When I opened a blank document and started on the fifth version, Sophie’s voice simply sprung onto the page. I knew this couldn’t be autobiography and so after many years of mistakes I began to meaningfully question who was telling the story. I tried third person and dual narratives but it didn’t feel right. There were four attempts before Stone Girl. Can you talk about writing this character? How did you find her voice?
Sophie is such a gutsy, honest character and you immediately want the best for her, even as the world lets her down. There are currently about 40,000 children and teenagers who live separately from their parents in Australia and we don’t often hear about them. I wanted to tell a true-to-life story of life in care. I met many kids who were broken yet resilient and strong and creative. It’s a powerful tool to launch these characters from such a ‘tragic’ start. Or, parentlessness is used as a vehicle to enhance the reader’s appreciation of some amazing opportunity that befalls that protagonist. For example, they are the unredeemable character others quickly learn to distrust. I wanted to show the transformation that occurs when a teenager is responsible for their own survival, the friendships and choices that are made.įrom my experience, most creative portraits of kids in care (and those who live without parents) are clichéd. I wanted people to walk in the footsteps of a kid in care. Stone Girl is inspired by true life events. I didn’t have a clue how to create an 80,000-word manuscript – but I knew I had to write this story.
I went home and simply started writing (SO badly, at first). After I submitted it, my lecturer called me into a meeting and said he thought it had the makings of a novel and that I should keep writing. Stone Girl’s inception was as a 3000-word essay at university for a creative non-fiction class. Can you tell us what initially sparked this story and what made you want to tell it? In this interview, she talks about the inspiration behind the book, find the voice of her amazing main character Sophie, and balancing light and dark in a novel for young adults.Ĭongratulations on being shortlisted for the Readings YA Book Prize! Your book is such a moving and emotional story of survival and hope. Eleni Hale is one of the six authors shortlisted for 2019 Readings Young Adult Book Prize for her powerful story of survival and hope, Stone Girl.
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