This afternoon, the students in grade 8 and 9 did a skype talk with the well known youth author Laurie Halse Anderson, within the school’s Creative School project supported by the National Arts Council. Before that, the students had read the three novels: Chains, The impossible knife of memory or Speak, some excerpts from these, or another book by Laurie, discussed those and prepared questions about the writing process and the specific novels.
Laurie told us that Scandinavia is her favorite part of the world, because she had lived in Denmark for some time during high school. So she speaks a little Danish. During she thinks that nobody could have guessed that she would become a writer, even though she wrote (dark) poetry already at secondary school.
At that time, Laurie thought that writing was about talent, writing down your thoughts and then check the spelling. Later on she became aware of the writing process. Her writing process looks different though depending on genre, if she is writing historical novels or realistic, contemporary novels.
If Laurie writes historical novels, she begins with doing a solid research, including newspapers, primary sources and more. Then she makes a thorough outline.
When Laurie writes contemporary, realistic novels, she uses journals asking herself: what is going on in my life and in the world? What are the challenges that teens around the world are facing? It’s not that her novels are about any specific teenager as she has met though.
Laurie often uses what makes her upset to get started, so she is starting in a strong feeling.
Then she decides who the novel will be about, with the help from empathy. (Here Laurie thinks that she as an author got help from how kids often are acting, to be able to swap rapidly between worlds and who you are.) The next question to ask yourself in the writing process is: What is going on in the life of the character? Is there any conflicts? Who is the character on the inside? What is the character’s way of speaking? When you have got so far, you can start determining the natural order for things to happen, etc. You need to visualize and structure the story. However, it is first after 4-5 draft as the editing will begin. An editor can never tell you what to write about, just help you to edit the novel. Laurie’s editor is using the marks ? and :-).
A regular day for Laurie, she writes between kl. 05-14. Then her brain shuts down, so she devotes the rest of the time to answer emails, exercise, go for walks and more.
To become a good writer, Laurie emphasizes the importance of writing frequently, no matter what you do. Laurie has often written while sitting on airplanes, conferences and more, and she is always bringing notebooks no matter what, since she thinks it goes faster to write faster by hand than using iPad or phone.
In order for the creativity and language to work well, Laurie gives the student the tip to avoid being stressed, worried, angry, embarrassed or anything negative. Because than, it will work well. So Laurie encourages all students to allow themselves to make an initial draft that is not brilliant and go for a walk or doing any other kind of physical activity now and then. To write a good dialogue, Laurie recommends the students to read aloud the dialogues they are writing down. You can also record a conversation with a friend, for example, when telling what you have done during the weekend, if you have your friend’s permission. Then you can transcribe the conversation.
Laurie told us that the content of the novel Speak is self-experienced, but it took a long time before she told could tell anyone what she had gone through. So she advises students to talk about difficult topics. Otherwise the topics will become even more difficult and more complicated. Originally Laurie wrote Speak for her daughter, when the daughter was in the same age as Laurie, when she was raped.
The topic for The impossible knife of memory is also based partly on Laurie’s experiences, great interviews and conversations Laurie has had with her dad, who was a US soldier at the end of World War II. In the concentration camps, he and other American soldiers met the worst they ever had saw. It gave them PTSD. To forget about the awful experiences, Laurie’s father then drank a lot of alcohol and was suicidal. Later, he woke up screaming at night. The thought of writing The impossible knife of memory came to Laurie when she got to know that her nephew had experienced terrible things in Afghanistan. She wrote the novel because she was worried that a new generation would come to suffer from PTSD.
The Impossible knife of memory is about the art of enjoying their parents even when they are a bit broken down. Although it can be a little frustrating because you see them from the outside and not the inside.
Chains is a tribute to heroes that have been in history, that are many more than one knows. Laurie consider the most important thing to focus on heroes’ actions, so you get to know your own priorities and get to practice resilience. To ask yourself: what kind of hero do you want to be?
