Rini & Butler hit 100 pages. I think this is the fastest and longest that I’ve committed to an extended piece without taking a break. It’s sitting at 129 pages at the moment. 22 August is its birthdate.

In the publishing proposal, we had to talk about the aims of our work, but I have a feeling I didn’t quite understand the section and instead wrote about what I want the book to do rather than how it measured up against the aims of the publisher I was writing for. But I still want to think about the aims of the piece and so that’s the purpose of this post.

Pull the String of the Bow

One of the biggest differences between how I write now and how I used to write is thinking about the purpose of the piece. I wrote what I wanted to read and never thought any further than that. It’s now an important part of the process for me and has led to me rewriting the plans of older work. ‘What’s the point?’ ‘What’s the message?’ ‘What do I want readers to take away from this?’ All of that.

I haven’t yet started writing pieces that are based on a purpose but rather write and then work my aims in how I see fit, like piping chocolate into a doughnut.

A lot of the time, I write characters that already deal with issues that I think are important, and so it’s not hard to weave a purpose into them. This is mostly because these issues are relevant to me, and so I’ve always put them into my characters and plot. Writing started as a way to escape and has continued with that theme but not the same mindset … if that makes sense.

So, Rini & Butler

Rini & Butler deals with three main themes:

• Mental health in adolescents
• The obligation of humanity
• The individual against the system

Mixed in are some smaller themes. Although they do have an overarching presence in the novel, they’re not in the foreground as much as the others. Such as, homelessness, relationships and family dynamics.

With Rini & Butler, I want these themes to be obvious but also blended, to show the diversity and complexity of issues that people might have. I want to show different angles of this. Rini isn’t just an angsty teen who hates authority, listens to sad music, fights everyone and cries herself to sleep every night.

I don’t know if I completely understand the method of “adding dimension to characters” but I think that’s what I’m working really hard to do with Rini. It’s important to me that this comes naturally though, if it doesn’t write itself in then I’m not likely to include it. She grows with the novel.

Butler’s arc is more about discovering what it means to be yourself. Sometimes we have an idea of who we want to be, or who others want us to be, and really don’t know who we are until we interact with people who are okay with our rawness.

A lot of the novel also works with the complexities of humanity and the individual and how in a lot of circumstances we’re expected to fit a cut out. A mental health blanket does not fit everyone, sometimes it doesn’t even fit the same person twice, and I show this through Butler’s constant adjustment of how he’s trying to help Rini when she doesn’t respond to the expectations he has formed from the databases available. Acceptance of this is also part of it; he affirms that she not just an “angry teen with mood swings” but a hurt individual who needs to be understood to be helped. And it’s not just about “fixing” her problems but empowering her to grow into her own.

The overall purpose of the work is to be entertaining whilst also making readers think more about the issues raised, looking at their own perceptions and understanding. That’s the kind of writing I want to achieve. I want my stories to be interesting and worth reading, but also either bringing awareness or at least encouraging readers to think more about the underlying themes or topics brought up.