Author Yvonne Battle-Felton discussed how she integrates real-life horror into her books during the Blood and Ink writing workshop on NE Campus.
Her second book, “Curdle Creek,” explores themes of estrangement, motherhood and societal barriers which she has experienced in her own life. She was forced to find answers on her own after her mother suddenly left for Germany when she was younger.
“I do often grapple with some of the same things like mothering, because I’m a mother, but I’m also a daughter,” she said.
The Oct.16 workshop consisted of Battle-Felton talking about her personal journey and growth as a writer in addition to sharing some tips and tricks for horror writing.
The Pennsylvania native, who now lives in the U.K., talked about techniques one can take to build their story. She emphasized that fear can manifest itself in different places.
“I love that horror can happen anywhere to anyone,” she said. “There’s that sense [of] engaging with the reader that it could happen to them. Either the thing that they’re afraid of could come find them [or] sometimes when they’re reading, they might get scared.”
She urged students to explore their own fears to create authentic narratives.
“As a writer, I think that’s really cool for people to be like, ‘I read this book, and I couldn’t put it down because I was afraid.’ And you’re like, ‘job done,’” she said.
She said revealing characters’ fears can drive the story even further and encouraged the attendees of the event to jot down their fears for just three minutes.
“There are certain themes that I find myself always drawn to, and they’re really based on the things that I’m afraid of,” she said.
Battle-Felton said her first book, “Remembered,” began with a series of questions. Writing character-driven prose, she explored how families survived slavery and how parents reconnected with their children after emancipation. She questioned what it meant to remain a mother after a child was taken and how families could heal after such trauma. The project ultimately became her Ph.D. final.
“I wanted to know who was going to do that healing,” she said. “Because we still have inherited the legacy of slavery, and how are we going to heal as communities?”
She also discussed the significance of setting, personality traits and backstory in creating believable characters.
“The least interesting thing about my character is typically what they look like. It doesn’t really change the story for me, so I don’t spend a lot of time on it,” she said. “But I do want to know when they enter a room, what do other people see?”
Battle-Felton further shed light on how she developed her characters and their personas.
“You know how sometimes you’re in the presence of somebody that just makes you feel safe and held?” she said. “When I think about how they feel, I’m often thinking about how they make other characters feel, but things like how they feel.”
NE student Jackson Teague said the workshop was informative.
“I thought it kind of helped me develop an idea of how I can write, especially when I asked that question about how she develops characters,” he said.
Teague said listening to Battle-Felton gave him a new perspective on how he can personally develop characters in stories.
“I always had to have this kind of preset personality to them, and this is what they would do in a situation like this,” he said. “But now that I have been through that [workshop], I now know that maybe I should be a little more open to leaving things blank, leaving things a little more vague. So that way, as I’m writing scenes I can explore the character more rather than just have this kind of preset, kind of slate that I have to go off of.”
Teague said Battle-Felton has a gift for storytelling.
“She just has this kind of personality about her,” he said. “It’s kind of soothing, but also, she creates this kind of tension just because of the way she reads and the way she is able to articulate emotion in her voice.”
NE English instructor Savannah Bowen, who is also a writer, said she connected with Battle-Felton through an online writing community and saw her traveling to Texas as an opportunity to give students a piece of what she loves. She said imagination and being more exposed to literature is important.
“I see events like this as really important for young people, for students, for communities. [It is] like a gathering place for an exchange of ideas,” Bowen said. “I believe that students deserve those opportunities to be engaged. They deserve to have their imaginations, thoughts, their musings, their poems read.”
