#WriteCBC: Writing tip and writing task from Patrice Lawrence
BY Katie Smart
8th Sep 2022
Welcome back to #WriteCBC. I hope you’re ready to be inspired by this month’s writing challenge! If you haven’t taken part in a #WriteCBC competition before, we’re excited to welcome you to our writing community – and you can quickly get up to speed by reading this blog with information about how to play. It’s a lot of fun, and you might just win a free place on one of our six-week online writing courses.
September’s special guest is award-winning YA and children’s fiction author Patrice Lawrence. Patrice’s debut YA novel Orangeboy was shortlisted for the Costa Children’s Book Award and won the Bookseller YA Prize and Waterstone’s Prize for Older Children's Fiction. Indigo Donut, her second book for teenagers, won the Crimefest YA Prize. Both books have been nominated for the Carnegie Medal. Patrice’s latest novel The Elemental Detectives is the first book in a fantasy middle grade adventure story. She has judged numerous book prizes, mentors emerging writers and was awarded an MBE for literature in June 2021. She is also the leader of our new six-week online Writing YA & Middle Grade Fiction course.
Patrice’s writing tip:
- Believable characters have human qualities. No one is perfect – and a perfect character will be far from compelling. Often it's character flaws that really engage readers – and story arises in part from those flaws.
Characters should be complex individuals. One way to reveal to the reader the layers of a character’s personality is to show how they react in high-stress situations. A good example of a complex character is Marlon – the protagonist of Patrice’s debut novel Orangeboy. At the start of the book, we know that 16-year-old Marlon is a good student and wants to avoid being sucked into the world of gangs and drugs. He even makes his mum a promise that he'll never follow his big brother, Andre, down the wrong path. However, all of this is tested when cool popular girl Sonya wants to go out with him. On their first date at a fairground Sonya hands him a packet of six ecstasy pills. Things go from bad to worse when their ride on the ghost train ends in tragedy with Sonya’s death, and the police find Marlon in possession of the drugs.
Marlon’s desire to be liked by cool Sonya is at odds with his fear of following his brother down the wrong path. In the heat of the moment of his first date he takes the pills from Sonya – and it is this single bad decision that sets in motion the conflict and events of the rest of the story.
Patrice’s writing task:
- Write a mini-scene that continues from this prompt: ‘They’d left me behind…’ The scene should help us get to know your character by revealing to the reader what they want, what they fear and/or what's precious to them.
Here are three tips to help with character motivation:
- Believability: When your character is reacting in a certain way ask yourself two questions: Is it believable that – generally – a person would act in this way? Secondly, is it believable that this particular person would act in this way?
- Relatability: Getting your reader to sympathise with and care for your protagonist is one of the keys to getting them to read on. In YA or children’s fiction one way that authors, like Patrice, do this is through the age of their characters. In general, children and teenagers will read books that feature characters who are their own age or older – but usually won’t read books about characters younger than themselves. So, a middle grade novel aimed at 8–12-year-olds might feature an 11-year-old protagonist going to secondary school for the first time. This is an experience the target reader can relate to, recognising the fears of wanting to fit in and the desire to do well. Beyond the age of your protagonist and ensuring they behave in age-appropriate ways, relatability means putting your characters in situations that are universally recognisable – for example, grieving a family member, falling in love for the first time, moving away from home….
- Balance: As outlined in Patrice’s tip, the best characters behave in human ways. Humans are flawed and plagued by hubris. Some of the most relatable characteristics can be perceived as negative ones. Perhaps your character is jealous, prejudiced, or stubborn. Having a character act out of anger, envy or sadness provides a great opportunity for the reader to empathise with them.
For more advice on characterisation, read this handy blog full of insights from our founder Anna Davis: How to show character
Remember to share your mini-scenes by tweeting us (@cbcreative) – we can’t wait to meet your characters!
The winner is... R A Rae @R_A_Rae:
- They’d left me behind and I didn't even notice. I scrubbed the tiles until my reflection blocked out the memory of that straw-coloured face and marble-cold skin. The bathroom gleamed by the time they got back. I hoped Mum might smile, but her eyes were hard. 'You should have been there.'
Rae's mini-scene reveals so much about their chacracter and leaves us wanting to know more. We know they're so keen to be distracted from an unpleasant memory that they're cleaning instead of going out with their family. The scene leaves us wanting to know who the person with the 'straw-coloured face and marble-cold skin' is and what they did to instil so much fear.
Congratulations! R A Rae has won a free place on the six-week creative-writing course of their choice.
Well done to our runners-up!
Sarah Williams @ageofbrainfog and Anna Orridge @orridge_anna have both won a £50 discount to be used on the six-week creative writing course of their choice.
Please email cbccourses@curtisbrown.co.uk to claim your prize!
Are you passionate about creating stories and characters that young people really care about? Join our new six-week online Writing YA & Middle Grade Fiction course with Patrice Lawrence. Or, if you're looking for a longer course with tutorials and workshops, applications are open for our next Writing YA & Children's Fiction – Three Months with prize-winning author Catherine Johnson. Deadline Sun 11 Sept.