How media events shaped Louder Than Words
This book is the only one I’ve ever written where real time
events have shaped what happens in the book. From the very first idea about the
hacktivists, stuff seemed to happen to direct and change what was going on in
Louder Than Words. As soon as I started to think about it, a group called
LulzSec hit the headlines and a high profile court case followed. I was already
aware of a hacking collective called Anonymous and that they seemed to have
changed their approach from trolling of anyone they didn’t like to a more moral
agenda of attack, but then Lulzsec appeared. I kept an eye on the court case
and the comments from the various accused. Those certainly began to shape the
character of Dillon, and especially that God-complex part of him that you see
from time to time.
I did most of the writing of the book while I was on
maternity leave. I’d pop the baby down next to me to sleep on a special pod and
I’d write while she napped. Any new mother will tell you that you spend most of
those early months sleep deprived so I needed lots of little breaks to keep my
concentration up. This meant I’d stop every half hour for a break and because I
couldn’t move from where I was sitting or I’d wake the baby, I spent time
messing around on Pinterest and Twitter and surfing the net looking at breaking
news that I wouldn’t normally have time to see.
The cyber bullying part of the book had already been decided
but when I was spending more time on the net every day, the sheer amount of
trolling of women and aggression towards them was startling. There was one
particular incident which really disgusted me. A bunch of girls from an
all-girls school in my home city had done a display of pictures for an online
promotion of feminism. It was harmless and unexceptionable stuff. Cue a
revolting amount of trolling and aggression towards them for daring to open
their mouths. In the end their school advised them to withdraw the pictures for
their own safety. The internet was also full of articles on how girls were
being treated in university – social events using advertising promoting
violence towards women. That kind of thing is a complete shock to my generation
– we’d have ripped those posters down as soon as we saw them and we just don’t
understand why girls tolerate that and tolerate boys who treat them as if
that’s just all one big joke. Obviously at the time I was writing Lara as a
character. Writing characters can be a bit like method acting – you have to
channel them and Lara was furious about this stuff. Some of that found its way
into the book.
Then of course there’s Josie and Rafi’s quote swapping and
again when I was trawling around Pinterest being Josie it struck me how much time
as women and girls we spend whining about hair and weight and getting boys and
men to like us. So many quotes about being badly treated by guys. So why accept
it? And why care so much that you let it hurt you. Josie was in that place, of
course, where she wouldn’t accept any of that. There was a quote on there that
I loved: a lion does not lose sleep over the opinion of sheep. My inner Lara
and Josie really embraced the concept that you empower yourself against being a
victim and hold yourself above that.
Thanks for sharing, Laura! A fab post, and I can't wait to read the book.
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