Malorie Blackman: Writing from the heart and selling from the head

Malorie Blackman
Conference Writing Keynote Speaker 2013

It was a joy to listen to National Treasure and Children's Laureate, Malorie Blackman at SCBWI British Isles' Annual Conference in Winchester this year. She came to the Writers' Day in 2004, chaired the Undiscovered Voices 2012 judging panel and this year 2013, gave the writing keynote on Saturday morning in her wonderfully warm, relaxed and honest style. A joy.


Writing from the heart...

Malorie Blackman has always written, while she loves contemporary dance, writing has always been her way to honestly express herself. It has been her safety valve, held her hopes and dreams, allowed her to let things out and let things go.

She poured her feelings into diaries creating the habit of not just writing everyday but honestly expressing her thoughts and feelings.

When anything challenging happened in her life, Malorie wrote. She poured her feelings into diaries creating the habit of not just writing everyday but honestly expressing her thoughts and feelings. She's with Graham Greene, in that writing is a certainly a form of therapy.

Life past, present, and future, real and alternate have all inspired her imagination

Malorie became a people watcher a 'life vampire'. Research not nosiness, drawing her to uncurtained living rooms, couples in restaurants and I suspect, those loud mobile conversations people have on buses. Life past, present, and future, real and alternate have all inspired her imagination.

'Write what you care about'

A common piece of advice is to 'Write what you know' but perhaps more important is to 'Write what you care about'. So Malorie took us through some the real life experiences that she has cared about and that inspired her 50 plus novels.

Malorie's teenage years at school
and the death of Stephen Lawrence

Her daughter's teacher ( a crisp fan)

The nightmares she started
having after many rejections

Her first career as a computer programmer

Being bullied...

Reported shortage of human donors
for transplants

… Selling from the head

If we write from the heart, we should sell from the head. Here are Malorie's top tips for doing just that:

• Be a trend setter not a trend follower
• Do your research
• Protect your work and your rights
• Register for PLR
• Promote your work school visits, festivals local libraries local bookshops\
• When you’re in a book shop turn your books face out
• Cherish good editors and listen to their advice
• No life experience is wasted neither postive nor negative
• Every character is  a facet of our own personality.
• Imagination is like a muscle the longer u use it the stronger it grows.

and finally

Get out there and do stuff then you’ll have something to write about!

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Jan Carr is the editor of Words & Pictures. Her fiction is older middle grade, she blogs occasionally and loves to write in magenta. You can contact her at editor@britishscbwi.org.