Writing like a Mammoth

For the novel I am currently submitting, Ashley Grimes Mammoth Whisperer, I had to write convincing and authentic fauna, in particular mammoths.

For context here’s the elevator pitch…

Ashley Grimes Mammoth Whisperer

Ash must save the herd of woolly mammoths that have been cloned to help slow global warming, from an evil big game hunting obsessed billionaire. By overcoming the difficulties of her dyslexia and dyscalculia and combining her skills in understanding mammoth behaviour with her friend’s, Ruby’s escapologist skills and Jack’s technical whizzery, the three children endeavour to save, a village, Ash’s dad and of course the mammoths!

Writing real and convincing animals can be difficult but is much easier if you have experience of keeping them or observing them in the flesh. This can be easy or tricky depending on the animal, dog – easy, Komodon Dragon – tricker, but a species which has long been extinct is impossible.

This can be avoided by cheating. And yes, I initially tried to cheat, but having my main protagonist be able to talk to the mammoths. The problem was it undermine the concept and stood the book in a weird position of being too old for a Chapter Book, and too young for Middle Grade. Upon several lovely folk’s invaluable feedback, who suggested that I take out the Doctor Doolittle element (you know who you are and thank you so much), I made the decision to rewrite. This time with no anthropopeia in sight.

 

It was the right course of action and improved the manuscript immeasurably, putting it firmly in the desired middle grade age group, but initially starting the task was daunting. What so I know about how mammoth behave? Oe how they interact with humans? I had obviously already done some research, but this edit meant that it had to greatly upped – mammoth style.

I do have animal husbandry experience – birds of various types, parrots, pigeons, even rheas. Reptiles – iguanas, chameleons, geckos. Fish. Small mammals – rodents, dogs, cats, sheep, alpacas. Yep, yep yep.

So how then to work out how a long dead species would behave? It had to be two-fold firstly – find out what is known about mammoths and their interactions with out ancestors. Secondly looks at mammoths closest living relative, elephants and more specifically Asian Elephants.

 

As I couldn’t afford a trip to India to meet actual elephants, then visiting a safari park to observe them from a distance would have to do. Plus watching every documentary, I could find on either elephants or mammoths.

 

The next one was the biggy. I may not been able to stretch to a trip to India but I could justify investing in books. I researched books, and brought any I could on elephants behaviour, mannerisms, culture, society and interactions with humans.

 

This was fascinating, as I read biographies of Jumbo and then the autobiography of his keeper. Books on animal husbandry and zoology, general elephant behaviour. Guides on being safe around elephants on safari. I also looked for any books on paleozoology and evolutionary biology about mammoths. In addition, I also looked at neanderthals and their interactions with fauna, and mammoths specifically.

Whilst I did this I was armed with many colours of highlighters and matching tag post-its. Why? Well, I love my emotional thesaurus for writing that I use all the time when writing in order to show characters emotions rather than tell, so I decided to create my own thesaurus of mammoths behaviours.

 

So anything of certain grouped behaviours or reactions, say anger and aggression, was highlighted one colour and a corresponding coloured tag put on the page. I also created a key, so I know which colour was which group of behaviours. This meant that while I was editing, I could find all the resources I needed for certain behaviours in my attempts to create an authentic and believable representation of the mammoths.

 

I also did the same for mammoth/human interactions,

It was a lot of work, but I believe the books is much, much better as a result. And if I am ever lucky enough to so a sequel at least I already have the resource at hand.

Write, Read, Play. Pen, Books, TOYS!

Writing kid’s books comes hand in hand with reading kid’s books, whether you are published or pre-published. It’s like breathing, reading is inhaling, and writing is exhaling. But here another thing which I believe to be intrinsically linked to with writing books for children – PLAYING WITH TOYS.

It’s about two things, firstly channelling your inner child in order to write a more authentic children’s voices. The second is far more particle as toys can be utilised in the writing process.

 

Toys are a kind of time machine, helping your mind to travel back to your younger self. In fact for my birthday I was given a He-Man and Skelator, which I had wanted since I was six, and I instantly felt that I was that age again!

This is why, when you look at the places I write, they always indulge my inner child. In fact we have one very grown up steam-punk style bookcase (kindly made by my husband out of scaffolding poles and 1930’s floorboards that we saved from landfill), but despite the fact that at a glance its appears very adult, when you look closely you’ll see Garfield lazing about, Orinoco taking a nap and even a dodo. Plus other toys and characters from the 1980’s. I even have the top draw of my desk stuffed full of toys. I do this as I find that being surrounded by tangible motifs of my childhood really helps me reconnect with my younger self, and therefore aids me in creating a more convincing child’s voice.

 

But toys are more than time machines; they often help me when I am stuck. Toys can be the ladder out of a plot hole, the device that saves you from the abyss of uncertainty, or help you navigate your fictional world, or even be the tools that construct it in the first place.

Recently I was doing some edits on a WIP and I came to screaming halt, and stayed there stuck steadfast. It was a gapping plot hole that hinged on the motivations of the antagonist, and after struggling for weeks, I got the toys out. I started to play with toy animals and plastic soldiers. Within no time I’d worked out the solution and how the protagonist figures out who the baddy was. Maybe this was the freeing nature of imaginative flow. Maybe it was just the key which released what was already there. Either way it got out of the rut I had been stuck in for weeks.

 

I also use toys for world building and understanding the geography of my world or in a recent case – the EARTH. One of my current WIP is about cloned mammoths living in the arctic tundra. So playing with mammoth figures on an old map helped me understand just how close Russia is to Greenland, and aided me in plotting the herd’s migration routes. I also used toy figures of artic animals to think about what other creature the mammoths may meet and interact with on their journey.

 

All in all I find toys a very useful tool in the children’s writers’ arsenal. If reading kid’s book is inhaling, and writing them exhaling, then playing with toys is that peaceful moment between the two where you relax and see things with clarity. They can help you craft believable children’s voices, and aid in world building, character development, break through the barriers of mental block, and raise you out of plot holes. So if you write and you don’t already, I urge you to grab a toy and play!

Happy Playing. Happy writing!