the different genders in literature. Fiona highlighted that there aren’t just two genders anymore, that there are students that are non-binary and LGBTQ+ which current writers do need to discuss and acknowledge when discussing gender. Howell agrees and adds that these days characters are more defined by their personalities than their gender. This was something that clicked with me when I thought about my own writing. I focus on my characters personality more heavily than on their gender, however, after this discussion with the panel I feel I will need to be more aware of what is happening in my writing regarding my characters and the roles their gender actually play. The discussion turned to the topic of selling to outside the niche market, trying to get young boys to read books categorized as ‘girl’s books’ and the genderization of novel covers. I would love to have listened to the authors talk about this more, as all of them had some brilliant and insightful thinking, but it was cut short as time was pushed on. In a way I hope that they do get opportunities to discuss these topics further, maybe in panels dedicated to them. One of the things mentioned is the power male teachers and older friends can have on encouraging young boys to try to enjoy reading.
Two of the major points of the panel were the discussion of the theme of grief and the importance of social media with young characters. Everyone on the panel agreed that grief is a very prevalent theme in many novels as “It forces a character to live without or limited resources.” It can be linked to all different types of relationship developments and the character’s sense of identity. Crowley, who’s novel Words in Deep Blue also dealt with the theme of grief. She discusses how the characters are learning to deal with the fact that they cannot get the person they lost back and the struggles it brings. One of the points raised is that students who are dealing with grief, who may be losing their sense of identity or other similar issues can find solace in books like these and have them help with their own healing and grieving process. One of the points made during this discussion really hit home for me, which was not everything that happens in the novel can be solved within the window of the plot, but the story as a whole can provide hope and guidance.
Then came the discussions about teens and social media. Wood talked at length about how open teens worlds are now but also, how they are exposed to such a world of negativity and bullying and how the world is now becoming desensitised to the nastiness that people exhibit online. Howell countered, discussing the positives of social media and the internet which allows teens to be their authentic selves online where they cannot be in their real life, where they’re able to find people to talk to who are like them and can find a community where they can feel safe in discussing and socialising without pretending. A good example being teens in rural areas that identify as LGBTQ+. Both writers agreed there are both positives and negatives to social media. When asked about including social media in their novels, Woods said she tried to avoid it but that is becoming unavoidable as it is an essential part of current teen lives and it takes an extremely creative person to write an authentic contemporary era novel that avoids social media and the internet.
One of the last points discussed was the three co-authors and the editing process with their novel. They praised all the editors they worked with. All agreeing it was one of the hardest parts of the entire publishing process. While they said that they loved writing with their friends and the final product they produced together, they may wait for a bit before they start the next co-author project and the book itself took five years of on and off writing to complete.
As a nice wrap up to the event the authors participated in a Q&A session which discussed their individual writing process, views on the genre and various other questions about the world of literature in general.
The panel was informative and fun. I enjoyed that these writers were so willing and open about their novels and all the work they put into them. CBCA staff were friendly to both the audience and the panellists which made the entire hour feel more like a discussion between a bunch of friends and acquaintances then a panel in the library. I highly recommend that if you get a chance to go to a panel run by the CBCA or State Library and enjoy the amazing content and informative panellist.
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