In 2006 I was commissioned to
write a book for children with cancer. I called the book Peppermint Ward and it
was my first publication for children. It was also the first time I realised I
felt sorry for a character. Somehow, writing for adults (a novel and several
short stories published in the 1990s) just didn’t evoke the same feelings.
Ten year old Sam was the main
character of Peppermint Ward and there were three other children to show the
effects and treatments of four kinds of cancer. As a Special Needs teacher I
had taught terminally ill children. I had also had a child of my own on a
cancer ward briefly, fortunately with a happy outcome and various friends who
had suffered and some who had died from cancer, as well as my Dad. I had plenty
of experience to draw upon in the writing of this book.
But putting Sam through the
ravages of bone cancer was a whole new experience for me. I experienced
feelings of actual guilt as the story developed along with the excellent illustrations
by the talented, Kim Toohey, progressed and I could see Sam’s deterioration. At
the end of the book Sam has survived and goes home and it is always this part
which brings tears to my eyes. A whole new experience, feeling sorry for a
character I had invented.
Since Peppermint Ward I have
published short stories for children and two Young Adult novels and have
experienced the same feelings on more than one occasion. Putting my young
people into impossible situations, politically, socially and romantically, has
evoked very strong feelings. Am I feeling sorry for my younger self? For
children and teenagers I have worked with? For my own children?
It is a difficult thing to
understand and probably doesn’t warrant digging too deep. But one thing I am
sure of. As a writer, evoking strong and lasting feelings about your manuscript
is a good barometer of how deeply you will probably affect your reader. That’s
why we write – to evoke response and engage the reader in the journey we have
sent our characters on.
Even if the emotional price for
us is perhaps sometimes a bit high.
Who do you feel sorry for in your
stories?
Even though I've written them, when re-reading over my work I can cry for some of my characters! I only hope it has the same effect on other readers.
ReplyDeleteI feel certain that is we as writers have those feelings, then they are provoked in the reader.
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