I went to the Rabbit Hill Festival of Literature in Westport, CT on Saturday. Authors Gail Carson Levine, Neal Shusterman, Jeanne DuPrau, Andrea Davis Pinkney, and Rick Riordan spoke about their books and the writing process. It was interesting to hear how everyone arrives at their ideas differently.
Rick Riordan was a middle school English teacher and adult mystery author who said that he originally made up The Lightning Thief as a bedtime tale for his son whose story interest was limited to mythology. Neal Shusterman also started out by telling a story to children–he was a camp counselor and his story (about magic sunglasses) was told only if the children behaved. Jeanne DuPrau, The City of Ember, said that her book was a result of the combination of having many emergency drills as a girl and her concern for the future of our environment. Gail Carson Levine could never understand why Cinderella hung around and did all those chores so sweetly so Ella Enchanted is her explanation. Andrea Pinkney Davis is a book editior as well as an author and she said that she actually passes a lot of ideas to other authors who she feels are better suited for the idea.
How do you decide what to write about?
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