White Stilettos and Nappy Nights

The most concentrated learning on my Arvon course naturally took place in the 3-hour morning workshops.  It was the opportunity to have successful and world-renowned writers like Melvin Burgess and Lucy Christopher as tutors that had originally attracted me to this course.  Far from disappointing my high expectations, they were exceptional in their teaching, encouragement and the incredible amount of time and energy they gave to us all in many different ways.  Gushing hyperbole again – I apologise but, in my defence, it’s entirely justified!

Workshop time (with thanks to Dorthe Andersen)

An essential aspect in most of our learning was re-connecting with our teen self, so that our written teen voice could be as authentic as possible.  Although adults write YA, you can’t let your “adult” voice speak.  The narrative has to sound like a teenager is speaking, especially if you’re writing in the 1^st person.

Getting in touch with teen Mel again was an interesting one as I really didn’t enjoy my teenage for a number of reasons and have blocked out most of it from my memory.  I learnt a LOT from that time, but I ignore the actual experience as much as possible – life has got so much better since!

In Melvin’s first session on “Voice” we had to relive a teen experience and write about it from the point of view of another character involved in it.  With trepidation, I chose a situation when I was deliberately and unkindly betrayed by some “friends”.  Writing it from the main perpetrator’s POV was fascinating though, coz although I’d kinda understood why she’d done it, I’d never put myself in her position to think it through in detail before.  Reflecting on her possible motivations as though I was her, made me realise that I could have so easily acted the same way she had.  She certainly wouldn’t have thought that what she did was anywhere near as significant as it felt to me.  An incident that’s had serious emotional repercussions throughout my life suddenly seemed less of a big deal.  Unexpected result!

Melvin suggested that writing an autobiography of your teens can be a valuable way to remember that time, especially if you’ve repressed it – not for publishing (ever!) but as a personal exercise, which could have positive repercussions on YA writing.  I think I’ll give that a go!  It could be fun.  It’ll certainly be fascinating to see what comes up.  Melvin reckoned this exercise often unearths good memories from that time too, even if you initially remember it as just being crap.

Lucy’s workshop the next day – this time on the power of “Objects” – continued to help me open up more suppressed memories from my teenage.  Lucy asked us to draw a shoe we wore in our teens.  Initially I couldn’t recall a single thing that went on my feet during that time.  Then suddenly I remembered a much-longed-for pair of white stilettos.  They were so pointed that a kick from them would have done serious harm and made walking pretty painful too.  The heel was so sharp that I was constantly afraid of making a hole in carpets or wooden floors, or – even worse – standing on someone’s foot and doing them a serious injury!  They weren’t very high but they were my first pair of heels and I felt super grown-up and glamorous in them :-)  As I sketched them and jotted down notes about how I’d felt physically and emotionally when wearing them, I was instantly transported straight back to Nappy Night (an under-18s disco at the local nightclub) and numerous memories started flooding back!!

It was bizarre!  I could almost perfectly remember the layout of the place – the bar, the dance floor, the mixing desk, the seating, the lighting - even though it’s more than 20 years since I’ve been there.  I could vividly recall the feelings of hopefulness that whichever guy I fancied at the time would be there, heartaches and awkwardness after relationship splits or wrangles, self-esteem struggles comparing myself to the other seemingly slimmer and prettier girls there, as well as just enjoying the music and the fun of dancing.

They weren't as high as these, but you get the idea!

Who would have ever thought a pair of shoes could provide such powerful and easy access into long-forgotten memories?  I was so pleased with the piece of writing I produced from this exercise that I even volunteered to read it out in the session (having refused up until then)!!

Of course, none of this was supposed to be just a psychological therapy or regression exercise, beneficial though that might be!  If objects hold powerful memories or meanings for us, then that can also be true for our characters.  That workshop gave me lots of ideas for ways I could use objects in my writing.  I might even try and work those white stilettos in…