I’m so pleased to be a part of the We are All Made of Molecules blog tour for National Bullying Prevention Month! Today I have a guest post from the author. But first, more about the book!
About the Book:
Thirteen-year-old Stewart is academically brilliant but socially clueless.
Fourteen-year-old Ashley is the undisputed “It” girl in her class, but her grades stink.Their worlds are about to collide when Stewart and his dad move in with Ashley and her mom. Stewart is trying to be 89.9 percent happy about it, but Ashley is 110 percent horrified. She already has to hide the real reason her dad moved out; “Spewart” could further threaten her position at the top of the social ladder.
They are complete opposites. And yet, they have one thing in common: they—like everyone else—are made of molecules.
The Ups and Downs of Writing Dual – And Duelling – Narrators
Susin Nielsen
Until We Are All Made of Molecules I had never written a book with two protagonists. All of my novels to date have been in first person, so the first person narrative wasn’t something new to me; two narrators, was.
So, why two narrators? A bit of background first: I confess that over four books I have never yet written about a traditional nuclear family, and I’m sure my own family background – divorced parents, half-siblings, step-parents and step-siblings – explains that. This time out I really wanted to write a story about a blended family. And if it was going to be blended, two narrators seemed like the way to go. Stewart – intellectually gifted, socially awkward, empathetic – was the voice that came to me first. I remember having fun with the first iteration of the opening chapter as I began the journey of discovering his voice.
Ashley was more challenging. I knew she needed to be, in many ways, the polar opposite of Stewart. I knew she would be much more self-centered, socially gifted, academically not so much. It wasn’t until I’d been playing with her opening chapter for a while that I had a revelation: I had met her before. She had been a secondary character in one of my earlier books, Dear George Clooney: Please Marry My Mom. In that novel, she had been little more than the stereotypical mean girl. Suddenly I couldn’t wait to dig in, and dig deeper, into that character.
So – as you can tell from their micro-descriptions – I rather intentionally started out with two characters who, at first glance, could be perceived as stereotypes; then, chapter by chapter, started stripping back their layers.
I loved writing Stewart because, well, he is just such a decent human being. But here’s the thing: I loved writing Ashley, too. Beyond having fun with her malapropisms, I had a lot of sympathy for her. Most readers seem to warm to her; I’ve had a few people tell me they couldn’t stand her. If I’m “totally one hundred percent honest,” to use Ashley’s phrase, maybe I have sympathy for her because I remember being her in so many ways. She is in that teenage girl swirl of hormones and insecurity, and it results in some really shitty behavior. Um … been there, done that …
From a technical perspective, writing two narrators was a unique challenge. On the plus side, I really only had to write half a length of a book for each of them. 🙂 The challenges were making sure I kept the story propelling forward every step of the way. I tried hard not to have too much repeat information, unless it was crucial to get it from both perspectives, in which case I’d try to tell it from a different entry-point into the scene, if that makes sense.
I also had to be very careful to make their voices entirely distinct. Thank goodness for my great editors, because they found a few slips, where I had given certain expressions to both of my narrators.
A friend of mine, author Susan Juby, has written a novel (and a sequel) with four narrators – now, that would be a daunting challenge!
About the Author:
Susin Nielsen got her start writing a spec script for the popular television series Degrassi Junior High. 
She went on to pen sixteen episodes of the hit show and four of the Degrassi books. Since then, she has received two Canadian Screenwriter Awards and a Gemini Award. She has written for many TV series, including Heartland, Arctic Air, and Robson Arms, which she co-created. Her first novel, Word Nerd, won four Young Readers’ Choice Awards and was a finalist for the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award and the Canadian Library Association’s Book of the Year Award, among others. Her second novel, Dear George Clooney, Please Marry My Mom, won three Young Readers’ Choice Awards and is a Winner of the Top Shelf Fiction for Middle School Readers by VOYA and the Gold Winner of the Book of the Year Award in Juvenile Fiction by ForeWord Reviews. Her third novel,The Reluctant Journal of Henry K. Larsen, won many awards, including the Governor General’s Literary Award, CLA’s Book of the Year for Children Award, and three Young Readers’ Choice Awards. It was also selected as one of the best fiction for young adults by the American Library Association and a Top Shelf for Middle School Readers by VOYA. Susin Nielsen lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, with her husband and son.
Thanks so much to Susin Nielsen for her guest post!
Leave a Reply