DON'T try to be funny. An Interview with Jackie Marchant, writer of funny. Apparently.

By Candy Gourlay

It seems a long, long time ago now, in a galaxy far, far away that I first heard of Dougal Trump. I 'd just been friended on MySpace by an unpublished writer called Jackie Marchant, who was active on the British SCBWI list serve. On her MySpace was a very funny blurb about the manuscript she was shopping around, about a boy named Dougal writing his last will and testament.

That was a while ago (I wonder if my Myspace account is still alive?). When The Diary of a Wimpy Kid became big news, I felt a tiny ripple of recognition. It reminded me of something I read a while back ... OMG, Dougal Trump! I got to know Jackie over the years and we've been unpublished comrades-in-arms forever - except Jackie was agented from the start. And now ... well, Dougal is FINALLY alive and well, on the shelves of bookstores everywhere, annoying his big sister. 

Candy Congratulations, Jackie! TWO BOOKS! You wait years for one to be published and then ... but didn't you  start out thinking of yourself as an adult writer?

Jackie I did start writing for adults and had some success (of the unpublished variety, things like having agents ask for a full Ms, competition wins and stuff), then found children's writing by accident, through a competition. It's the best thing that ever happened to me and opened up the whole wonderful world of children's writing.

I definitely didn't aspire to be a writer of children's humour - in fact I think my early sights were set on the Booker Prize . . .

Candy So, Jackie - you call yourself a writer of funny ...


Jackie I never called myself a writer of funny.



Candy  I seem to remember seeing that on your website once.


Jackie Ah yes ... I think I wrote 'apparently' on the website as well. It was an editor who first told me my writing was funny, so now I am obliged to tell people I write humour. But I'd much rather just say I write a character-led series for middle grade.

Dougal came to me by accident, after my son asked me a question about writing a will. I stood in the mess of his room and wondered what he'd put in a will. I wrote (or thought) 'This is the last will and testament of . . . To my mother I leave all the mess in my bedroom, so she can put it into black bin liners and throw it out of the window - I know that has always been her greatest wish.'

Then this character just grew and I called him Dougal Trump. My son will always call himself 'the inspiration' but Dougal is very much his own character. As I said, I had no idea it was funny, so I was not working on any other funny ideas at the time (I was actually trying to write that Booker winner)

At the book launch at Waterstones, Oxford Street, Jackie reads out a note from Dougal which he wrote on the back of a homework sheet.

The fact that people find it funny is lovely, but quite scary. I honestly don't know if what I've written is funny until after I give to someone to read. If they laugh, I heave a sigh of relief!

Candy There seems to be a lot more room for comedy on the younger end of the scale. Why is that?

Jackie Children love to laugh is the simple answer to that. But I think it is a shame there is less humour for older readers. Maybe that's the question we should be asking.

I'd also say the Roald Dahl Funny Prize has done a lot for humorous fiction and I take my hat off to Michael Rosen for that.

Children's authors (plus one lord mayor and one Boris) have a giggle over Dougal. (from top, left to right) Chris Priestley, Katy Dale, Sarwat Chadda, Jon Mayhew, Joe Friedman, Helen Peters, Jasmine Richards, Fiona Dunbar, Candy Gourlay, Tim Collins, Lord Mayor of Ocklesford, Steve Cole, Steve Hartley, Philip Ardagh, Janet Foxley, Malorie Blackman and London Mayor Boris Johnson 

Candy There is definitely a demand for it. But the genre (if it can be called a genre) seems to be dominated by series fiction.

Jackie Perhaps it's because kids love the characters and want to read more. But I can honestly say that wrote my first Dougal Trump book as a one off. Then I had an idea for another. I'm sure that's often what happens. You've now got me trying to think of a one-off funny book!

Candy Ha ha! And character ...  character is key, isn't it with series? How do you design a character that can run and run ... although it sounds like you didn't plan for it to run and run!

Jackie You're right about not planning Dougal - he's just there. In fact he's on Facebook and Twitter as well as having his own website. People think it's odd that I think he's real - but he is! I don't think I could write him otherwise.

Candy I've seen your other, older work in a critique group - which is definitely not funny. In fact quite bloody. How do you go from writing about spiders and naughtiness to high blown, space mad, mind exploding fantasy?

Jackie My YA fantasy writing is completely different. I thought it might be humorous, but it didn't come out that way, and I believe with going with the flow. The fact is, I love living in my fantasy world, although writing it is very hard! But some people have found parts of it (namely my bad-ass alien) amusing, and that's fine.

How do I switch from one to the other? Well, I'm Dougal when I'm writing Dougal and I'm a sword wielding heroine when I'm writing her, or a girl with a dilema whizzing around in space. We can write different characters when working on the same book, so why not different books?

Or maybe I'm just a multi-tasker (I've done the washing, made tea, organised my launch and worked on my new WIP while doing this interview!)

Candy We writers are always looking for what sort of published writer we are ... what sort of writer did you initially think/aspire yourself to be and why?


Jackie I can only say that I'm a published writer of funny middle grade fiction. I'd love to say I'm a published writer of YA fantasy as well, but that hasn't happened yet, so I just say I also write YA fantasy. I don't think it's that unusual for children's writers to write different genres.

Candy I've been in a critique group with you and one of your outstanding qualities as a writer is your world building ... your worlds seem to come out fully formed! Did the same thing happen with Dougal or did you have to work at it a little bit?

Jackie Oh. I've never really thought of Dougal's world as one that had to be built. He lives in an ordinary town in an ordinary street, goes to an ordinary school, plays football on the usual playing fields. So, there really was no world to build there. Fantasy is different, because you are talking about a completely different world, but I think I'd need a whole new interview to go into that! (Maybe if I ever get one published . . . ) Oh, and please don't ask me how I build my worlds, I don't know!

Candy Interesting how you think it's not the same thing - I can totally see how evolving a small boy's funny world would be the same as evolving world of fleet swordfighting, head chopping characters. Now, if you could put your craft hat on, can you give us a checklist - HOW does one write funny?

Jackie Okay. My first tip is ...

DON'T!! Don't try to be funny

There is nothing worse than someone trying to be funny. Humour often comes from situations that aren't funny, like slipping on a banana skin - it's not funny for the person doing the slipping. DON'T flag your humour.  NEVER tell your reader that this is funny, don't have your characters rolling about laughing, it's your readers who should be doing that.

PG Wodehouse is brilliant, because all his characters take themselves so seriously. Not one of them would think of themselves as funny, yet the way he writes them keeps you laughing.

TV's Wooster and Jeeves

Give your character a VOICE. 

The bearded Mr. Ardagh

Don't fight it. If it doesn't come out funny, then don't force it. But if it does, just go with the flow and enjoy the ride. Love being your character. Being your character is one of the best things about writing - you can be whoever you want!

A good example of voice is anything by Philip Ardagh. His humour just leaps off the page. He is an expert at making any situation funny, through the way he writes it.

A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket aka Daniel Handler is a perfect example of great use of the authorial viewpoint and definitely humour in there too.

A Series of Unfortunate Events

It's not what you write that makes humour - it's how you write it!

Be your character

You have to literally jump inside your character's skin. You have to BE that character, see though his/her eyes, smell what he smells, feel what he feels etc etc. Don't just look through their eyes, see they way they do, hear the way they hear, be them. Wherever you are, imagine what it would be like to be your character. Imagine them at the dinner table - and don't worry if your family wonder who you are talking to, they get used to it!

In children's books, Socks are not Enough by Mike Lowery, is about a boy who finds himself in the horrendous situation of having nudist parents who have decided that from now on, they will go around the house stark naked.

Can you imagine the traumatic effect this would have on a 14 year old boy? Not at all funny for him, but absolutely hilarious for the reader. And it was quite rightly shortlisted for the Roald Dahl Funny Prize.

Things have to go wrong to be funny

I heard Hugh Dennis say that on The One Show.

Give it a twist

Humour is also about the unexpected, about giving things a twist. Tim Collins' Diary of a Wimpy Vampire is a great example of that. We all expect vampires to be scary, powerful and sexy - so Tim invents one who is spotty, awkward about girls and lacking confidence. And being a vampire just makes it all worse. And very hilarious to the reader.

Candy Hilarious! There's quite a glut of poo, bum stuff in the market as well though. How do you sort the snot from the truly funny?

Jackie Again, I'd say it's not what you write, but how you write it. Kids do have a certain sense of toilet humour, but just putting poo in a book for the sake of it doesn't work for me. It has to be there for a reason. Morris the Mankiest Monster by Giles Andreae and Sarah McIntyre is a great example of disgusting humour that really works because it is all totally relevant to the story.

Candy Yes, it's proof that disgusting can be adorable. Can you see yourself writing more books like Dougal? Or do you have to wait for another character to leap, unplanned onto your drawing (er writing) board?

Jackie I did write another book, but my agent thought the voice was too like Dougal, so I've decided to stick with Dougal for the time being. I've also written a couple of others, which I may well go back to. But I think Dougal should run his course first.

Candy How do you know when a character has run his course?


Jackie I'll let you know when it happens! I guess it's when you don't feel like writing them any more, but that hasn't happened yet.

Candy Well that was great ... thanks so much.


Jackie Can I go and get the washing out now?



Candy You may go.

A gap in the market? Age appropriate fiction for high ability young readers

Philippa Francis

Last weekend at the SCBWI retreat, I got a chance to spend some quality time with KM Lockwood aka Philippa Francis MA. It was wonderful to finally have a proper conversation, at all the writing events, Philippa is one of those people always roaring past with great purpose.  She's also SO on the brink of publication, it ain't funny - longlisted for the Times/Chickenhouse competiton and shortlisted for the Mslexia Novel Competition!

We were talking about a school I'd visited that day, where I met Year Fives and Sixes who were clearly reading way above their alleged reading age. The teacher told me it was a struggle to find books of the right level that were appropriate for their emotional ages. So many teen books had relationship, love, sex elements that were not appropriate for these young readers. Are authors missing a trick? Was there a gap in the market for more difficult books aimed at a younger audience? Philippa decided to go off and do a survey. Here's her report.

I used to be a primary school teacher and and a GATCO or G and T co-ordinator (Editor's note: Gifted and Talented, not the other G and T!). How very appropriate, I hear you say, but really I looked after provision for children with gifts and talents – no ice or lemons involved. [I think all children have gifts and talents – but that’s another debate].

Despite a wonderful school librarian, one of the hardest things was finding enough interesting books to satisfy our most voracious young readers. I spoke to other GATCOs and they had the same problem.

The chief difficulty was finding challenging texts at their emotional level. We had children who understood subtext, coped with complex syntax and took tricky vocabulary in their stride. But what they didn’t want or enjoy was watered-down teen books.

I would scour second-hand bookshops for fiction from earlier decades – but of course, that was often dated. Reprints could be handy – but we generally felt there was not enough for bright young readers that we could honestly recommend – especially to parents.

Now this was a decade ago.

Have things changed, I wondered? Anecdotal evidence from Amazon discussions suggests not – though there may be some parental boasting going on.

I like data – so I sent out a random survey. The responses, though not numerous, were very interesting.

Infographics

First statement

When looking for new fiction for high ability young readers
• 26 of the 54: it is easy to find interesting books that suit the emotional age of the reader
• 28 of the 54: it is hard to find interesting books that suit the emotional age of the reader

Not a great deal in it from this small sample.

Second statement

Fiction targeted at older children and teens...
19 of the 54: is suitable for high ability younger readers
35 of the 54: is unsuitable for high ability younger readers

A somewhat different response – my tentative conclusion is that they felt there was enough range in pre-teen fiction – without having to ‘move on’ to teen and YA books.

The respondents were so hugely positive one wonders if there's a Golden Age going on. Here are some  of their comments:

• ...a lot of young people's books have surprisingly sophisticated emotional content

• I find there to be MUCH more material available now, than there was then.

• ...amazing writing being published for all ages/ abilities in children's fiction at present... I'd say there has never been more choice.

Although there were concerns expressed ...

• There are some not very nice themes out there for children. Thankfully I have a bookcase full of the faithful old books my mum read as a child!

• Absolutely relate to this! Have a six year-old who is reading voraciously. Reading schemes at school can't serve her as the contexts in the higher levels are beyond her knowledge.

• Too much hanky-panky in YA books these days - not suitable for younger readers, however clever they may be.

• Contemp stuff often rude / violent 12 plus. And hard to vet all in advance. In fact, impossible, as they are borrowing from school library and parents lose control.

And sometimes, it seems the parent/gatekeeper will just have to trust the young reader's judgement ...

• However much I suggest books, usually my high ability reader daughter wants to choose them herself and actively disregards my choices.

• I've found a wide variety of interesting books that suit high ability young readers, as long as their parents aren't concerned with censoring the content. I find most high ability readers also have a degree of emotional maturity that allows them to take on more mature stories.

• I think such readers are intelligent enough to find a book that works for them, and are able to draw their own lines

I find most high ability readers also have a degree of emotional maturity that allows them to take on more mature stories.

Finally

It only remains for me to point out the breakdown of who answered –

28 Parents
4 Booksellers
4 Librarians
18 Other [teachers and authors] 

... and to say a heartfelt thank you to all my respondents.

Philippa R. Francis MA

So there you have it (even if it was an exceedingly random sample. As an author, I'm curious to find out if publishers have identified this need for age appropriate books for age-inappropriate reading levels. It goes the other way too. My good friend who teaches in special needs tells me of a gap in age-appropriate fiction for young people with learning disabilities - thrillers, adventures, romances - the hunger for story is there but there isn't a lot of fiction to access. Thank goodness for publishers like Barrington Stoke who specialise in books for reluctant, struggling and dyslexic readers. With thanks to Philippa and her respondentsfor the impromptu survey! Candy Gourlay