Teen Killers: Life Without Parole

Last night I found myself accidentally watching a documentary on BBC3 which has left me with some profound feelings, so I wanted to share it – it also links to one of my previous posts about the prison system in Britain. It’s part of the channels Crime and Punishment series, and this installment featured several young men in American jails, who have been sentenced to life imprisonment without parole.

It was a very disturbing film (and my only complaint is that I could have done without the stylised mortuary shots of the victims, which was very voyeuristic). The young men talked of their crimes and how they felt about themselves and their future. Some had experienced that long dark night of the soul in which they had confronted their inner demons, taken responsibility for their actions, and finally understood why they were in prison. Others had not. But one story in particular made me cry.

Sean Taylor was sentenced to life imprisonment for shooting dead an innocent bystander caught up in gang violence. In prison, he continued to live the life of a gang member, viewing the world through that narrow prism and getting into constant trouble with the authorities. But Sean was fortunate. An older inmate decided to look out for him, and every day would approach him and ask him a particular question. Here Sean leans forward and shares the question that was to save him:

“What have you read today?”

So Sean started reading. And it opened up his eyes to whole new worlds, made him delve into his own inner self, and make the tremendously brave decision to change his life. Through reading, he discovered Islam, and this showed him another path. He gathered his fellow inmates together and told them he was no longer going to be a gang member – he was going to live a better life, even though he was incarcerated, and he would help anyone else who wished to do the same. His transformation was to change not only his life, but the lives of many others. And the State Governor was moved to commute his sentence to parole.

Now Sean lives back in his home community, working with young people to try and stop them from getting involved with gangs, and to steer them away from lives of violence. It’s impossible to know how many lives his actions have actually saved, but his brave effort to pay back society for his own crimes were admirable. He spoke as an intelligent, committed and articulate man, and his story moved me greatly. I am inspired.

Proof, if any be needed, that reading can change lives.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b041yb2b

 

That writing thing…

I really need to start practising what I preach. When I critique work for other writers, the two main points I invariably pick up on are show don’t tell – that oh-so-important mantra that is the key to fluid writing – and have a plan. You have to know where you’re going and how you’re going to get there.

So why is it so hard for me to do the latter? I admit I’m crap at following maps. And the novel that’s been tormenting me for nearly five years now started life as a NaNoWriMo – I just wrote and wrote and waited to see what happened, and the joy of it was immense. Characters appeared by themselves, did what they wanted, and my subconscious got free reign. It was great fun.

Then I read it through and thought – hmm, this doesn’t really make sense!

So last year I got it out of the drawer where it had languished for nearly two years and discovered that actually it wasn’t as bad as I’d feared. My writing style isn’t awful, though it does need a good polish. Some of my ideas were good and worth keeping, as was a character or two. My heroine though was a pain in the backside – I just haven’t got her voice right. But the main thing was I’d written without a plan and it showed. There were gaping plot holes, and the pace was all wrong, and I just wasn’t sure what kind of story I was telling. It veered from one genre to another and just didn’t sit right in any.

So I’ve gone back to the beginning. This involves a notebook, pens, an outrageous amount of post-it notes (I should buy shares in the company!) and a hell of a lot of thinking time before I start re-writing.

The first thing I noticed was that there were really two stories and I was only telling one half, so now I have two heroines – one contemporary, one in the past. And suddenly, my new heroine seems far more interesting. If I can get a handle on her voice and motivations, my contemporary heroine should fall into line, as a contrast and a continuation. And telling the story of the past allows the story taking place in the present to actually have more impact – that’s the resolution. So my notebook at the moment has names with spider diagrams with details about each character – the facts about them (birthdate, job, personality) and their journey (in love with, resentful of, etc). Then the plot starts to come together, pulled naturally from these people. Just why does heroine A get involved with villain B, and what’s his devious plan? How does it start to unravel? What are the consequences? Who does what and where and when? There are clusters of post-it notes (not quite colour-coded, but almost!) asking why? and how? and saying needs a proper motive! So although all the answers aren’t there yet, as I look at my characters in their little webs, they start to become more corporeal, and I can start to feel he would never do that, she would say this, and the plot starts to form into something plausible and interesting.

It’s going to take me a while to get this right, because I don’t want any holes in my plot, or any of my cast acting out of character. And when I start writing, my characters may tell me I’ve misunderstood, or insist on going their own way. But once the structure of my plot is formed, I will have control. And that’s a good feeling!