Octopuses, mules and problem-solving by Tracy Darnton

I saw Markus Zusak speak recently at a Mr B’s event in Bath as part of his book tour with Bridge of Clay. What have I got in common with a hugely successful, award-winning Australian male novelist, you may ask? I assumed absolutely nothing BUT as he chatted on about the way he wrote and rewrote and crafted his new book, changing narrator, adding and removing characters, I began to feel better about my own methods. 

Markus Zusak said that he did not have a great imagination, just a lot of problems. He wanted a mule in the book, so therefore he needed a race track. 

My ears pricked up. Aha – I too have a lot of problems. What can happen to X on the raft to hospitalise him? Why’s the axe on the terrace? How can Y get out of that locked laboratory?

That week, I had felt like writing my next YA thriller was turning into an impossible task akin to trying to squash an octopus into a string bag. I had lists and lists of questions and problems that far from ticking off I was adding to every time I wrote some more. As soon as I squashed one octopus arm back into the bag, another popped out somewhere else.

But the other little trip I had that week was to an Escape Room. (For the uninitiated, you and your nearest and dearest are locked in a room for an hour and have to solve a number of puzzles and problems to get yourselves out of there). And here’s the thing that dawned on me as I thoroughly enjoyed my fourth Escape Room in as many months - I actually like solving problems.

I like coming up with clever little fixes. I love planting a tiny seed in one chapter to develop and use later on. Hide something insignificant in plain sight in chapter 23 which becomes crucial in chapter 32 and I’m really having fun. I get a buzz from writing a whole new scene to fix the problem in a way I’ve only just thought of.

When I wrote The Truth About Lies, I spent hours fiddling about with the epigraphs at the beginning of chapters, blending clues with memory exercises and apposite quotations. I found it very satisfying that Jess borrowing a scarf can make sense of a confrontation between two other characters in a pub car park chapters later. Sad I know, but I relished adding in little references that possibly (definitely) only I appreciate - the madeleine cake Jess dunks on page 71, for instance. These are the things that kept me at my desk, enjoying the process.

I’m new to this author way of life, and have a major dose of imposter syndrome, but I’d been feeling rather that my approach to putting a novel together couldn’t possibly be the proper way. This jigsaw-solving, tying-things-together method of writing a story must be inferior to the method of other authors whom I imagine sitting calmly at their tidy desks as the whole, perfect narrative pours out, agonising only over the occasional choice of adjective.

But now I feel reassured. We can only write in the way that works for us. Every time we solve a problem with our story, we have the potential to take it in a new direction, add a layer or an exciting setting, or explore a new theme. And yes, the potential to throw up even more problems in a complex web. But all with the hope that, at some stage, those answers and solutions will come together in a satisfying novel. Maybe one day, as I get more experienced, the story will just appear from the beginning to the end, with no problems to solve. But where would be the fun in that?

Maybe there was a clue on my bookshelf to the way my mind works 

In the meantime, I must get back to my work-in-progress. The octopus is escaping again. 

Tracy Darnton’s YA thriller The Truth About Lies was published in July by Stripes.  You can follow Tracy on Twitter @TracyDarnton           

Disability and Exploitation; A Foray into Dark Places

Disability and Exploitation; A Foray into Dark Places


                                                             
                                                               
There are very few Young Adult authors who have written about disability and exploitation, which is probably why so many people have asked me why I decided to do this in my debut novel, Rosie Loves Jack.

Discussion of any kind like this is rare, but I feel it is important to bring this subject out into the open as its exposition can only be valuable for young people, especially within the safe pages of a book.

My character Rosie has Down's syndrome; this doesn't define her - she is a typical sixteen year old teenager. She lives in a world where issues of sexual exploitation are there for us to see and her journey in the book is, sadly, a reflection of life and one which we can't escape from with the media.

Any young person out in a city like London, by themselves, unsure of where to go is vulnerable but a person with a learning disability is much more innocent, naive and open to predators. A street-wise teenager might be able to navigate getting lost in a big city more easily, but they are equally fooled by people and situations, because at sixteen you think you know it all - and in that sense it makes you as vulnerable.

 It seemed a probable progression in my story that my character, Rosie would put her trust in someone who could manipulate her for their own ends - and that I could use this to highlight these issues. There will always be those who prey on the vulnerable and although a lot of the time it won't end like Rosie's journey, into a grooming house where young girls are exploited for sexual favours, it can and does happen. ( Though I must emphasise here that I would never have let anything actually happen to my teenager with Down's syndrome as I felt that the underlying threat was enough.)

My daughter works with young girls who have been groomed and I was shocked to discover that sexual exploitation amongst children with disabilities - physical and learning disabilities is equally as extensive as those without. It is not just in certain ares of the country either, like Rochdale or Oxford, but all over the country and not just in urban settings.

Why don't we talk about this exploitation? For a start, people with disabilities are under-represented in the media and, until recently, have been excluded from mainstream education. They can also live in care homes -  all of which keeps them on the edge of society; out of sight out of mind. 

Sexual exploitation hasn’t been thought of in the context of applying to a person with a disability until it was at the forefront of the news with the revelation of Jimmy Savile’s exploits and the abuses discovered at the Winterbourne View Care Home for those with learning disabilities. We might listen with horror to these terrible stories of abuse but it stays within the television 'box' and gets left in the care home for others to sort out, as it’s too awful to think about. We can’t imagine doing anything so dreadful to someone so vulnerable ourselves, so we would rather not dwell on it. That leaves us with nothing to discuss…

 Sexual activity for people with learning disabilities is something that’s rarely ever discussed in a good, healthy, loving context either, as it’s too embarrassing and is seen as a topic that shouldn’t even happen. It becomes another taboo subject to be swept under the carpet. If there were more books with characters like Rosie in them and in films, on television and in advertising, then they would be seen as the human beings they are like everyone else, with the same emotions and desires to be loved, to love and to be accepted without limitations. Through this would come understanding and from that more open discussions.

Any sort of discussion about abuse or sexual exploitation has tended to be covered up and kept secret until recently, shame silencing people more often than not because it has been a family member doing the abusing or exploiting.  For the victim themselves the feelings of guilt, shame and fear that they carry with them, for life, is often a silencer - and because many have been told if they speak out about it something terrible might happen, either to them or someone else in the family. It can take years to feel safe enough to talk. Then when they do, as with the group of girls in the Rochdale cases, you might not be believed or ‘interrogated’ to the point that it becomes part of the problem. The knock on effect from this is that it perpetuates the rarity of discussion around it because discussion starts with the victim. Of course, if you are a victim without the means to express yourself verbally, then the silence is deafening. 

So, my foray into dark places in my novel, Rosie Loves Jack, was not sensationalistic, but a genuine attempt to raise awareness of such an important topic. I truly hope that bringing this into the story  can give young people who read the book an understanding that will lead to more open discussion, in a non-threatening framework.

Mel Darbon

@DarbonMel

@meldarbon 

#RosieLovesJack

www.Usborne.com/ReadRosie