If you’re a 20-something women who grew up reading books, you’ll have surely come across Francesca Lia Block and her darkly lyrical YA novels. Her books defy genre, often bringing the realms of magical realism and fairy tale into gritty urban landscapes. As a teenager I fell in love with her lush, poetic writing, which always made me feel as though I was about to leave the safe lands and enter the dark woods.
Naturally when she sat down to do a podcast with actress and Youtuber Anna Akana, I had to sit and watch. It helps that Block’s voice is the vocal equivalent of drinking a cup of hot chocolate in bed on a rainy Sunday morning while also listening to acoustic covers of Top 40 hits because life is too perfect to worry about what anyone else thinks of your taste in music. I mean, can you imagine being in her writing class? (Because, yes, here is where I discovered that Block teaches Writing YA Novels at UCLA.)
When your imagination fails to take you to Los Angeles and under Block’s masterful tutelage, just listen to the podcast an….pretend for a little while. It’s the next best thing. While we recommend listening to the whole thing, we’ve picked out some of the notable mentions for your scrolling pleasure.
The Highlights
- Block finds the cathartic aspect of writing to be the most exciting part. Also: “taking something that’s chaotic in life and giving it form and beauty in order.”
- The elements of a good story: “Story is a lot about change, and watching a character change. You want a character with a strong arc. You want to have a likable, sympathetic character, and you want to have conflict, intention, and obstacles for them so they have earned that change in the end. A good way to set it up is to have a strong antagonist.”
- Because she has kids, her writing desk is in the living room where they hang out. But even when she’s not sitting there six hours a day, she’s always thinking about writing and always being involved in the process.
- Changing the way we perceive “writing” can ease some of the pressure we place on ourselves: “”It’s more about thinking of it as the continuous process of being involved in writing as opposed to panning out a certain number of really well put together words every day.”
- For example, even when she finishes a terrible first draft, she says, “Yay, that’s so awesome!” and treats herself to dinner. You have to give yourself those milestones because writing can be a solitary process.
- She’s a big advocate of the outline: “I wrote many books without outlining them at all, and it was very intuitive…but I reached a point in my career where I couldn’t do that anymore because I had to be churning out books.” She has 12 questions that she asks before starting any story; I am dying to know what they are.
- Block acknowledges the challenges facing novelists and aspiring novelists today: “It’s harder to get published. There’s more money if you’re in the upper scale [of authors but] there’s less money otherwise.” But the good news is that there’s a lot of opportunity and excitement through other outlets. Above all else, it’s important to build a community.
- “Whatever happens, story is never going away….We need story in an evolutionary, biological way. We need it in much more profound ways than we probably even realize.”
- On following trends: She tries to stay aware of the trends but not too aware of their influence. “Anytime you try to jump on a trend it’s too late. You have to create your own trend.”
- Instead, she looks within for the stories she’s ready to tell. “I usually try to follow what’s going on for me emotionally in life, and the deeper and more personal I can get with that, the more it usually can connect with other people.” The Weetzie Bat books were the most personal stories she ever wrote, and had the most commercial success.
- Finally, her advice to writers: “It’s kind of cliche, but write write write, read a lot. Find a community, a mentor perhaps, or just friends that can support you. Go deep into your own feelings. Don’t think about what other people wanna see, but what you need to write. The more compelled you are to write, the more effective it will be…Write from both your heart and head and the same time.”
