|
Week 1
How did you get started writing?
Getting started in writing illustrates one of the greatest things about writing: You don't really need to have any degree or credentials or special preparation to do it; all that is necessary is to actually begin.
This is what makes it so hard to say when I actually started, since for me it's like asking, “How did you get started walking?” But maybe the process is similar. You try to pull yourself up to the height of others you've read, you fall on your butt a lot, and you¹re pretty unsteady for a long while. Then, at some point, it becomes something you just do -- like swimming or riding a bike -- and it's hard to remember how you got started.
I think I had always been interested in the process. I remember when I was in elementary school, I imitated a friend who was writing and drawing comic books, and when I was ten or twelve I wrote an illustrated science fiction book along with my sister and a friend. By seventeen, I tried my hand at a short story, which I sent to the Seventeen Magazine short story contest. I wasn't a winner, but I had a sense that I was onto something.
After that I just followed the advice of most writers I'd read, who said that if you were interested in writing, the best thing to do was write. I started keeping notebooks of my observations, and writing down funny stories I'd heard or read in the newspaper, or things that had happened to me. I eventually joined the staff of my college newspaper since I reasoned that having to write stories to deadline would force me to write on a regular basis and get me out into the world interviewing people and observing things. This worked well and I basically continued doing this and developing my craft.
If you are interested in writing, let me suggest the following: start keeping a small notebook of your own. Write down things that happen to you or stories you hear from others. Cut out unusual stories you see in the newspaper and paste them in it. Read short stories written by others.
You'll find collections of them in the library, such as one that I've contributed to titled Big City Cool, edited by Jerry Weiss. Try your own hand at writing a story about something that happened to you. Don¹t be afraid to change things to make it better.
How many books have you written and what were they about?
I've written three books for teens and a picture book for younger kids. I'll talk about the teen books here. All of these books are told from the point of view of teenaged high school boys and all are actually about some larger issues that I believe teens have to deal with. Teens are making some pretty big decisions about who they will be and what they will do with their lives and I've tried to reflect these larger themes in my books. I've said elsewhere that I think of my books as “time capsules to my younger self” in which I try to explain things that I would have liked to have known when I was growing up.
My first book, These Are the Rules is, on the surface, a story about a young guy who has blindly devoted his life to one all-consuming thing: competitive swimming. But one day he realizes that he's not been doing this for himself, but for his father (a stern disciplinarian) and he decides simply to stop. Cut free of this activity that has defined his life, he realizes he doesn't know much about anything else. When he runs into problems, he tries to come up with rules such as “Mistakes is the name we give to our Experiences”, so that he doesn¹t make the same mistakes twice. The story is deceptively simple, but I've modeled it on the hero's quest: in this case, the quest to determine how one goes about forming real relationships with the opposite sex. Eventually the hero finds out it isn't anything like he¹s seen in the movies or on TV or come to expect from listening to current music. In fact, he concludes, a real relationship is based on a kind of friendship.
My Life, Take Two, my second novel, takes on the larger idea of how one finds a calling or job or career to call one's own. Neil, the hero of the book, has been quietly despairing since his father died and he can't seem to hold a job. He becomes obsessed with movie making from his experiences in a documentary filmmaking class and starts to see his life in terms of movie storyboards, then gets upset when he realizes he's spiraling farther and farther from reality. A young woman he meets from his earlier life with his father helps to turn him around and get him reconnected. But he finally comes to see that, regardless of what his late father or his mother or his girlfriend or anyone says, he has to make his own decisions about what he'll do with his life.
Walk Away Home, my most recent novel, focuses on the larger idea of how we find a space to call home, whether that space is an internal or external one. Nick, the hero of the book, having been raised by parents who he feels are unresponsive and unloving, is desperate to find a place where he feels wanted. After accidentally setting a fire, he walks away from his own home to that of the one person in his life with whom he has the strongest emotional connection, his aunt. While living at his aunt's house among a community of misfits, he rescues a young woman and her younger sisters from an abusive father, and they temporarily find refuge in empty houses that are up for sale whose residents have moved out.
I don't want to sound as if these books have a moral to them or try to preach about how to live. They are simply the stories of three different young men who have to find their own way in life. The general problems I have them work through, however, are ones that I believe are faced by many young people.
Do you have any books for younger kids or do you like to write for young adults better?
This is an “either/or” question to which I have to answer, “Both.”
Besides my three books for teens, I've written one book for younger kids, a picture book titled The Great Pancake Escape, which is kind of a cross between Harry Potter, The Gingerbread Boy, and Where's Waldo? A magician father mistakenly uses a magic book instead of a cookbook and the pancakes he¹s making for his kids take off. The kids chase after them and the pancakes hide in everything round (taxicab tires, manhole covers, etc.)
I had a lot of fun writing this book and at the twenty or so schools where I've presented it, I've enjoyed seeing how little kids get all wrapped up in the story.
There are other kinds of satisfaction, however, in writing the teen books. Two of my books have been translated into other languages and I've heard from teens from other countries who happen to like them. It's nice to know that somewhere in the world, at any given time, a young adult may be picking up one of my books and finding some enjoyment and insight into life as a result of reading it.
I know that my own life has been affected by the books I've read, and I'm happy to be passing that favor along.
Do you base your books on your life?
Writers (me included) can't help but base books on their lives. In my case, I've taken things that have happened to me, people I¹ve known and places I've been, and used them in various ways in my work.
When I was younger, for example, we actually did go out to a lake in the country each summer as in my book These Are the Rules, and I was “adopted” by a big wonderful Italian family who also summered there, just like in the book. Some of the scenes at the beginning of the novel -- such as dancing in the back yard lighted with bulbs strung on wire -- are similar to things that happened to me, although (being shy and skinny) I certainly didn¹t have two girls competing for my attention at the time!
For the large estate in My Life, Take Two, I used descriptions of a local metropark which at one time had actually been an estate.
I based the figure of the aunt in my novel Walk Away Home on a favorite aunt of mine who was also a free spirit like the aunt in the book although she never lived in a commune.
The writer Garrison Keillor has said, “For a writer, there's no such thing as a bad day; it's all material.” This means that, as a writer, you have to be constantly attentive since everything that happens to you may be something that you will use.
How long does it take you to finish a book?
I'm a perfectionist and obsessive-compulsive when it comes to writing my books, so it seems to take forever, although a more honest answer is that they took about two years each.
I agree with the writer Richard Ford, who says that writers can't be as concerned with finishing a book as living in it and continuing to write and revise it until they get it right.
This is pretty much my philosophy, so it may take me a year to write 200 pages working a couple of hours a day and then another year to revise them. Writing a book is a constant process and during that time I'm always stuffing my pockets full of notes about character and plot ideas as well as actually writing.
I've been urged to write a book a year just to keep my name out there, but books to me are not cans of beans that can simply be manufactured. I also have the philosophy that my books for teens should be every bit as good as the best books that are written for adults, so I don¹t cut any corners with shallow characterizations or improbable plots.
Week 2
Are your stories ever based on real life?
Why did you become an author?
The way some people can fold their tongue lengthwise or bend their elbows the other way, I’ve always been pretty good at language. You’ll notice, I don’t say “writing,” since I’ve had to work to learn this particular form of language over the years.
My mother read to me when I was a young child (before I started school), and I think, because of that, I became interested in books and was able to read well from an early age. I grew up in a working class section of New York City and also realized that in reading I found out about the larger world outside of my school and neighborhood.
From fascination with reading came an interest in wanting to write. I went to a school that was an old-fashioned “grammar” school where you learned to diagram sentences and memorize the different parts of speech which was a good boot camp for writing.
I studied journalism in college since I realized that it would force me to write on a regular basis and also make me get out in the world and talk with people and hear stories that I could make into characters and fiction.
Since that time I’ve been a practicing writer. By that I mean that I keep practicing until I get it right.
What or who inspired you to write books for kids?
The first book I wrote for a younger audience was These Are the Rules, a young adult novel. It was the outgrowth of a short story I'd written for the adult literary magazine market but was never able to place.
I’d always liked the story since it was based on a period in my life that held great memories for me. As I noted in the answer to an earlier question, I’d been kind of “adopted” by this big Italian family. Uncle Junior (a character in the book who was based on an actual man of the same name) was a member of this family and kept an old car that he would drive us kids around in to get ice cream. I’d actually met a girl named Carmella, just like in the book, and she did actually teach me to dance, although she was much older and treated me like a little brother.
The story was only about ten pages long and, at one point, I wondered what would happen to all these characters if I just kept going. So I wrote a second ten pages and then a third and pretty soon I was on my way to writing the novel.
I guess I also felt I had something to say to younger people based on my experiences. One of the things I’ve found out over the years is that a romantic relationship (such as I¹ve formed with my wife) has to ultimately be based on friendship. I think I also want to convey the idea that there’s always hope. That life is longer and has many more episodes than we ever imagine when we’re younger and it seems like everything is a critical life-or-death event. You may not go to the prom, but there will be many more opportunities in life to do even greater and more satisfying things.
What book are you working on next?
There’s a superstition among many writers that talking about your next book is bad luck. There’s some truth in the fact that as you talk about something you feel less of a need to write about it, and it’s really that compelling need to tell a story that keeps you writing. So I can’t really talk about what I’m currently working on.
That being said, I can add that there are a couple of ideas I’ve been knocking around. One involves a young man who lives with his family in the building underneath the screen of a drive-in theater. This is based on an actual news story I clipped based on such a place where people lived. I can imagine him learning about life and love both from the movies and from the actions of the people in the cars.
Another for a younger audience is based on a story told me about a gang of young kids who used to ride their bicycles on a large estate in my neighborhood, which now has been converted to a park. They had various adventures, including being chased by the caretakers, who rode horses and shot at them with a pellet gun.
I have a file folder I keep that is bulging with such ideas and I’m simply trying at this point to have a long enough life so I can get to them all.
What’s your favorite book?
If the question is, “What is my favorite among the books that I’ve written,” I have to say that this is like trying to say who is your favorite son or daughter. They’re all mine, and all so much a part of me, that I can’t really say which I like the best.
These Are the Rules will always have a place in my heart as my first, and it has the simplest story line, which I find appealing.
My Life, Take Two was a learning experience in that I had to almost entirely rewrite it from an earlier version which wasnt working, so I see it as something very useful in my writing career.
Walk Away Home is my best, I feel, in terms of setting out what I had intended to do (once I realized what that was) and telling a more complex story.
If the question is, “What is my favorite among the books I’ve read?” the answer doesn’t get much easier.
When I was younger, I remember being very much taken by The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings and also The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, both by Mark Twain, of course. But don’t ask me to pick among them.
Week 3
What did you have to do to get your book published?
Since I did not know any editors nor did I have an agent, I simply sent a summary and sample chapters of my first book to a number of publishers. In fact, I sent it to 21 publishing houses before Walker & Co. bought the book.
I still remember sitting in my office at the University, where I teach, one late afternoon in May and having the editor call me up out of the blue and say they were taking the book.
Friends of mine who had been aware that I’d been trying to get published would play practical jokes on me, so I wasn’t sure until after I’d spoken to the editor for about 20 minutes that she was who she said she was.
Getting the second, third, and fourth books published was easier once I had an editor.
People always say, “Write about what you know.” Do you agree with that?
Yes, but I would modify the statement to read: “Write about what you know, and learn something new every day so you may write about that, too.”
The idea of writing about the kinds of people, places and things you know is to ensure that your writing will ring true. If you try to write about life in Alice Springs, Australia or Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania but you¹ve never been to these places, you may get details wrong. You might also have problems if you try to write about hockey players but have never seen a game, or about prosecuting attorneys when all you know is what you¹ve seen on TV.
However, you could always learn. Take a course in the history of ancient Greece, learn to skydive, save up your money and take a train cross country, or meet new people and try new things right where you live. Take a bus if you normally drive, walk one day if you normally take the bus. Get outside your comfort zone and observe what happens.
Something else you should remember is that, no matter who you are or where you live, your life is much richer than you might think and you have had more experience than you might imagine.
I draw manga and someday I want to have my own comic. Does that count as writing? I say it does but my friend says no.
If there's a bet, you collect. Writing happens whenever you put fingers to a keyboard or pen or pencil to a piece of paper. If you do it right, you will write stuff that other people will want to read. Putting together manga will teach you character and plot development, dialogue and other techniques that those who write in other genres also rely on to tell a story. The terrific compression you have to use to tell the story in as few words as possible is also something that all writers have to learn.
Once, eavesdropping in a bookstore, I overheard someone saying “Comics are not only about side to side but they’re about up and down too.” I think I knew what he meant. The kinds of dynamic movement that happen in a comic format often lead to imaginative storytelling and are a kind of literature in their own right.
How do you make your characters act and talk like real people?
It starts with creating characters who behave like real people, first by getting away from stereotypes. Heroes, for example, no matter how good, have their flaws; villains their virtues. Discover what is unique in each character you write about. Some suggest that you write complete biographies of characters before you start, including their shoe size and their favorite flavor of ice cream. I prefer discovering my characters’ traits as I go along. I start with a general idea and add appropriate characteristics. For example, in my third novel, Walk Away Home, I started my main character with the trait that he liked to walk, then asked, “Why would this be so?” Characters, like people, usually don¹t just pull ideas out of the blue. So I hit on the idea that he was kind of a loner, especially since his older brother had died in a car accident (further alienating him from driving), and it was a good way to be alone. Walking also gave him the independence to take off whenever he wanted for wherever he wanted, provided he had the patience (another trait) to get there on foot.
One way to learn to write good dialogue is by listening to yourself and others talk. Writers are good eavesdroppers and I never miss an opportunity -- in a restaurant, airplane, busy downtown store, or wherever I find myself -- to listen to people. When I write I try to mentally tune into what my characters might sound like. What words would they use? How many words would they use? How would they pace what they have to say? My computer will read back to me what I write and I use that function to hear what my dialogue sounds like. I've also tape recorded and played back dialogue to see if it sounded right.
Week 4
Do you plan out everything in your books before you start writing, or do you make it up as you go?
I start with a major idea for a character and some general idea of a destination or ending, and then I figure most of it out as I go along. As I mentioned in a previous question, in my latest book Walk Away Home, I started with the notion that the hero was a walker and was looking for somewhere to call home. I also had the idea that he would wind up at one point at this run-down honeymoon retreat where old hippies, including his aunt, lived. I also had the idea that the hippies would be tormented by the snotty kids who live in a nearby expensive housing development. I modeled his aunt after a favorite aunt of mine and her boyfriend very loosely on Neal Cassady (the real-life person who was the basis for the “Dean Moriarty” character that Jack Kerouac takes up with in On the Road.) After that, I just wrote every day and saw what happened.
I don’t know if I could figure out all the intricate details that go to make up a novel in advance -- and if I could, I’d be worried that it would take the surprise out of it for me. I figure that if it’s interesting and surprising to me as I’m writing, it’s likely the reader will have these same feelings.
Do you think it's better to stick to one kind of writing or try a lot of different kinds?
I tell my students that writing is writing. Writers write from an impulse to share some notions they have about life with others and to do it in a fresh and interesting way. Whether the way they share it is a poem, a novel, a short story, a nonfiction magazine piece, or an essay doesn’t matter so much to the writer as it does to editors who are usually looking to fill some specific slot.
If I were just starting out, I would try many different kinds of writing until I found one kind I especially liked and then I’d focus on that while still writing other things. Although I primarily write novels, my Work in
Progress file has a couple of poems, a humorous essay, a children’s book and other pieces that have yet to find a form.
Do you ever teach other people how to write? How do you do that?
I think writing starts by being open and perceptive to things around you, so when I teach, I first try to make sure people are using their perceptions to the fullest of their abilities. After this, I talk about some of the basics of character and story development, point of view, dialogue, etc. while having them write something every day. For that is the main way of learning to write -- by actually doing daily writing. Imagine asking someone what they did for a living and having them tell you they were a violinist. “What kind of music do you typically play?” you might ask. If this person answered, “Play? I don’t really play much, only when I’m in the mood,” you might be suspicious of their claim to musicianship. Likewise, to be a writer, one must write. By writing on a daily basis, you learn what you need to learn and you learn how to put yourself into the creative mood to write. If you sit around waiting for inspiration, you may find that you don’t accomplish much.
Are you friends with other writers?
I number musicians and visual artists and teachers among my friends, but I can’t say that I’m particularly good friends with any other writer. Many writers (me included) tend to be a lonely, awkward bunch, too attuned to the nuances of what other people are saying (“What did he mean by that?”) to be comfortable around each other for very long.
|
