Part two of This Writing Life's conversation with Rebecca Thornton, about her debut novel The Exclusives, begins with a discussion of what perfection means to her characters. This is not something we know much about at This Writing Life. But anyway. Rebecca compares her feelings as a teenager to what perfection means to her today as a writer and mother. ----more----From here we reverse towards the evolution of The Exclusives itself, from romantic comedy to dark-hearted thriller. We plunge on to:
- writing as a form of therapy
- withholding in narrative and content
- fronts, repression and fear - at school and in fiction
- judgment and teenage life
- how has school changed over the past two decades?
- the portrayal of mental illness in The Exclusives
- is This Writing Life asking too many questions?
- 'That's a bit terrifying': what Rebecca's husband thought of The Exclusives
- 'My life is over': teenage angst and teenage pressure
- #checkyourprivilege: is The Exclusives too exclusive?
- Mallory Towers etc: fictional models?
- Rebecca's early writing experiments (teen erotica)
- how does it feel (to write)?
- anxiety, paranoia, disaster, thrillers (and children)
Part 3 of 3 to follow.
