Anne Fine's blog on writing Shades of Scarlet

Anne Fine blogs about writing Shades of Scarlet, and that moment when the adult / child balance begins to change:

I've never forgotten the moment when my own cast-iron certainty of parenting - "Mum knows best" - began to crack. The balance shifted. Could a mouthy teenager possibly know better than a mature adult on this matter, or that? It was a deeply disturbing time.

I have a temper myself, so writing about characters who aren't good at buttoning their beaks comes easily. I think I enjoy writing about family arguments more than anything else. I always seem to know exactly what  everyone in the room would have shouted next. And Scarlet is absolutely livid with her mother, who seems to have so blithely turned their family world upside down. Mum thinks she had no choice. Scarlet thinks otherwise. (Dad's on the sidelines.)

I wanted to explore that time of upheaval when a young person has to come to terms with the fact that adults may make upsetting choices just because it's 'right for them'. We watch as Scarlet, through a few tempestuous months beset with arguments, slammed doors and sulks, has to stop playing power games and begin to learn the (supposedly adult) skills of forbearance and understanding.

But by the same token, there's a deep shock in store for Scarlet's mother. She has to face the fact that she's no longer always in the right.

Read a chapter from Shades of Scarlet