What story to write? Bethany and Mel.
How much of yourself do you put in your story idea? Bethany and Mel from the 2023 MA cohort talk about writing themselves onto the page.
Photo by Taylor Flowe on Unsplash
“Let me set the scene: a fifteen-year-old gangly thing of a writer sits in an anatomy class, desperately daydreaming about anything other than dissecting the dogfish shark staring at her from inside its jar. Enter: Ezra Collins, a character that moved in and decided to make a home in her brain for the next ten years. Spoiler: the bored anatomy student was me, and suddenly I had a character that created a great distraction from the dead shark. Ezra arrived almost fully formed, ripe with his signature snark, a chaotic monster hunter protecting the streets of New Orleans. His character possessed me like a fever, not letting me go until I had written his introductory scene-- one whose bare bones have survived draft after draft. The problem? Ezra was the only thing I knew about the book. I had a vague notion of something apocalyptic, and that there were other characters lurking in the shadows, ones to narrate the parts of the story that Ezra couldn’t tell. I returned to the story year after year, gently poked by Ezra’s insistence to be heard, but very little story substance formed… until I started the MA. Something just clicked-- suddenly the other characters came out of the woodwork revealing themselves, and in their histories and interactions, I found the story I had been searching for for a decade. All I can do is weave the story that has been waiting for me, and thank that anatomy teacher for boring me into writing Crossroads.”
Bethany’s YA urban fantasy/horror, Crossroads, is set in New Orleans.
Ezra Collins has dedicated his life to protecting his city from supernatural threats. Petra Lukacs is running from her past and searching for someone who will help her control her cosmic powers. Jordan Aguillard is the youngest of an ancient Vodou bloodline, caught between magic and music. Lily Remington has demon blood running through her veins, more comfortable in the city’s seedy underbelly than at home. Kit Smith is the prodigal son of a preacher, desperate to make a deal with the devil for a bit of clarity. Thrust together by an unnerving prophecy, they have 13 days to stop the world from ending . . . but they might just start the apocalypse instead.
“I came to Bath Spa with a story, but with an open mind, too. During our first workshop session, we were encouraged to put any past ideas in a drawer, allowing us to be brave and explore new voices and concepts. During this process, dark thrillers, naughty school boys, a 12 year old undercover agent and an escape from care into a magical world leaped onto the page. But still this story in the drawer was forcing its way out. I was then given the advice to “write the book that only you can write”. This let Mei and the Black Heart out the drawer and back onto the page. I grew up between two worlds. I know what it’s like to not fully fit in and have some people judge you because of who you are or where you’re from. I needed to write this book for myself and for every child that doubts who they are and hides in plain sight. I doubted myself many times whilst writing, thinking this is just the emotions of my childhood translated into fiction. But the more I put in my experience of the magical Malaysia the more it came alive and Mei became a real person I had to protect. Sometimes the story you came in with is not the story you came out with, and sometimes their voice and their message is so strong you can’t shut them in a drawer.”
Mel’s u
pper MG contemporary magical realist story is called Mei and the Black Heart.
Mei wants to be the same as everyone else. When hiding from bullies becomes her whole existence, her mum moves them to her ancestral home in Malaysia. But being of dual-ethnicity, Mei doesn’t fit in here either. Desperate to appease her mum, Mei risks it all to retrieve a stolen heirloom – a black heart locket. Treacherous landscapes, tormenting weather and dangerous criminals stand in her way of finding the locket and returning home. With the help of the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac, will Mei embrace who she is and stand up to the bullies? An own-voice magical realism adventure, where learning to love who you are will help you find home.
Photo by Rod Ramsell on Unsplash