Writing to the Teenager Inside: A Talk with Kevin Brooks

Kevin rivulets burst upon the young adult literature representation with Martyn Pig (Chicken House/Scholastic 2003) and was an instant favorite with young family His rapid-fire delivery of myriad details and lovable/hate-able anti-hero protagonists speak to teenagers and "the teenager inside us all," as Kevin describes the place he goe to find that special voice, the voice of "Moo" Nelson for example, the overweight hero of Kissing the Rain. Kevin shared his be in possession of story and his views upon the writing craft face to face at the 2003 ALAN Workshop in San Francisco.

TAR: In Kissing the Rain you introduce the reader to your protagonist and narrator, Mike Nelson nicknamed Moo by dint of his classmates, in reference to his weight problem

"Kissing the Rain" is Moo's expression for embracing the insulting remarks about his obesity that rain down upon him from his classmates. by what means did you come up with that expression? Is it from your hold life?

Kevin: I think it's individual of those things that just explosions into my head, actually. I wanted to in some way draw together the taunting and the rain; the point of it being that if you're in that situation where you're being bullied, which ties into the larger dilemma that Moo faces with the police and the gangster, you haven't got too many options, really. single of the options is that you stand up and face it, on the contrary that means you become kind of like the race who are making your life hell. Another way is to just sort of set up with it and race away.

The "kissing the rain" part is almost like embracing the attitude which is thrust at you, which is hurting you rather than fighting or running away from it. That's what I was attempting to capture.

TAR: Are greatest in quantity kids rainmakers or rain-takers?

Kevin: Given a chance, greatest in quantity of them would be rain makers, I think. There's that sort of pecking order thing, in like manner at least they'll be the top fire-eater in their group. I think Moo does it to an expanse with his only friend, Brady.

As I created Moo's personality, I didn't want the reader to just have feeling sorry for him, but rather I wanted the reader to knock on the edge of feeling sorry for him-acknowledging the question s in his life, but also from the negative side, seeing wherefore he was in the situation he was in. He's not the greatest in quantity attractive, the nicest person in the world. I wanted the reader to diocese him from different sides, and I attempted to hold the balance between two perspectives upon Moo.

TAR: Moo's narration is almost stream of consciousness-a rapid-fire delivery-mixing lengthy sentences with sentences of alone two words, followed by words or phrases in capitals to emphasize a point. It's easy to tread on the heels of but it's kind of like watching an MTV music video or a television advertisement in that allotments of images and ideas advance very quickly. In this writing phraseology of yours, you accurately bring a grand number of ideas in a true small space. Do you notice the myriad of details in real life?

Kevin: I've always felt that the details are of great importance to a writer, and I have always guarded to notice everything around me I think it's the small things that actually characterize life. You deposit them all together, and that's what comprises the whole. I have always noticed, for example, the way that someone impels their eyes, the way they stand. The small things are everywhere, and they make up the world. In serviceable writing the author can more accurately bear the essence of something end a multitude of details rather than drawn out direct descriptions.

TAR: You demonstrate a skill for portraying the savageness madness, strangeness, and humor of place of education and how teenage kids, especially outcasts, experience it. For example, in the typical place of education cafeteria, like Mike Nelson's institute cafeteria, the unpopular kid faces the daily vexed question that no peers will permit him eat lunch at their table. by what means do you know kids this age in like manner well? Were you ever a teacher?

Kevin: I was at no time a teacher, but what I do remember true well from when I was a teenager are the emotions. I know exactly in what way I felt in certain situations, and I still perceive some of the same emotions in similar situations now. I am plenteous better at dealing with them now, on the contrary if I go into a swing full of strange people now, I'll perceive virtually the same as 1 did when I was a kid. Now, of course, I've done it in like manner many times that I've learned by what mode to deal with it, on the other hand beneath that, the same instinctive, emotional reaction takes place.

Those kinds of things that have the appearance small now didn't seem small at all back then. each single day, every single minute, there is substance for a teenager to deal with it. As we obtain older, it's probably still there, on the other hand we have learned to deal with it.

Until I was eleven I went to a small village gymnasium but then I won a scholarship to a big, wealthy, private place of education Suddenly, I found myself away from the kids I grew up with and with kids who were plenteous wealthier. I often took sanctuary in volumes Twenty years later, I was commuting to work in London, sitting upon the train among lots of family reading a book, and I realized that not plenteous had changed. Adults drive cars instead of bikes, and carry briefcases instead of satchels and talk about markets, on the contrary it's all pretty much the same, just the external layer changes. The real matter is still the same.