One of the really exciting parts of writing a book is when suddenly it all crystalises and you realise what it’s all about. Some of the problems you were grappling with, things you’re not clear on suddenly fall into place. It comes when you’re well into the first draft, it can’t possibly happen before, the world is too ill-defined. It’s the point where the world you’ve created in your book and the characters slips from your control a bit - you become less of a God and more of an all-seeing observer. I had that moment last week with Little Green Pills, the next children’s book.
While I had the broad arc of the plot and characters set out and I was chugging along OK, I knew I was missing something. Apart from my hero students discovering what the principal was doing to the kids and trying to expose him, there was no real danger, no excitement. I was missing the gasp at the end of some chapters. Then the solution came and it was down to zombies.
Actually, it was down to Jonty, my central character. As so often happens with the breakthrough moment it’s a character that delivers it. While Jonty was trying to win over the other students who are not ‘suddenly’ perfect I found myself writing him saying ‘they’re like zombies...must learn.... Must learn’. And that was it, suddenly the rest of novel appeared clearly.
Rather than just being perfect, the zombie children are voracious and increasingly rabid learners, surpassing their teachers and becoming a scary in the lengths they will go to in the pursuit of knowledge. This lets me have some drama, a few chases through the skills, and a life and death dramatic conclusion. Let’s face it, the idea of perfectly behaved kids may be amusing for a page or two but perfection is dramatically boring. I need excess!
I’m now thinking of a new title: Attack of the Student Zombies, which for a book aimed at 8-12 year old boys is far more fun. I did send this title to Belinda the publisher at the ABC to see what she thinks. There’s been an ominous silence since.
Feedback on the potential new title would be much appreciated.
1 comment:
I know what you mean about "Attack of the student zombies" being more action orientated and fun, but I feel it's not going to stand out much from the crowd - there's lots of 'Attacks' and 'Zombie' things, films, books etc. it might be one of those things where people would remember they'd read a book like that, without remembering the author - so you could risk losing their purchase as the title seemed familiar to them and so they moved on.
However, I'm not an 8 year old boy, who might want to read everything with Zombie in the title!
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