If you are thinking about writing me a letter or an e-mail, read this first and maybe you will find that your questions are already answered!
F.A.Qs
It makes me sigh in exhaustion when I am asked that question because it is simply one for which there isn’t any answer. And yet everyone asks it! Ideas come from your imagination. What triggers your imagination? Things that you read, see, overhear, dream, or wonder about. Anything that makes you think: “What if…? ” is the start of a story.
Yes, but how did you get the idea for The Giver?
If you read the acceptance speech for the Newbery Medal, it tries to answer that question.
I’m sorry. Sometimes I wish I could clone myself. But I simply don’t have time to visit schools any more.
Yes, if you send it with return postage. E-mail me if you have a book to send and I will tell you how to go about it.
I used to do that. But I have run out of stuff to send. (Do you know that authors have to buy their own books? We don’t have stacks of them sitting around). So I am not able to send donations; I get too many requests…maybe ten a week. Just can’t do it!
Reading is the best way to learn to write well. Read as much as you can. Think about what you read: how the author made it interesting, or funny, or suspenseful. And write as much as you can, too. Keep a journal. Get together with friends who enjoy writing, and read things aloud to each other and talk about them.
No, sorry. I can’t do that. I’m not a teacher and I don’t teach writing. And I have very little time. I get a zillion emails every day, and answering them briefly is all I can manage.
There are a few magazines that publish things by kids (look in a book called Writer’s Markets to find them, and also for instructions on how to submit things). But my personal opinion is that you should not worry about “being published.” You should enjoy writing, and writing more and more, so that you become better at it. I always sort of cringe when I hear, “I want to be a published writer” from a kid. I’d rather hear, “I love to write.”
But I want to be rich and famous.
I have a Tibetan terrier named Alfie who is one of my best friends: a very cuddly, affectionate guy. He’s getting old now! But so am I, so we’re a good match.
They all write very well. But each of them chose another profession. Maybe they saw, from watching me, how hard it is to make a living as a writer!