Run by Sarah Armstrong
Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing
When I was a kid, I used to dream of heading off into the wilderness and surviving by my wits. Sadly, the closest I ever came to that was building a treehouse up the back of our 13-acre block on the Central Coast of New South Wales and camping out for a night. It was damp and uncomfortable and I barely slept, alert to every tiny rustle and flutter. I headed home at first light after eating my packed sandwiches.
However, that experience didn’t put me off reading survival novels like My Side of the Mountain (by Jean Craighead George) and later, Hatchet (by Gary Paulsen). I was also slightly obsessed with a book my parents had on self-sufficiency and survival. It included instructions on how to tie knots, build shelters and purify water. I sat on the floor reading it, trying to memorise every detail, so I’d be ready for the time when I would – inevitably, I felt sure – need this information.
Given my fascination with survival skills, I’m surprised it took me so long to write a survival story of my own. (This is my sixth novel — although, when I think about it, my other books each involve a fair bit of time in the bush, so while not survival stories, they are a very much set in the natural world.)
All I knew when I started writing ‘Run’ was that it would be about a kid who runs into the Australian bush and becomes lost. As I worked on the first draft, I had to figure out why Cas runs into the bush; I needed him to have a compelling reason to run. I decided that he would be fleeing a complicated family situation. (He’s been living with his aunt because his dad wasn’t able to look after him and his aunt wants to return him to his dad.)
As I wrote on — really enjoying the sections in the bush where Cas is trying to survive but has absolutely no clue what to do, much like ten-year-old Sarah — I soon realised that to keep the tension high, I needed him to encounter some people out there. They became a family of three: Mack, Viv and Pearl. They also needed a good reason to be out there, and I decided they would also be on the run, but from something so big they won’t tell Cas about it.
Every character decision I make is based on what the story needs. For instance, I needed Mack and his daughters to be on the run from the law, but also good people. This took quite a bit of nutting out – especially because, as a former journalist, I like things to be credible. Every one of these kind of decisions takes a lot of thinking and trial and error, but also ends up feeling like the only possible way it could be for these characters. Now I almost forget the (agony of the) decision-making process!
In my mind, Cas is lost in a subtropical national park – pretty pristine and remote. But I’ve had people read it and be sure that it’s on the Central Coast of NSW or in Victoria. I love that the location – and, in fact, everything about the story – is different for each reader. That unique relationship between a given reader and book is surely one of the most magical things about reading.
I worked particularly hard on making ‘Run’ a page turner. I wanted this to be a book that would hook the reluctant reader with short, pacy chapters and high stakes, but I also wanted it to offer the confident reader some well-rounded, complex characters and meaty ideas to consider.
Some of the ideas that Cas must contemplate include whether it’s ever okay to steal, how loyal one should be to family, and forgiveness and redemption.
Young readers definitely have a taste for thrillers and crime these days and often read up into the Young Adult age group where they are likely to encounter violence and some very gritty moments.
My publisher, Marisa Pintado (publishing director at Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing) and Luna Soo (senior editor) agreed that while we wanted the story to be thrilling and edgy – we didn’t want violence or too much grit. All the feedback so far suggests we have hit the mark in that respect.
While writing ‘Run’ and now, working on another survival story for young readers, I have been wondering what it is about survival stories (and shows like Alone) that have always so appealed to me. Is it because life seems so simple when it’s boiled down to one human in nature? Or is it wanting to remind myself of a human’s insignificance in the face of nature’s power? Or is it the challenge of surviving with only one’s ingenuity and knowledge of the bush?
I suspect it’s all of those things. And the pleasure I take from the natural world. I feel sure that ten-year old Sarah – slightly shame-faced after creeping home at dawn – would have loved ‘Run’, and loved the chance to imagine herself out in the bush, brave, ingenious and resilient.
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