Q&A with author Margaret McDonald
Glasgow Boys has been a long time in the writing. How did it start and what have been the most significant changes?
I feel as though I’ve been writing Glasgow Boys my entire life: it truly feels weird to think there was a time when Banjo and Finlay didn’t exist! I wrote a few books before Glasgow Boys; when I was thirteen I played around with a shapeshifter paranormal book (as thirteen year olds do!) and it was very bad but so much fun. I also wrote lots of fanfiction, which was equally bad (if not worse) and also lots of fun. But all of those experiences gave me the tools and stamina to create Glasgow Boys, so I’m so glad for them. I can’t really remember how I started writing Glasgow Boys: I was just intrigued with the notion of two characters who were total opposites but were forced into proximity, and I landed on the idea of them being in care. The plot formed around Banjo and Finlay as opposed to the other way around, which is why I think it was so easy to implement details such as my experience of working in healthcare, which was after the pandemic and after I graduated university. Finlay was studying something different in the first draft, but I quickly understood how important it was that he be a student nurse once I worked alongside nurses as an admin officer. There’s more that I could say but this is already very long!
There are several firsthand experiences in your book. What are the benefits of writing from experience, what are the challenges?
I think it’s important to write from your own experiences when those experiences aren’t often seen in fiction; especially as a working class, disabled author, and especially when implementing dialects that are endangered such as Scots. I think the existence of stories like Glasgow Boys are vital for that representation and for broadening access to literature by showing readers that stories can come from their world and are worthy of being written about.
The benefits of writing from firsthand experience are that it’s easy and good for the soul. The challenges are that you can be representing a small number of people who feel very passionate about their identity and culture. It’s a delicate subject and I understand the complex feelings invoked when you feel misrepresented on the page — I’ve been there. So if you can accept that people will still criticise something you’ve been through, and live and let live, I would absolutely encourage writers to draw from lived experience, especially when that experience is marginalised in the media.
Can you describe your working relationship with your editors? What were the aspects of your book you worked on most closely with them?
I worked on every single aspect of Glasgow Boys with Alice and Ama, and it wouldn’t exist as it does today without them, truly. We worked most closely on pacing and structure, and their insight into these areas was absolutely incredible — it totally taught me what a talent that is!
Our working relationship was really unlike any editorial relationship I had before with my creative writing tutors at university — because Alice and Ama absolutely adored Glasgow Boys and treated the boys as I myself do, which is as real people. That was the most special part of the editorial process, and we would have video calls and send screeds of emails discussing Finlay and Banjo, what they would do or say, their lives before the events of the novel and then afterwards. Alice and Ama really understand they are the beating heart of that book and they protected and nurtured that fact all through the editing, and I don’t think Glasgow Boys would have survived any edit that didn’t see that.
Are there authors or books who have influenced your writing?
Jandy Nelson is an author I adore, specifically for voice and character. Her characters feel so alive and fleshed out, and their thoughts feel genuinely real. It’s something that has inspired my own process in crafting characters, because I want them to be as real to me as Jandy Nelson’s felt when I was younger.
Jackie Kay similarly inspired me because her prose is gorgeous and it’s something that made me want to elevate my own writing.
What has helped you most in your journey to becoming a published author?
Fanfiction. I grew up online in fandom spaces, and they were the most fun, engaging and creative places to me. I found fanfiction at thirteen and it really is the only reason I’m a writer, in a roundabout way. I think because English was never really that interesting to me because of the things we studied, it always felt quite inaccessible and very far removed from my own life, and I wasn’t really introduced to reading outside of school. Finding it online about TV shows that I loved, films that I loved, really sparked my passion for creating stories and made me realise stories could be anything. I did outgrow fanfiction but it served a purpose I want to appreciate and honour rather than discard!
What advice would you give to would-be authors?
The best and most enduring advice is probably the most clichéd, but please do love what you write. Love it wholeheartedly, be slightly obsessed with it, get addicted to your own story and your characters.That’s all that matters. The work of writing is beautiful and transformative when you love it; it’s truly better than anything that comes with being published.
And please don’t use AI. It’s not and will never be writing. Writing needs to be pondered, deliberated, deleted, redone, edited, it needs to be thought: it needs to first play out in your head.
Q&A with editors Alice Swan and Ama Badu
What most impressed you most about Margaret’s book when you first read it?
Alice: Looking back at what I wrote in emails to my team and to Margaret’s agent, my excitement at the time of acquisition was so palpable. I wrote in my acquisition pitch, Argh, I am completely in love with this script!! So the answer is: A LOT! But the thing that really grabbed me and didn’t let me go was the voice. The story was so powerfully told, and Margaret pulls her readers right up close to her characters in a way that makes you truly fall in love with them.
Ama: Glasgow Boys lingered with me for a long time after I first read it. I found myself mulling on this story again and again, unable to let Finlay and Banjo go. Very few manuscripts have that effect on me from the first draft. It was clear even then that we had something truly special on our hands! Margaret unearths such raw and powerful emotions, attaching us to her characters. They become more and more real with the turn of each page. As I read, I wanted to reach out and offer the characters comfort, reassurance, at the very least a hug. Their stories were so delicately woven together, I could not leave them alone until I knew they would be okay.
What stood out to you about her writing?
Alice: Margaret’s writing sings with authenticity and initially I kept having to check that she was indeed a debut. There was a confidence to every word on the page, and her characters feel so real. I read a lot of good writing as an editor, but what stood out was the incredible emotional reaction I had to the story she was telling. There is so much tenderness at the heart of Margaret’s writing, and I found myself laughing and crying along with Banjo and Finlay. She has that rare ability to show the profound in a small moment, and best of all, despite these two boys having been dealt a really tough hand, there is so much hope and love contained within the pages. Her themes, of two boys emerging from the care system, of working class Scotland, of the realities of fending for yourself when you don’t have a family supporting you, all felt original and worthy of greater attention.
Ama: The richness of Margaret’s writing stood out from the very beginning. Each word is used with intention and care. The themes explored in this book can feel weighty but we are navigated through each of them with such gentle ease. Not only does Margaret ensure that the characters are looked after, but she also looks after us as readers. Like the boys, we are left feeling that hope is within our grasp, that whatever circumstances have led us to this book, we can choose how we manoeuvre our own reality after the final page. She writes responsibly and graciously, inviting us to find the beauty in the smallest details.
She had been working on the book for a number of years. What edits did you suggest and why?
Alice: Honestly, this was my favourite kind of edit. Everything was already there! The characters, the voice, the story… it was just a bit sprawling, so for Margaret, Ama and I it was like taking all the pieces of the puzzle and working out exactly how they should fit together. We suggested a fair bit of trimming, but it was discussing with Margaret where to place each plot beat that made the biggest difference. With chapters in the past and the present, it was a case of carefully moving scenes into their perfect location so the reader was taken on a journey that packed the right kind of emotional punch. I don’t always get to the end of an edit and see the perfect whole, but with Glasgow Boys it felt like we couldn’t have done any more, and that’s because it was so close to perfect in the first place!
Ama: For me, editing is a series of questions, often highlighting the things that we need to see more of on the page. In this case, we already had so much juicy material to work with. The questions then became about the finer details, which to keep and which to let go of. We explored how best to build to certain points of the story, heighten the intensity of that emotion and then let the readers down softly. We were conscious of this flow throughout the editorial process. We wanted to make sure that the pieces in this gorgeous tapestry were placed at just the right moment to have the most powerful impact for the reader.
What marks out the best YA writing to you?
Alice: I just want total immersion! A story that sweeps me away and steals my heart. But also a story that has something to say that needs to be heard.
Ama: Writing that makes me feel! It doesn’t matter what setting or genre it is, whether I’m reading something contemporary, historical or set in another world, great YA will pull me along with emotion.
What advice would you give to authors wanting to use their own personal experiences in their novels?
Alice: It seems to me that good authors are always at work, whether they choose to be or not – always absorbing, listening, digesting elements of life that might later make it into a story. We are lucky as readers that they feel able to share these personal experiences with us, that they allow themselves to be vulnerable in this way. The side effect of this is that readers will be curious about the author themselves but your publicity team is there to support and guide you, and authors should have control over how much or how little they want to say beyond the page.
Ama: It is a brave and courageous thing to write intimately about your lived experiences, especially if these things carry their own weight. Share what you are comfortable with, honour what you are not. There is no expectation that you divulge more than you are willing to. If what you share ends on the page, you have a team behind you who will ensure you can discuss the other themes in your work that align with you. At every stage you should be treated with care and grace.
What do you enjoy most about being an editor?
Alice: Editing is a craft and a conversation and it involves long uninterrupted periods of time sitting and thinking offline. I love the meditative nature of editing, and how the best editorial works comes from a deep trust and understanding between the editors and the author. It is a completely different process to writing, and I certainly don’t have the skills to write a single sentence of my own! My brain is analytical, not ideas-generating, so I love problem solving and attempting to visualise the story as a whole. There are times when I am so invested in a story that it no longer feels like work… those are joyful, and editing Glasgow Boys was, without a doubt, one of those times.
Ama: Editing is such an immersive and consuming experience. Nothing else exists when I’m working on an edit, it’s just the characters, their world and me. I love that feeling. There is nothing like getting lost in the reality of the characters. The author has already done the hardest part of the whole process. What follows are ways to refine and clarify. There is such fun to be had in this collaborative part, it often feels like piecing a puzzle together. We’re working together with one picture in mind, elevating the story and giving the reader the very best experience we can.
Glasgow Boys by Margaret McDonald is published by Faber & Faber, 978-0571382972, £8.99 pbk
Thank you to Margaret McDonald, and to Alice Swan and Ama Badu for answering our questions.
