Over the summer, I had the opportunity to read ALMOST THERE by Laurel Garver and participate in the blog tour. {You can find my review here!} This was a lovely YA Christian fiction novel that approached topics and questions relevant to the teen life today, yet it was handled with grace and filtered through the perspective of faith. As I mentioned in the book review, I highly recommend this book to all YA and inspirational fiction lovers.
I've asked Laurel to stop by today to discuss ALMOST THERE and share her valuable advice for teen writers.
Almost There is a YA novel that is relevant
to the teen culture today, yet it's Christian and doesn't come across as preachy. How did you
manage to accomplish this without blurring the lines?
If I’m reading your question correctly, you’re wondering
how I can write about faith in a way that isn’t off-putting to contemporary
teens, but feels like it’s part of normal life. I suppose it’s first
understanding that a life of faith isn’t lived across a line in the sand, that
this spot over here is where I have a spiritual life, and on the other side is
where the rest of the world goes about its business. Real faith doesn’t need a
sanitized bubble in order to exist. Real faith is Christ in you, the hope of
glory. It walks with courage into dark places through the power of the Holy
Spirit, and tries to act as Jesus did. He reached out to those who were at the
margins, who were hurting. I write what I hope is an invitation to teens of
faith to see their purpose in this way.
Preachiness in literature comes when characters aren’t
given the space to “come to their senses” on their own. Jesus’ example of how
to show a transformation well is the prodigal son story. Did someone come and preach
at the younger brother, and tell him he had been a selfish jerk and he should
just go home and apologize to his family? No, the story events led him to that
conclusion. So it is with my characters. They make their mistakes and gradually
learn from them. When epiphanies come, they act on them, and test their new
understanding. They move from blindness to insight to realized truth.
One thing I appreciated about your book was that the
family dynamics wasn’t portrayed as perfect, yet the story was hopeful rather
than melodramatic. Was this intentional? Why did you feel it necessary to
include the hopeful message?
Having a deeply flawed family with lots of baggage is a
reality for nearly everyone I know, and yet there is tremendous stigma attached
to having a less than picture-perfect family life. People become hopeless
because the voice of shame says it isn’t okay to let these secrets be known,
and so they become stuck. In my experience, God isn’t content to leave us in
these places. He hammers at our lies and disguises so that they crumble,
letting in the revealing light that will enable healing. Shame loses its power
in the face of a God who pursues and loves us no matter how screwed up or
rebellious we are. He’s in the business of bringing the dead back to life. To
not have hope is to not yet know this God.
What initially inspired you to write YA Christian fiction?
Young adult books were what got me hooked on reading,
especially the realistic fiction of Madeleine L’Engle, Paul Zindel, Judy Blume,
Lois Lowry, Paula Danziger, and Ellen Conford. L’Engle in particular had
characters clearly coming from a churched background, but the stories didn’t
feel like they were plodding morality tales. Her brainy misfits genuinely
struggled to do the right thing when it’s hard, clearly making choices informed
by their faith. Those stories were very life-giving to me. So I wanted to create books like those I
enjoyed reading at that critical time in my life, especially ones about kids of
faith dealing with deeply dysfunctional families.
How were you able to get inside of a teen girl’s head and
capture her voice accurately and authentically?
I’m flattered that you find Dani so realistic that you
imagine her to be an actual person with a head to get inside. Creating her was
really a matter of tapping into my own well of memory and allowing my emotions
to be as big and turbulent as they were back then. The strange beauty of one’s
teen years are how very intensely one feels and how one must learn to navigate
and channel that ocean of emotion. Along with big emotions come big
opinions—some quite wise, some quite shallow and ignorant—and big questions.
Who am I? Who do I want to be? How do I go about becoming that person?
Creating an authentic voice comes from connecting
intimately with your character’s inner world. You begin to channel the
attitudes and opinions she’d have in the face of certain experiences, and eventually
think with her. I took extra time to develop some off-page details about my
protagonist’s life –especially experiences and cultural influences—that would shape
how she thinks, especially associations and allusions she makes in her speech
and inner thoughts. What makes the details feel authentic is that they are
interconnected—attitudes flowing from her experiences, not chosen at random.
What do you hope teens will take away from this story?
I hope that first of all, they will feel less alone in
their struggles in tough family situations. The difficult people in our
families often have a story behind how they’ve become that way. Learn the
story, and you can begin to move toward that person with more understanding and
love. Finally, I hope they will begin to grasp how God is with them and for
them in places of deep pain and doubt.
Do you have any advice for teen writers?
Read widely and voraciously—not
just what’s hot among your peers, but also poetry and literary fiction and
classics and other genres that intrigue you. Copy passages that you love and
study them. Experiment with lots of different styles and genres. Be intensely
curious, and never pass up an opportunity to try new things and go new places. These
are your apprentice years when you are filling your creative well with ideas
and experiences, and developing all the foundational skills you need to become
the writer you will flower into.
Finally, take advantage of
mentoring relationships with creative adults you know. As a teen, I was always
quick to start writing projects, only to abandon them, until a school program
paired me with a favorite former teacher to create a big senior project. Mrs.
Wright encouraged me to write an entire novel that year, and I did with her
guidance. It was derivative and naïve, but I had so much fun and learned how to
complete something large— a giant leap forward in my development.
Author Bio:
Laurel Garver is a writer, editor, professor’s wife, and mom to an arty teenager. An indie film enthusiast and incurable Anglophile, she enjoys geeking out about Harry Potter and Dr. Who, playing word games, singing in church choir, and hiking in Philly's Fairmount Park.
Connect with Laurel:
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Thanks for joining us, Laurel!
READERS: Do you have any questions for her? Leave them in the comments below!
