Process Talk with Jen: Yamile Saied Mendez on The Beautiful Game
[Posted by Jen Breach for Writing With a Broken Tusk]
There are similarities and differences between Yamile Saied Mendez’s The Beautiful Game (out now) and bestselling, beloved novel Furia (2020). Both are exceptionally compelling fiction led by talented and passionate female soccer players, raised in close-knit Argentinian extended families, who are trying to find the place in the world they believe to be theirs, even though others say different. From there nuance and difference unfold. The biggest difference, obviously, is that in the YA Furia, Camila is seventeen, and in the middle-grade The Beautiful Game, “Magic” is thirteen.
Jen talks to Yamile about The Beautiful Game.
Photo credit: Laura Kinser
[Jen] I love that you have written two books about soccer playing Argentinian girls. We writers often say that there is space in the market for more than one book on a topic or with a similar approach, yet many manuscripts are rejected because “a book about, say, Argentinian girl soccer players just came out.” You are proving them wrong! I need both of these soccer-playing Argentinian girls on my shelf and many more besides!
“...I do my best to stay out of the process and let the character take the reins. In a way, it feels like I’m just their medium”
You also write picture books and chapter books. You once said of writing for different age groups that “I approach all of my stories in the same way. There’s not a mental switch for me so much as there’s such a subtle line.” Can you speak about that subtle line in The Beautiful Game? Was there anything that surprised you about writing this book, especially after Furia?
[Yamile] Thank you for getting what I’m trying to do as an author, Jen! I’m delighted that it’s Magic’s time to shine. Although there are so many similarities between her character and Furia, they’re also very different. With Magic, I really tried to convey the point-of-view of a girl trying to find her peace with her changing body and her place in the sport she loves and she’s exceptional at. She lives in a bilingual, immigrant family, but unlike Camila, she’s an American, and is much more confident in English rather than in Spanish. That’s a different experience also from mine, so it was fun to explore all the ways in which she and Camila (from Furia) differ. Magic grew up in a country whose women’s team has won multiple world cups and Olympics. There is zero doubt in Valeria’s mind that she can become a professional soccer player, which for Camila was still a dream!
Valeria’s family dynamic is very different from Camila’s, and much more complicated, in a way, although Valeria grows with a lot of love. She still has that undeterred confidence of a pre-teen American athlete, and I wasn’t surprised that I fell in love with her, but I’m surprised with how protective I feel for this character! I want her to never lose her confidence and her arrogance! Yes, I said it! She’s arrogant and I love her for it (*laughter*).
[Jen] You write the action of a soccer match so beautifully that even I, a non-fútbolista still confused about the off-side rule, can clearly understand the characters in motion and the stakes. How difficult or easy is it for you to craft these scenes?
[Yamile] I’m so grateful that these scenes resonated with you! They’re my favorite to write! I watch A LOT of soccer, and I also listen to it on the radio (yes, I’m an old-one, set in my ways), and when I’m crafting these scenes, I see them like in a movie, and hear the commentator in my head—along with Valeria’s thoughts, so there’s a lot of noise sometimes!
To be honest, as I was writing The Beautiful Game (and all my books, really, especially those in first person), I do my best to stay out of the process and let the character take the reins. In a way, it feels like I'm just their medium, in this case, Valeria's, and I write everything she feels and thinks, which includes the narration of the game. Sometimes in revision I have to go back and add interiority, but my action scenes are the easiest to write for me, and the ones that need the least revision. I wish I could totally explain how it happens, but they just come out that way! It's magic! (Laughs). One thing though, when I'm writing them, I never stop mid-action. The whole scene has to be done (at least in a rough form) until I move on to the next. Otherwise, the momentum is gone.
[Jen] You have written critical analysis of important and beloved middle-grade fiction that deals with menstruation in ways that hold the young reader (who may or may not be a approaching or in process with puberty) close but also, as you put it, “reveals character, advances the plot, deepens the tension, or adds to the meaning of the text.” I was thrilled to see Magic’s menarche function so fundamentally in (tense) plot and character craft. How does your critical or close reading of literature for children and young adults inform your own work in progress?
[Yamile] Writing a critical thesis was a factor that for a while hindered my applying to a graduate degree! My major in college is in International Economics. Suffice it to say, I didn’t write many papers in college. English is my second language, and at the beginning of my journey as a writer, I didn’t feel confident enough to do a graduate program in which writing critically was a requirement. But I’m grateful that I got over that fear, and I applied and learned how to think and write critically. Writing my thesis about how puberty is represented (or not) in fiction became my favorite part of the program. It affected how I think of fiction for children (middle grade and YA), how I portray relationships, interiority, and stakes! It also affects how I read. Even though not every book needs to address puberty, when an author is aware of all the other aspects in which a changing body and mind affect the character’s life in every way, I can tell. It shows on the page. I’m constantly inspired by authors who respect their audience, and are aware of the issues this generation is facing, which are very different from those my generation had to overcome. But in the end, the essence of humanity is the same, no matter the background or the time period. Being a pre-teen has always been a complicated time, especially for a girl, and I really hope my readers can feel seen and understood when they read Valeria’s story, or that it show them a perspective they may have never considered before.
