Patrice Lawrence: 'Writing for children and young people gives you enormous freedom. Find your unique voice and be brave!'
BY Katie Smart
31st Aug 2022
We're thrilled to welcome Patrice Lawrence to the CBC tutor team, she is the leader of our new six-week online Writing YA & Middle Grade Fiction course. Patrice is an award-winning writer for adults and children whose books for young adults have won many prizes including the YA Prize, the Waterstones Prize for Older Children's Fiction, the Crimefest YA Prize twice and the inaugural Jhalak Prize for Children and Young People. She has judged numerous book prizes, mentors emerging writers and was awarded an MBE for literature in June 2021.
We spoke to Patrice about how she started writing for younger readers, the challenges of writing for different age groups and the inspiration behind her latest novel The Elemental Detectives.
When did you know you wanted to be an author?
I always loved writing, but being an author was way beyond a possibility for me. As a child, I read books by authors that were mostly dead and white – so that seemed like a prerequisite! I didn’t find books by people of colour until I was in my 20s – Alice Walker, James Baldwin, Toni Morrison… But certainly no children’s books by authors of colour or adult books by British-based authors of colour. And coupled with the fact that there were no school visits by authors – being a book writer seemed magical and impossible to me.
I was encouraged by teachers in my secondary school to write. As an adult, I loved writing short stories. I used to pore over the Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook looking for magazines that accepted short stories and actually managed to sell a couple to teen magazines! It was a story in an anthology that led me to my agent and ultimately – after many books written and rejected – to where I am now.
Your award-winning debut novel Orangeboy is a YA and you’ve followed this with many works of fiction for all ages including early readers, middle grade and YA audiences. What initially drew you to write for younger readers?
It wasn’t a conscious decision. With Orangeboy, I thought I was actually writing a crime book with a 15-year-old protagonist! It was a friend, a top-selling YA writer, who explained to me that I was writing YA! I think not knowing was very liberating for me. I wrote the book that I wanted to write without trying to second guess the publishing industry.
However, I had read books marketed to younger readers and really enjoyed them – The Chaos Walking trilogy by Patrick Ness, Mortal Engines by Philip Reeves, The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman and Jenny Downham’s You Against Me among others. It opened my eyes to the quality of writing in books for young people, but also the diversity of genres and styles.
Once I’d fallen into children’s publishing, I loved it. It’s actually given me a real freedom to explore different ways of telling stories for a variety of audiences.
When you’re coming up with a new idea for a book do you start with an age group in mind – or let the story unfold before deciding on the audience?
I come up with characters first. They tend to be at the upper age of the category I’m writing for as I really like to put my characters through it in my books! Then this determines the age of the readership that they’re marketed to.
Once I have a grip on my characters, I really like to understand who they are – what do they want; what do they fear; what’s precious to them.
Then I add a massive dose of ‘what ifs’ to develop my story.
What are some of the different challenges you face when writing for children versus writing for young adults?
No swearing in middle grade. (Sighs.)
If I was writing contemporary middle grade, I’d struggle more as it can be harder to separate your young characters from adults in the modern world. In historical books, they can roam freer.
I’ve also had to learn how to simplify stories whilst also keeping the storytelling elements that I enjoy – especially developing rounded, psychologically true (and complex) characters.
Your latest novel The Elemental Detectives is set in a supernatural London populated by Elemental spirits. Can you tell us a bit more about the novel and the inspiration behind it?
I pitched The Elemental Detectives as Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London meets the film, Inception, set in Georgian London – with 12-year-olds. It’s 1764 and London’s elemental spirits - the watery Chads, the fiery Dragons, the airy Fumis and the earthbound Magogs, coexist in relative peace. But suddenly the city’s poor fall into an enchanted sleep and Marisee Blackwell and Robert Strong must chase the clues and fight the mythical beasts to save London.
The book was inspired by a real life person called Jonathan Strong, who was an enslaved teenager brought to London by a vicious man who beat him and turned him onto the street. Jonathan’s story inspired the work of renowned abolitionist, Granville Sharp. Little is known of Jonathan’s life and I wanted to create a story where a young man like him could be a hero.
In The Elemental Detectives, Marisee Blackwell’s grandmother is the Keeper of London’s wells, who must keep the Chads happy so that the water in London’s wells keeps flowing. She’s inspired by a place name on an 18th century map – Black Mary’s Hole - in what is now Clerkenwell, in north London. What if there really was a Black woman called Mary in an area known for its healing waters…?
The story takes place in a fantasy version of London. Do you have any advice for writers looking to build new worlds or incorporate fantasy elements in their writing?
Take reality and expand on it. I took London lore, place names and myths as a base for world-building. In the Six of Crows, it feels that Leigh Bardugo starts with a high-fantasy version of 19th century eastern Europe.
Also – what fresh take can you add? For instance, I wanted to make my Dragons different, so they are actually formed from hundreds of tardigrades - minute creatures that can live in extremes of temperature.
Avoid parody or cliché – and if you write with conviction, your readers will want to immerse themselves in your world.
What are some of your favourite recent YA and children’s fiction books?
There are so many!
In terms of YA, I love Melinda Salisbury’s Her Dark Wings, a modern retelling of the Persephone and Hades myth.
Nadia Mikail’s The Cats We Meet Along the Way is a surprisingly warm story of love, family and friendship when the world is about to end.
Tanya Byrne’s Afterlove is a poignant story about grief and love with great characters.
There are some great YA verse novels including Manjeet Mann’s The Crossing, Ella Mcleod’s Rapunzella, Or Don’t Touch My Hair and MegGrehen’s Baby Teeth.
For younger readers, Ben Bailey-Smith’s Is It Something I Said? made me laugh out loud, as did Jenny Pearson’s The Super Miraculous Journey of Freddie Yates. We need more funny books. Maisie Chan’s middle grade books always have so much heart and warmth.
If you could only pass on one piece of advice to the aspiring authors reading this, what would it be?
Writing for children and young people gives you enormous freedom. Find your unique voice and be brave!
We’re so excited to have you on board as the teacher of our new Writing YA & Middle Grade Fiction course. What was your favourite part of creating the course?
It was really useful for me to step back and evaluate my own practice. In the past, writers have been generous to me, helping me understand structure, perspective and voice. I was good to be able to pass that knowledge on.
Get your hands on a copy of The Elemental Detectives.
Learn all about how to write for young people from Patrice Lawrence, join our six-week online Writing YA & Middle Grade Fiction course.