I am YA, and now MG author Barbara Binns , writer of contemporary and realistic fiction for adolescents and teens. My tagline tells you what I am about - Stories of Real Boys Growing Into Real Men - and the people who love them. My debut middle grade novel, Courage, was recently published by Harper Collins.
But one reviewer noted there was an unresolved subplot. I was mortified. I reread the book a dozen times trying to find what plot line was left dangling. Every book I have written since then (Being God, Minority Of One, and now Courage) had me going over every subplot with a microscope to be sure I never made a horrible mistake like that again.
Right now I am racing to a deadline on a new story. I've also been victimized by writer’s block for several weeks. The source of my block was another review, only this one was not from a stranger. It came from a member of the librarian community, someone whose blog I have read and whose recommendations I have trusted for years. I actually put an ARC for Courage in her hands and asked her to read and review when we met at a conference over the winter. Mind you, I didn’t expect a mind-blowingly awesome recommendation. I simply thought she would be fair. What I didn't expect was that she would write falsehoods about the content of Courage.
I teach a class on diversity and inclusive writing. I begin a new session next month. So I was horrified when her review accused me of creating a stereotypical Asian tiger mother. I actually doubted myself for a moment.
Then I remembered, there are zero Asian women in the pages of my book. Black women, white women, but not a single Asian women. The mother in question is a white, over-enthusiastic soccer-type mom, or, in the case of Courage, a pool mom.
The reviewer made an honest mistake, I told myself. She goes through so many books, she somehow mixed mine up with another. So, even thought I have been told to never have respond to reviews, I did the unthinkable and wrote to explain the mother was not Asian, her heritage is described on page 20. I felt good, until I saw that she “fixed” things by adding a note admitting the mother was not Asian, but then accusing me of turning her adopted Filipino son into a stereotyped super-Asian kid. He was, she proclaimed, the only Asian in the book and illustrated the dangers of the “single story.”
Well, he is adopted and from the Philippines. But he is not the only Asian in my story. He is also not a superkid, just an 11-year-old diving student who wants to improve. Taking one last chance, I reminded her that there is more than one Asian in Courage. She changed her comment to admit that, while he was one of many, he was still an example of the single story AND a represented an attempt to use a checklist to to insert diverse characters to make a story commercial.
My new story involves magical realism, and includes one ghost (and the danger of that single story looms again). The ghost sends some modern kids back in time, then reverses things and brings a kid from the past into the present. Frankly, after the review turmoil, I simply couldn’t think straight, much less deal with a couple of time paradoxes.
At least now I can cease worrying about that forgotten subplot. I’m ready to cease trying to fix a problem that probably never existed outside one reviewer's mind.
I’ve stopped worrying about this issue as well. I've heard from too many other people about Courage. This coming Sunday (September 16) I will be one of the featured authors at the Chicago Children’s book fair. I’ve also been asked to speak at the Illinois Library Association Conference on the subject of invisible populations and how librarians can reach out to them. And just yesterday I was asked to participate in an Illinois Youth Literature festival in 2019. These invitations come from people who believe in the way I strive for diversity and inclusion in my stories for children.
My block has cracked, and my ghost is ready to fit on the page.
As a reward for reading this, if you sign up for the class you get a 10% reduction, just for mentioning this post. This online class begins October 1.
3 comments:
Hi B. A.! I thought The Horn Books' review of Courage was a good one. :-)
I highly recommend your diverse writing class. And I'm looking forward to that anecdote.
Hi B.A.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on "Own Voices". The Romance Writer Review had a long article by Preslaysa Williams.
Judith, I think we need more Own Voices. I think there are amazing stories that are not being told, points of view not adequately expressed if not totally silenced in the artistic/creative world. Just as there is a difference between a biography and an autobiography, there is a difference between a character and situation written by an author who has "skin in the game", real life experience. That brings something to the table that is not available to someone on the outside of the group observing. I want more ownvoices. I want to read about the disabled experience written from someone who lived it, not just a knew someone, like JoJo Moyes, the author of Me Before You. Having just come from seeing Crazy Rich Asians, I can imagine how different it could have been author, directors, and actors who did not have a stake in the storyline.
Yes, good stories with inclusive characters can be written by people outside of a specific group. Each would paint a different picture. The current state of publishing, for the most part, has only one side trying to fit all. As a result, the reading and viewing public is missing something. And, all to often, stereotypes are created. If you don't really, really know, they are so easy to fall back on.
I hope this is what you were getting at. I haven;'t read that RWR article.
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