Episode 92 - Rebecca Thornton: Part 2

Part two of This Writing Life's conversation with Rebecca Thornton, about her debut novel The Exclusives, begins with a discussion of what perfection means to her characters. This is not something we know much about at This Writing Life. But anyway. Rebecca compares her feelings as a teenager to what perfection means to her today as a writer and mother. From here we reverse towards the evolution of The Exclusives itself, from romantic comedy to dark-hearted thriller. We plunge on to:

• writing as a form of therapy
• withholding in narrative and content
• fronts, repression and fear - at school and in fiction
• judgment and teenage life
• how has school changed over the past two decades?
• the portrayal of mental illness in The Exclusives
• is This Writing Life asking too many questions?
• 'That's a bit terrifying': what Rebecca's husband thought of The Exclusives
• 'My life is over': teenage angst and teenage pressure
• #checkyourprivilege: is The Exclusives too exclusive?
• Mallory Towers etc: fictional models?
• Rebecca's early writing experiments (teen erotica)
• how does it feel (to write)?
• anxiety, paranoia, disaster, thrillers (and children)

Part 3 of 3 to follow.