Sensible conversation

Less than a year after first baring her soul through personal stories in book form, Lucy Blakiston is returning to where her journey with words began.

The Blenheim native and ‘Shit You Should Care About’ (SYSCA) founder launched ‘Make It Make Sense’ alongside Bel Hawkins in 2024 and will be back in town after a whirlwind few months for a series of talks at the Marlborough Book Festival on July 18-20.

As ‘Make it Make Sense’ doesn’t follow along predictable lines – being a collection of shorter stories, essays, poems, lists and more – Lucy suggesting her writing reflects her style.

“I feel like I physically don’t have a writing style. I literally just write how I speak so the book is literally written like I’m having a conversation with you”, she says.
However, she believes young people are much more interested in reading than society gives them credit for.

“Anyone who says that doesn’t know young people like I do - young people are obsessed with reading, especially fantasy - what stands in the way of that understanding is the paradox of choice.

“Even if we choose to be on our phones or whatever, the majority are still reading - it’s just we’re reading Reddit or something, and not novels.

“I’ve found most people who have picked up ‘Make it Make Sense’ have some understanding of SYSCA which is probably a product of me being in everyone’s face online all the time and not being able to avoid it”, she laughs.

Lucy recalled the ‘Little House On The Prairie’ books, the ‘Angus Thongs and Perfect Snogging’ books, and ‘How To Build A Girl’ by Caitlin Moran as literature that inspired her reading journey.

She says that the response to ‘Make it Make Sense’, which contains many of her most personal stories, has been both heartwarming and eye-opening with readers sharing their own experiences.

“Anyone who has a message for me about grief or about their loved ones, stands out to me”, she recalls.

“Also, I saw someone posing with ‘Make it Make Sense’ in their Hinge profile, which was iconic.”

However, she won’t be picking up the pen for another book anytime soon - sticking to online content and her pen pal writing with SYSCA followers.

“I need to have 25 more years of living to gather some more stories”, she added.

Purchase tickets to the Marlborough Book Festival Gala Evening and author talks throughout the weekend at https://www.marlboroughbookfest.co.nz/