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FAQs part 2
My US publishers, Simon and Schuster, recently ran a huge online teen lit. project, where 128 authors were invited to answer questions put by teen readers. You can access the site at http://pulseblogfest.simonsaysblogs.com/index.php It may prove interesting to those amongst you hoping to publish your own masterworks in due course. (Or it may not... one can never tell)
But I thought I'd drop my own answers to the questions in right here for your interest/outrage/tedium/despair (please delete as appropriate). I'm always open to answering questions of this sort, will get to you sooner or later, and do comment on these answers as desired. You might feel it's all a terrible load of something unmentionable (which is fine) or you might be buzzing with new inspiration and excitement having read my words of wisdom (teehee) and wish to share this bright-eyed joy.
Whatever!
So, here we go...
Madeline asks “What was the biggest obstacle you faced in becoming an author and how did you overcome it?”
The biggest obstacle I faced in becoming an author or anything else I’ve ever done is to let belief replace lack of belief and to have some degree of hard-headed stubborn determination, mixed liberally with a sense of humour about it all. Be clear about what you want to achieve but don’t get so attached to the outcome that it makes you ill or unhappy.
Of course, if you want to become a writer you need to write. If there’s nothing on paper you are not a writer. So you have to get something down. Even if it’s rubbish. Write it and you are a writer. It’s YOUR rubbish, you artiste you.
To begin with, what you create might seem like the Holy Grail, the culmination of all your inspiration and effort. That’s the point when you could be vulnerable, when publishers/agents/friends/family tell you that your work is not up to scratch or that major edits need to take place. But keep on, modfiy or start again (start again is good), learn from what you’re doing. You’ll find eventually that consigning work to the bin as unworthy is just as important in your growth as a writer as producing something you think may finally be really good.
The hard-headed part comes in perservering with all the office juniors in the publishing and agent companies who have to wade through piles and piles of manuscripts and probably judge one way or the other after a paragraph or two. Ring them up. Check they got your work. Ask if you could have feedback even if they reject it. Etc. And if you are rejected, keep that old self-belief and lack of over-attachment to your goal.
On the most practical level of all, I’d say to any teen starting out to read as much as they can, find out what they like and consider why they like it, experiment with writing in the style of favourite authors, and eventually find a ‘voice’ that works for them.
Brandi asks “What do you guys do when you are faced with writer’s block? What helps you get over it?”
What is writer’s block? Is it a temporary lack of ideas? Is it paralysis through fear of not coming up to scratch? Is it some obscure psychological condition that only writers get?
The immutable law of Yin and Yang suggests that sometimes the words will flow, sometimes they will not. Both states must be accepted and loved equally. On a practical level, it’s your job, so you sit down with your computer/piece of paper/wax tablet and stylus (or tools of choice) and spend the same time in the writing position whether you are achieving anything that will go into your book or not. If it’s a day/week/month when nothing seems to be happening, sit there anyway. Don’t panic and tense up. Say to yourself “I trust myself and allow my ideas to flow”. It’ll happen for you in the end.
Don’t ever believe too deeply in the phase of the game you happen to be in. When you’re in jail in “Monopoly” there’s no good looking at other players collecting rents and accumulating fortunes and building houses and thinking that you are being left behind. A person is never left behind. Things always happen for you at the right time.
Maggie asks “Many writers say parting with a character is hard. Do you ever look back on a character and wish you had changed something about him or her?”
Though you are totally immersed in a book/ a character during the writing process, there is no sweeter feeling than ending that process and letting them go. (I might add that soon after this point comes the time, in my case, when I can’t bear to look at that book again for some time to come… which makes school and event readings etc into quite a challenge).
Of course in retrospect, one looks back and knows one could have done a whole lot better in all kinds of areas: character, plot, writing style… But at the time you gave it your all. Your character made her or his own decisions about how to develop. Perhaps you were not yet a perfect medium to allow this to be expressed, yet still that character gained life and adventure.
And just think… the next book is going to be so great, such a step up! Wave goodbye to the old, get on with the new. What fun.
Mike asks “How have the books you’ve read inspired the books you’ve written, if at all?”
Vastly, of course. If you read something and it moves you to joy or tears or even a fever pitch of excitement, you say “yes, this is what I want to achieve”. And the cool little observer in your head is analysing…how did this writer do this?…what can I take from this myself?
My favourite teen author is called K.M. Peyton. She’s quite elderly now and has published more books than one could count, many of them years and years ago. Yet she’s a natural, homing in on the core of human experience and making you shiver with the rightness of it. No flashy innovations in writing style or format can ever replace such insight and ability.
Sarah asks “What do you think are the biggest issues that teens need to be thinking about today? Do you think teens today are looking for quality in the books they read, or just to live vicariously through superficial characters?”
Same as always…who they are, how they relate to the macrocosm, how they can sculpt the kind of existence that includes love, growth, joy and risk. Total detachment from any kind of commercial or financial considerations is desirable, despite what parents and teachers and advertisers may think. Healthy cynicism about the nonsense politicians and corporate leaders spout. Responsibility for one’s actions is also good, in the sense of learning how situations may be attracted or avoided. One tends to be taught as a child how to make decisions in the same way as one’s parents, which might not always be what one wishes!
In terms of ‘world’ issues, the clear favourites are global climate change and over-population. These are the two most likely triggers for war.
Maintaining love towards the whole bittersweet experience and all the other players in the game is a helpful step in dealing with any issue.
Jasmine asks “How did you survive being a teen?”
The teen years have a magical selection of ingredients that make them, in this author’s humble opinion, an unparallelled time of possibility and adventure. As a teen you are halfway between the child’s state of pure, unfettered vision - life lived in the moment rather than as part of some sort of schedule or plan, and total non-attachment to what the Taoists would call the “world of the ten thousand things” - and the adult state when you really get your hands on the controls of the reality game and too often end up believing that game is real… cars and fridges, mortgages and finance, relationships played out according to archaic precepts of social control etc…
The teen has a foot in both camps, and this where to be, a perfect state. You flex your muscles with the adult game but don’t take it too seriously. You are still able to immerse yourself in experience, thought, feeling and to concentrate on the moment. Of course it’s often not a very comfortable experience. Change and moving out of your comfort zone usually means some degree of fear and discomfort. But the rewards are huge. Moving out of your comfort zone is like saying to the universe, “Okay, send me something interesting and weird to help me grow, now please”.
This is the attraction of writing for teens.
On a personal level how did I survive? Well, discovered the usual selection of naughtiness. Lived for music. Fell desperately in love with a succession of girls but was so terrified of all them that I usually became a paralysed bumbling fool in their proximity. Was constantly told that I didn’t fulfil my potential at school, too dreamy, too lazy etc. Ran across the fields and hills in the pouring rain. Felt every joy and pain deeply. And loved it all.
I was at boarding school, by the way!
Dana asks “What would you be doing if you hadn’t made it as a writer?”
Ideally I’d be a musician. I do have some musical ability, though perhaps not enough to make a living doing it. But music for me is the purest art form of all, not requiring any conscious processing of familiar ideas by the mind; nor reference to common concepts. Music has been such a friend to me over the years… I always write to music.
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FAQs