About this episode

Elle McNicoll discusses her writing journey, the importance of representation, and how to make books stand out in a crowded market.

Elle McNicholl is a Carnegie Award nominated author. Her debut 'A Kind of Spark' won the Blue Peter Book Award and the overall Waterstones Children's Book Prize, alongside Blackwell's Book of 2020. It was turned into a BBC Children's TV show, which she wrote. That won a Royal Television Society Award, and was nominated for an Emmy. She's published many more, 'Some Like It Cold', 'Wish You Were Her', 'Role Model', and many others. Pretty good for a writer who didn't actually set out to write. Her new novel is her debut for adults, 'Unapologetic Love Story'. It's all about Raina Lewis, London's hottest It Girl, who is effortlessly cool and beloved for her smash-hit podcast spotlighting autistic women. However, when she meets the investigative journalist Tom Branimir who is out to discover her secret, things change. You can hear why representation is so important, and why her own neurodivergence helps and hinders her writing. We talk about how she gets her characters to do what she wants, how much she thinks about other audiences, and why she takes a social-media break after writing. Elle runs through her path to publication, detailing how she really fell into writing, also she…

People in this episode

Host: Dan Simpson

Guest: Elle McNicoll

Topics covered

• representation
• writing process
• neurodivergence
• publishing journey
• character development
• social media
• children's literature

Keywords

• Elle McNicoll
• Unapologetic Love Story
• representation
• neurodivergence
• writing
• publishing
• children's books
• character development
• social media

Sponsors

Philippa Hall

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: BBC Children's TV, Royal Television Society, Waterstones Children's Book Prize, Blue Peter Book Award

Books & works: Unapologetic Love Story, A Kind of Spark

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