MALORIE BLACKMAN

Since her first title was published in 1990, Malorie Blackman has written more than fifty books for young people of all ages, as well as TV scripts and original television dramas. Her best-known books for young adults are the Noughts and Crosses series featuring Callum and Sephy (Noughts and Crosses, Knife Edge, Checkmate, and, just published, Double Cross). This interview took place in December 2008, and features questions submitted by EnCompass readers from around the world.

Maria do Céu Costa: When writing for children do you have any particular messages you value most to address them?

Malorie Blackman:  I don’t have a particular message that I feel the need to pass on in my books no matter what! I’ve written a number of different books in a number of different genres so each book has its own things to say. Some may have a message, some do not. But I hope that all my books are an entertaining read. On a different note, if a child or young adult tells me that they want to be a writer, one piece of advice I always give is – don’t give up! 

Maria do Céu Costa: Did any of your life experiences influence the writing of your first book?

MB: I’m assuming that you mean the first book in my Noughts and Crosses series (Noughts and Crosses is actually my 50th book). A  number of my own life experiences influenced my writing of Noughts and Crosses – good and bad.  Some of the bad experiences that happen to Callum at school are based on true incidents that happened to me when I was a teenager.  No writer writes in a vacuum, so past events always shape my writing in some manner, shape or form.

 
Liisa M: Hi Malorie! I am a big fan of the Noughts and Crosses books. I really admire the way you create such convincing characters. I would like to know if Callum and Sephy came first to your mind, or was it the story you really wanted to tell?

MB: Glad you like my books! The overall story came to my mind first. I had to work harder to develop the characters of Callum and Sephy, but that’s the way it always is. I always get my story line or plot first , then I work hard at creating characters who seem like real people, with their own foibles and quirks. If they feel like real people in my head then I hope this will translate to my characters feeling like real people when I write my stories and hopefully when other people read my stories.

Tanguene: I know Noughts and Crosses is about love but in writing it you invert society. What are the experiences which make it pleasant to invert the society in your creative writing?

MB: The great thing for me about inverting society as I know it, was that it allowed me as a writer the freedom to create any kind of world I chose and no one could say ‘But society isn’t really like that.’ In inverting society in my book, I could invent my own laws, names for factions in the society, etc. That was very liberating.

Tanguene: Is there a message for any specific group or groups of people (characters in your story, for example) who are affected and who witness this inversion in your stories? What is the final picture (a better society of love, wisdom, understanding…?) we have after the inversion is complete?

MB: There’s no specific message for any group or groups of people who may read my books. What I want to do with my books is present a world for people to view and respond to as they see fit. If I have any hope for a ‘final picture’, it would be that we all have a little more tolerance and understanding for those who may be ‘different’ to ourselves. So if there is any message at all in my books, maybe it’s that.

Maria do Céu Costa: While writing Noughts and Crosses did you face any particular moments which might have influenced your characters positively or negatively?

MB: I wrote the book just after the Stephen Lawrence case happened in Britain, where a black teenager was murdered by five white youths. So I guess there was a sense of simmering anger inside me when I wrote Noughts and Crosses. Did that influence the way I wrote the story? I think it probably did.

Daniel Lange: What made you decide to go on and write Double Cross after Checkmate ('the third and final' episode of the series) had appeared?

MB: Because Tobey Durbridge kept whispering in my ear and telling me his story, so in the end I gave up and had to write it to get some peace! I know that makes me sound like I’m barking, but that’s what it felt like. I really thought I’d finished with the Noughts and Crosses world after Checkmate, but once I got the idea for Tobey’s story, I knew I wouldn’t be able to write anything else until I’d written about him first.

KoKo: Will there be another instalment to the Noughts and Crosses series after Double Cross?

MB: Who knows? It depends if another character from that world starts whispering in my ear…

Martika: I would like to know more about Malorie's work as a screenwriter, in particular how she began writing for TV, and whether she prefers writing fiction or screenplays?

MB: I attended the National Film and Television school in Beaconsfield, England on an eighteen-month post-graduate course in Screenwriting. I’ve adapted a couple of my own books for TV and I also wrote for a few years for a long running BBC children’s series called Byker Grove which was cancelled a couple of years ago. Before I even attended the NFTS, I read as many film and TV scripts as I could to get an idea of the format and form of scripts. I enjoy writing scripts but I must admit, I love writing books more.

DD79: I have heard that Malorie has also written screen versions of some of her work. Does she think it's better for a writer to take control of the screen adaptation process, or is there sometimes an argument for sitting back and letting someone else take the work in a new direction?

MB: It depends on the writer and the work in question. Earlier in my career, I wanted to write the adaptations of my own books to ensure that any characters in a TV or film dramatisation remained true to the characters in the book. But now, I’m quite happy for someone else to adapt my books for stage, screen or TV. As far as I’m concerned, I’ve already written to the book, so I don’t really want to go over the same ground twice.

Maria do Céu Costa: What advice would you give to someone who loves writing but... thinks it's difficult to organise/frame/create the whole story?

MB: Each person has to find their own style of writing, their own voice. If you find it difficult to frame/create a whole story, think about how and where you want your story to begin (at a moment just before something dramatic happens in the life of your main character is always a good place to start). Make sure that things get worse in the middle and have events work their way up to a satisfying conclusion. When I get stuck, I think about how I would tell the same story verbally to a good friend, which bits would I tell them, which bits would I leave out, how would I keep them interested in my story – then I write it down the way I’d tell it.

Ali: Malorie, what three things do you most need in order to be able to write?

MB: Silence, my imagination and my computer.

Susan Tranter: Many thanks for taking part, Malorie. Good luck with Double Cross.

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