My writing process looks like a very confused miniature
zebra. (I know that’s not what you meant. Though, that is kind of what I imagine my process would look like in animal
form.) Jokes aside, I definitely fall into the seat-of-the-pants category, or,
as I’ve heard many people put it: I am a pantser. I know some things when I
start, usually broad ideas about where the story is going and who the
characters are, but for the most part, I am fumbling forward in the dark with a
tiny flashlight. (And a tiny zebra.) This does not always seem to be the most
efficient way to write a first draft, but I’ve found it’s what I like best.
In the case of my second book, I wrote 25,000 words of a
first draft and then realized I didn’t like the direction I’d gone in at all. I
scrapped it and started over, keeping some of the sections I liked but mainly
writing all new things. It was a little disheartening, but I really believe I needed
to write those scrapped words to understand my story better.
In the case of my third book, which I’m currently working
on, I wrote 40,000 words of a first draft (about 160 pages), and then felt like
I couldn’t go any further until I assessed what I had. Now I’ve been rewriting
the pages I have and trying to understand my story better, after which I’ll
move onward and complete the first draft. It feels really odd, since I didn’t
do that with my other books, but I’ve found that each book has had its own unique
process; the more I can listen to my gut and not force myself to do it a
certain way just because it worked with previous books, the better off I
am.
2.
How do you come up with your ideas for your stories?
I think I generally end up
writing about things that fascinate me, that I’m passionate about, that I find
thought-provoking. For example, the idea for Denton Little’s Deathdate came to me because I love to think about
time. I often find myself thinking about the passage of time, about what’s
changed in my life in the past year, the past two years, the past five years.
One day, the thought occurred to me: I
wonder how much time I have left? From there, I thought of what it might be
like to know my deathdate, and then I thought, What if everyone knew when
they would die? So it’s usually one thought that snowballs into a bigger
idea.
In general, I’d say a big part of
idea-generating is observing and listening to the world around you and reading
lots of things. And I find taking a shower, going on a run, and lying in bed as
I’m trying to fall asleep at night are great times for creative thinking.
3.
How long have you been writing?
I’ve always
enjoyed writing, but interestingly enough, I only started to identify primarily
as a writer in the past few years. From the time I was five or six, I always
thought I was going to be an actor, so for much of my life, the writing I did
was in service of my performing, whether it was comedy sketches/videos or the
solo show I performed my senior year of college. There was other writing,
too—including a humor column called Random
Thoughts that I wrote for my high school newspaper—but mostly, I was writing
things that I could perform.
In early 2011, I became disenchanted
with my acting career (which is my nice way of saying I’d just been dropped by
my agent and manager in the same month and I was feeling unfulfilled and
miserable) right around the time I read and loved The Hunger Games. I’d been sitting on a screenplay idea for a
while, and I thought, “Maybe I’ll take that idea and try writing it as a YA
novel.” It was a leap, as I had no clue if the writing chops I’d honed from
other mediums would apply to writing fiction. That idea, of course, was Denton Little’s Deathdate, and several
years (and more than several rewrites) later, here we are.
So, to recap: I’ve been writing
things since I was really young—mainly comedy sketches and creative AIM away
messages during college--but I didn’t start seriously writing fiction until
five years ago.
4.
What tips do you have for aspiring writers?
Jumping
off my last answer, I would say: don’t pigeonhole your creativity! Do lots of
creative things; experiment with lots of forms. If you think of yourself as a
novelist, try to write a song! Try to write a play! Try to make a sculpture!
Nothing you make will go to waste; it’s all educational, and it all informs who
you are as an artist and person. If you’d told me ten years ago I’d now have a
career as a Young Adult author, I would have been shocked and confused. But,
the truth is, it’s been an unexpectedly great creative fit for me.
My
other big piece of advice is this: if you’re hoping to have a career as a
writer, it absolutely has to start with you taking yourself seriously. If you
don’t, no one else will. Don’t wait for people to ask you to make things or to
assign you projects; make the things you want to make TODAY. Operate with a
professional mindset: establish writing routines and work even on days you
don’t feel inspired (which, honestly, will be most of the days). The more you
write, the better you will become. That’s a fact. The bad writing you do will
generally teach you more than the good writing, which is a freeing thing to
realize because it means you can’t lose! If you write something bad, you know
it’s gonna help you to become better. If you write something good, then
congrats, you’ve written something good! Either way, keep writing.
(It’s
worth mentioning that I’m delivering this advice so enthusiastically because
I’m also saying it to myself. No matter how much I know this stuff
intellectually, I struggle with it daily. We’re all in this together.)
5.
Does Denton Little resemble you as a teenage boy in any way? What parts of the
book do you feel come from things in your life, or are there any?
Ha, yes, Denton Little resembles me
as a teenage boy in lots of ways because I totally used me at age seventeen as
the foundation for the character. I figured it was intimidating enough to write
a novel at all, so I wanted to make it as easy for myself as possible.
In the same vein, the primary foundation
for Denton’s best friend Paolo is my close friend and comedy partner Ray Munoz.
He and I have written a few two-person comedy shows together, so I infused the
general vibe of our comedic banter into Denton and Paolo’s friendship. The rest
of the characters in the book are imaginative amalgams of people I know, but
none correlate as directly to real-life counterparts as those two.
Other things in the book inspired by
details from my life include Denton’s made-up New Jersey town, Marstin. Though
it’s not a real place, I was very much thinking of my New Jersey hometown
Matawan when I wrote about it. In Matawan, for example, there’s a place called
Eli’s Bagels. In Denton’s town of Marstin, there’s a place called Harold’s
Bagels. (See what I did there?)
This is all to say that I’m not
entirely sure I’ll be able to write any more books because I’ve probably used
up all my material.
Some
fun questions:
Favorites:
Books/authors/genres
–
This is such a common answer, but
man, my love for JK Rowling’s Harry
Potter books is boundless. Those really expanded my idea of what
storytelling can and should be.
Other books I love include Michael
Chabon’s The Amazing Adventure of
Kavalier and Clay, Julie Orringer’s The
Invisible Bridge, and John Irving’s The
World According to Garp. YA that I love includes Coe Booth’s Tyrell, Becky Albertalli’s Simon Vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda,
Daniel Handler’s Why We Broke Up,
Isabel Quintero’s Gabi, A Girl in Pieces,
and Andrew Smith’s Grasshopper Jungle. (But that’s just the
tip of the iceberg.) And my favorite books about writing are Steven
Pressfield’s The War of Art, Anne
Lamott’s Bird by Bird, and Stephen
King’s On Writing.
Movies/TV
Shows –
My favorite movie of all-time is Back to the Future. It was a huge
influence on Denton. Others I love
very much include Bottle Rocket, Waiting
for Guffman, and most Pixar films. Favorite TV shows of all time include The Office (BBC version, though I also
love the American one), Buffy the Vampire
Slayer, Friday Night Lights, and Freaks
and Geeks. Most recently, I absolutely loved Master of None. And Nathan
for You makes me laugh harder than most things.
Music
–
I really love 80’s music, and I
often end up listening to that while writing. Just this morning, “Luka” by
Suzanne Vega and “I Want to Dance With Somebody” by Whitney Houston were in the
rotation, and they both made me very happy. Other artists I listen to a lot
include Ben Folds, Mates of State, the Weepies, Lord Huron, Jack’s Mannequin,
and Passion Pit. Recently, I’ve been loving the new album by CHVRCHES. All
stuff that’s pretty poppy.
Food/writing
snack –
I often get a bowl of yogurt,
granola, and fruit at the coffeeshop where I write. That, or a frittata. I also
drink water or tea. This answer is pretty boring.
Social
Media Site –
Twitter. But I’m
pretty wary of all forms of social media.
