Q&A with Laurie Morrison

 

Photo by Laura Billingham

 

 

Laurie Morrison is the author of the new middle grade novel Keeping Pace. Her other books include Coming Up Short. A middle school language arts teacher, she lives in Philadelphia.

 

Q: What inspired you to write Keeping Pace, and how did you create your character Grace?

 

A: I’ve been attempting to write a story about an academic overachiever on and off, in one way or another, since 2011. The story and characters have changed completely over the years, but Keeping Pace is the fourth iteration of my competitive overachiever story, and I’m happy it’s the one that finally stuck! 

 

I was inspired to write a story like Grace’s because I was interested in exploring the themes of perfectionism, competition, and ambition. These themes felt interesting to me personally–as a recovering academic overachiever–and they also felt relevant to many of the middle school students I’ve taught over the years. 

 

To create Grace’s character, I filled multiple notebooks with notes and ideas, figuring out what she wants, what she needs, what her deepest wounds are, and what her relationships with other characters are like.

 

I also gave her a new passion for running–and a heated rivalry with her ex-friend, Jonah Perkins–and those two elements really brought her character to life. Once I finally figured out those two things, her story began to click.

 

Q: How would you describe the dynamic between Grace and Jonah?

 

A: As a writer, I’d describe their dynamic as fun, because all of the scenes in which they’re together and bantering were such a blast to create! I think I had a smile on my face while writing most of them. 

 

But in addition to that, their dynamic is competitive, complicated, and confusing–at least at the start of the book. They were best friends when they were younger, so they have all these shared memories and this deep nostalgia and affection for each other, but they had a falling out that came at a time when both of them were going through their own deep grief a couple of years before the start of the novel.

 

So both of them feel hurt, and instead of dealing with their hurt feelings and trying to get to the bottom of the miscommunications they’ve had, they’ve channeled all those negative emotions–plus some very confusing new feelings they’re beginning to have for each other–into a heated rivalry that gives the story a lot of energy.

 

I loved writing their conflict at the beginning and then sticking with them as they slowly began to let down their guards and reconnect in a new way.

 

Q: The Kirkus Review of the book says, in part, “This well-paced novel is a balm for readers who may be struggling with senses of self that are narrowly defined by grades or athletic performance.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I love that Kirkus review, in part because I’m always striving to create well-paced stories with a sense of momentum that will keep readers turning pages, and even more importantly because of what the reviewer articulated about how the book might comfort readers whose identities are wrapped up in their achievements.

 

I’ve always found so much comfort in novels that allow me to explore something I’ve struggled with in my own life, and I know so many kids who have a hard time separating their sense of self-worth from their abilities and accomplishments. So that sentence of the Kirkus review encapsulates a couple of my deepest hopes about what the story would be.

 

Q: Did you know how the novel would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?

 

A: I knew generally where the story was going, and the overall shape of the novel didn’t change dramatically between the outline I turned in when the book sold on proposal and the final draft–which isn’t always the case.

 

However, there are small but important aspects of Grace’s running journey that changed in revisions and helped make Grace’s internal arc match up better with the external plot.

 

Without giving away spoilers, I’ll just say that Grace’s training went a little too smoothly in my original drafts, so a lot of the running content in the last quarter of the book or so changed, which set up a different ending scene. 

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I’m in the early stages of a new story that has a lot in common with my other books–it’s for upper middle grade readers, and it features a sport (soccer, in this case) and complex family and friendship dynamics–but it’s also allowing me to grow as a writer and try out some new things!

 

I enjoyed incorporating elements like to-do lists, text messages, poems, and training plans in Keeping Pace, and my vision for this new project is that it will include more of these different kinds of media. So far this one also includes two point of view characters instead of one, which is something I’ve been wanting to attempt for a while now! 

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Thanks for asking! One thing I’m especially excited about with Keeping Pace is that it takes place at the very end of eighth grade and then during the summer between eighth and ninth grade, and Grace turns 14 partway through the novel.

 

As a middle school teacher, I know there’s a lot of interest in stories that feature 14-year-olds and the middle-to-high-school transition, but there aren’t a lot of books that explore that age since it’s sometimes seen as past the scope of middle grade but too young for what’s popular in young adult fiction. I’m excited to have written a book that helps to meet this need!

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb