Which boundaries to push?
Luke graduated from his Writing for Young People MA at Bath Spa University in 2023. He now lives in Newcastle-Under-Lyme. When he’s not writing stories, Luke enjoys gaming, building Lego, and cuddles with his dog, Henry. Luke is passionate about funny stories with diverse casts that discuss important issues.
You can contact Luke via email and follow him on X (Twitter).
I love children’s literature. I love the way writers are always pushing the boundaries.
But the question I’m asking today is, which boundaries do I – a slightly odd person from Stoke-On-Trent who sometimes writes stories – want pushed? Since you asked, here’s three things I’d love to see more of in the stories we read:
LGBTQ+ Characters That Just . . . Are
I love a good coming out story, I really do. It’s a touchstone for pretty much every member of our fabulous community, and I’m glad to see them more and more. They’re also perfect for teenagers, because if modern teenagers are anything like me, the teen years are almost solely dedicated to getting to know the strange person who is, apparently, yourself. But here’s the thing. Being LGBTQ+ is perfectly normal and I would love to see more stories that deal with it with that in mind. Give me more characters that are slaying a dragon, riding a rocket into a nebula, and fighting a pirate crew who just so happen to be a bit queer.
LGBTQ+ people are a part of the fabric of society, so they should be a thread in our looms when we weave our narratives. That means putting them in all sorts of stories, in all sorts of situations, and not always having their sexuality or gender identity being the point of their books.
Men Who Don’t Need to Man Up
There is a very vocal part of society that wants to tell men and boys that they’re only allowed to exist in a very small box, where they must be super masculine and have arms the size of a bear and the emotional range of a teaspoon. All too often, boys and men are told they aren’t allowed to be anything other than fine, and the damage these broken, and frankly archaic standards do is immeasurable.
I wouldn’t be a writer if I didn’t think stories are our best shot at changing these false narratives. Which is why I want to see more male protagonists be openly emotional. I want to see them screaming in the rain, weeping in a quarry. Hell, I just want to see them talk about how they’re feeling and admit they can be vulnerable too.
The point is, if we show young people and young men especially, that there is a kinder, more empathetic alternative they might just grow into kinder, more empathetic men. And while they’re at it, demand better protagonists in adult literature and media.
Stories From the North, or Anywhere Other than London, Actually.
The other day I sat down to read Skullduggery Pleasant (yes, I’m late, my TBR pile is the eighth wonder of the world at this point, alright?) and I was almost halfway through it before I realised it wasn’t set in London. Which made me think.
It sometimes feels like the publishing industry in the UK could more accurately be described as the publishing industry in London. There are wonderful, fabulous books set elsewhere, but more often than not, it feels like stories are so London-centric the rest of the United Kingdom may as well have gone the same way as Atlantis.
As much as I’d love to be some sort of magical water-based creature, the UK outside of London isn’t actually underwater. And nor are, believe it or not, most of the people that live there. I’m not saying I never want to read stories about London again, but I think we’re doing a disservice to the variety of stories that can come from the myriad of other places in the UK. I for one, would like to stop thinking of London as the default UK setting, when, despite recent rumours, the rest of the UK hasn’t fallen into the ocean.