I always tell my students to complicate your characters: never make it easy for the reader. Nobody is ever one thing. That's what makes characters compelling.
What I find, particularly with young writers and readers, is that they don't want complicated feelings.
A lot of time, I'd spell things in standard English instead of phonetically because I want people to understand what's going on. It's also very lyrical, and the great thing about lyrical prose is even when you're not totally sure of the words, you can be swayed by the musicality of it.
I'd spent seven years in an all-boys school: 2,000 adolescents in the same khaki uniforms striking hunting poses, stalking lunchrooms, classrooms, changing rooms, looking for boys who didn't fit in.
There was never a single murder in my neighbourhood; there was barely a robbery. It was so suburban, it was almost disappointing.
As a writer of colour, you have to be victim or perpetrator.
