“When I first thought of the idea for 'Sweet Valley High,' I loved the idea of high school as microcosm of the real world. And what I really liked was how it moved things on from 'Sleeping Beauty'-esque romance novels where the girl had to wait for the hero. This would be girl-driven, very different, I decided - and indeed it is.” WorldFirstsIdeasDifferentRealWould BeSchoolRomanceGirlWaitingSleepNovelSweetHeroHigh SchoolDecidedMovedDrivenReal WorldValleysRomance NovelMicrocosmSleeping Beauty Author:Francine Pascal
“A screenwriter heard me read from my novel 'The Wishbones' when it was still in progress and mentioned me to some producers in Hollywood. They called, and I told them I had a novel in my drawer about a high school election that goes haywire. They asked to take a look, and my life changed pretty dramatically as a result.” LooksStillsSchoolResultsNovelProgressHeardChangedHigh SchoolHollywoodElectionProducersLife ChangingScreenwritersDrawersWishbones Author:Tom Perrotta
“I write on a computer, but I've run the complete gambit. When I was very young, I wrote with a ballpoint pen in school notebooks. Then I got pretentious and started writing with a dip pen on parchment (I wrote at least a novel-length poem that way). Moved on to a fountain pen. Then a typewriter, then an electric self-correct. Then someone gave me a word processor and I was amazed at being able to fit ten pages on one of those floppy discs.” WayWritingSelfRunningAbleSchoolYoungNovelFitTenComputerPagesMovedLengthPensElectricAmazedFountainNotebookTypewritersPretentiousDipMoved OnDiscsProcessorsGambitFountain PensBallpoint Pens Author:Charles de Lint
“While I was writing poems, I would often divert myself by reading detective novels, I liked them. And there was a period when I read many of them. I absorbed the form, and I liked it, it was a good one, mostly the hard-boiled school, you know, Chandler, Hammett, and their heirs. That was the direction that interested me most.” KnowsWritingHardSchoolFormReadingNovelPeriodsDetectivesHeirsWriting Poems Author:Paul Auster
“The thing is that my first novel, which was basically a mystery adventure story, won quite an important award in Spain for young adult fiction, and because of this it became a very successful book, and right now it's some sort of a standard title, it's read widely in many high schools in Spain, so I think, in a way, I was a victim of my own success in the field of young adult fiction, because it was never my own natural register. I never intended to write that kind of fiction, but I became very successful at it.” ThinkingWayWritingFirstsKindImportantBookStoriesSchoolYoungNaturalMy OwnFictionNovelSuccessfulMysteryFieldsAdventureRight NowStandardsHigh SchoolAdultsVictimYoung AdultTitlesAwardsSpainRegister Author:Carlos Ruiz Zafon
“I did ... learn an important distinction in graduate school: a speculation about who had syphilis when is gossip if it's about your friends, a plot element if it's about a character in a novel, and scholarship if it's about John Keats.” IfsImportantCharacterSchoolNovelElementsDistinctionPlotGossipGraduatesSpeculationScholarshipGraduate SchoolSyphilis Book:Second words: selected critical prose Source: Second words: selected critical prose
“Back in high school, I wrote a novel about a character named Bart Simpson. I thought it was a very unusual name for a kid at the time. I had this idea of an angry father yelling "Bart," and Bart sounds kind of like bark - like a barking dog.” KindIdeasCharacterKidsSchoolFatherNamesSoundNovelDogHigh SchoolAngryUnusualBarkYellingBarking DogsUnusual NamesBart Simpson Author:Matt Groening
“I read a lot of literary theory when I was in graduate school, especially about novels, and the best book I ever read about endings was Peter Brooks' 'Reading for the Plot. '” BookSchoolReadingNovelTheoryPlotGraduatesPeterBrooksGraduate SchoolLiterary Theory Author:Lev Grossman
“I taught elementary school and painted apartments for ten years. Now I write full-time and never have to change a thing I write. Every book comes to me in a flash of inspiration and takes me about two seconds to finish. The longer books, like the Time Warp Trio novels, take a little longer to write - more like four seconds.” WritingYearsLittlesTwoBookInspirationSchoolNovelFourTaughtTenTake MeSecondsFlashApartmentElementary SchoolWarpTrios Author:Jon Scieszka