Notes from the Cavendish: Beginnings

The New Cavendish Club

The New Cavendish Club is a private members' club near Marble Arch. As a venue for a writing class, it was perfect - a bright, airy, spacious, quiet room in an elegant Georgian building with friendly, welcoming staff - and a world away from most adult education classrooms I've worked in.

I have just started teaching Writing for Children for The Complete Creative Writing Course on a temporary basis and as usual, before I actually arrived and met the group for the first time, I suffered my usual bout of apprehension and 'stage fright'. I've been teaching all my adult life, but the sense of nervous anticipation before I begin a new course never fades. Of course, I always tell myself it's the surge of adrenaline I need to deliver a 'good performance', but until I've looked the students in the eye, learned their names and established that they aren't likely to fall asleep or walk out - or bite! - the fear remains. And at least it means I never underestimate how scary it might be for some participants to read their work in front of a group for the first time.

Naturally enough in this first session, we looked at how to begin stories and engage readers from the very first line - with questions, strong emotions, tension - and writing what you know or love and/or for the market - with its different genres, age-ranges, word counts. Oh yes, and not forgetting the seemingly contradictory demands of literary and commercial fiction, and balancing original, high concept ideas with the latest trends...

I couldn't help dropping in one of my favourite quotes:

You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children. (Madeleine L'Engle)

Losing the Plot

20,000 words into the first draft of a YA thriller, it’s tough to admit that I’ve lost the plot! I’ve spent the last three weeks desperately editing, revising and rewriting, but I finally have to accept that the story just isn’t working. All that effort – for nothing.

OK, maybe not for nothing. This is a new genre and a new target age-group for me and I’ve learnt a lot, most of which I hope to be able to put to good use at a later date.

When it comes to plotting, I am definitely a planner rather than a ‘pantser’. I need to know the story from beginning to end before I actually start writing. I have tried – and failed – to write a fast, first draft and work out the plot as I went along, but it just doesn’t work for me. I need a plan – not that I necessarily stick to it. It’s like a map I can go back to if I get lost – or a lifeline, if I get stuck.

That said, it’s taken me a while to work out exactly what went wrong this time around. I’d done the research. I had a detailed scene-by-scene outline. I had a synopsis. I knew my characters inside out – their background, what they wanted, what made them tick... and I knew whodunit.

In two of my books for younger readers – Spike and Ali Enson and Spike in Space, due out in August – I blended realism (adoption, sibling rivalry) and fantasy (aliens, space travel).

This blend of fact and fiction was the starting point for this latest project, but the present-day real event – or series of events – is harrowing and by adding an element of fantasy, I was left feeling that I was not doing justice to either strand of the story. So, I've had to choose between the two (more on that later)... and start plotting all over again.


Of course, this whole process has made me feel like I've lost the plot in more ways than one. Anyone else know that feeling?

Fact or Fiction?

It's sometimes hard for anyone to raise the issue of cultural and racial diversity in children's publishing without being accused of being misguided or misinformed, of over-reacting or being too politically correct - or even of having a chip on their shoulder.

This post is therefore something of a cop-out. It is simply a list of things I have read or heard over the past year related to black authors and/or children's and young adult books with black characters. Read more...