Go out and scare yourself silly!

Hello, everyone. It’s Chris McMahen, your next guest Orca blogger. This October, my new book, Klutzhood, will be unleashed upon the world. Life, as we know it, will never be the same! …Well, maybe that’s a little over-the-top, but excessive enthusiasm can do that to you. It’s my second novel for young readers. The first, published by Coteau Books in 1996, was Buddy Concrackle’s Amazing Adventure.

Klutzhood is quite autobiographical. The main character, Arlo, began his life in Victoria, then moved to a small town in the interior of British Columbia. I’ve lived just north of the small town of Armstrong, B.C. for the past couple of decades, teaching elementary school for a living, while burning the midnight oil trying to do some writing.

Moving to a new town as an adult can be a challenge, but moving as a kid is downright scary. There are so many unknowns when you move to a new place where you don’t know one single person and have to adjust to a new school and a strange environment. That’s what Arlo’s going through in Klutzhood.

At back-to-school time, there are plenty of kids who are going through this terrifying experience. The first day at a new school is often deeply etched in one’s memory. I remember starting at a new elementary school in Victoria and being absolutely petrified. As my mother walked me up the path toward the steps of the school, I threw up in front of my future classmates. I could now add profound embarrassment to my state of high anxiety. If I’d only known then that such an emotionally charged experience is great material for a fiction writer!

Maybe there’s a lesson to be learned from this. That lesson might go something like this… If you want to prepare yourself to write emotionally charged material, go out and scare yourself silly: apprentice as a lion tamer, tell the dentist you don’t need the anesthetic, drive a school bus on the last day of June, send away for that instructional DVD on sword swallowing, teach kindergarten. If you’re not up for that, think back to moments in your life when you were scared out of your wits. Even if they seem horribly common (standing at the end of the highest diving board looking down, ringing the doorbell at the really scary house on Hallowe’en, getting lost in a department store) there’s probably the seed of a potentially great story in there somewhere.

Anyone care to share a terrifying childhood experience that could make great writing material?

Enough of my rambling for now. Until next time,
Chris