Always learning stuff

On Sunday, I was fortunate to attend a 3 hour seminar on writing for children and young adults. Australian writing royalty, Melina Marchetta and Morris Gleitzman each conducted a 90 minute session. Totally worth the entry fee to the Melbourne Writers festival.

 I admit to a writerly crush on Melina. Looking For Alibrani kick started the YA novel scene in this country, with her intelligent and ambitious MC, Josie Alibrandi. The book has not been out of print for the past twenty years, and was made into a feature movie, and on high school English syllabuses (syllabi?) all over the country.  I loved that the MC was articulate and scholarly but not in the least bit nerdy. It touched on multiple issues, such as an unforgiving small community, the stigma of illegitimacy, her sense of cultural identity, and the change in her relationship with her mother (especially when the 17 year old girl acted like a total baby at the possibility of Mama dating). But this is not a review post.

I was delighted to learn that Melina’s creative style is similar to mine. She stews on her plots for ages, and does not plan. She lets her characters talk to her, the character, their voice, is always the starting point for her stories (Me too! Me too! It’s not psychosis, it’s the creative process). She writes and rewrites, and with each subsequent draft more plot points are revealed to her (I’m glad I’m not the only one). She hates writing action (not an issue in Alibrandi, but certainly a required skill for her fantasy trilogy). Her process is to start with a bland, factual description of the action (X punches Y, then gets hit from behind by Z. Z trips and X runs for cover etc) and gradually builds up layers, adding tone and pacing and other features which convey a sense of urgency.  

The few times I’ve written action scenes, they have unfolded in the same way. But I’m not sure I’ve got them right.

She revealed a great tip... which I shall share with you. It’s all to do with consonants. Words featuring mainly soft consonant sounds (f, s, sh, l, m, n, p, and the soft th – as in ‘thing’, and the soft forms of g, j and c) are gentle. Words with ‘hard’ consonant sounds (the hard c, g, j, b,d, g, ch, t, and th as in ‘this’) are prickly and challenging. Marchetta culls soft words from her action scenes and substitutes them with words with a higher proportion of harsh sounds. She does the opposite in the slower, more reflective scenes. The sound and feel of the words contributes to the overall mood and tone of the piece. What a great way to add tension to an action scene – include uncomfortable words, rather than those to savour. Marshmallow is soft, candy is hard. Melt - softer, crunch - harder. Soothe - soothing. Judge – prickles the conscious. Go on, say them aloud.

This reminded me of a piece of research I recall from undergrad psych... (I don’t know if Marchetta based her approach on it) ... when reading silently, the larynx still has a level of activity to it, suggesting we sound out some of the keywords, even if we are not aware of doing so. So we ‘feel’ the words in our throats when reading. The harsh ones therefore physically unsettle us when reading.

 
It’s a lot of work, but next time I write an action scene, I’ll definitely edit in terms of sound tones.

 And on the subject of soothing, on way home I bought gourmet chocolates for the darlings, as compensation for abandoning them. Still... it gave me an excuse to duck into a Chocolaterie at Melbourne Central. What a shame!