The Golden Rule will always be good advice!
Jay Asher
It seems like whenever a big newspaper or TV show talks about teen literature, they focus on dark books or vampire books. It's kind of this cliche. It seems like the only time adults pay attention is with that angle.
There's this stress that is relieved when you realize somebody understands, and that's only going to happen if you feel the person who's writing the book or the people in the TV show aren't holding back.
With traditional school visits, I also get to speak with people who haven't read my books and talk about my writing process as well as the serious aspects I write about.
I had written a book that dealt with really serious issues. Was anybody going to want to read a Christmas love story from me?
When I decided I wanted to become an author, I never thought something I wrote would be used as a way to start conversations that are otherwise difficult to begin.
Looking back, I do think one of the reasons 'Thirteen Reasons Why' has been so successful is not because it deals with serious issues but because I had a unique and interesting way to tell that story. I knew the issues were going to be dealt with in the book, but I felt my job was to write the story as entertainingly as possible.
I think there's always room for humor, especially when you're talking about really serious issues.
One of the things I found is that no matter where in the country - poor communities, rich communities - everybody deals with very similar issues of bullying. It's pretty widespread.
Teens in the '90s had the same basic desires as they do now.
I don't know anything about bullying in Huntington Beach specifically, but I would assume it's very similar to other places.
I was in Las Vegas, and there was a exhibit of King Tut's tomb, and it was an audio tour. At the very end of that, I just thought it would be a really cool structure for a novel, but I just didn't have a story to go along with it.
I've always loved brainstorming with other writers, and I consider having my work critiqued a part of that brainstorming.
My friends and I did one of those 'Who's Hot and Who's Not' lists. Every school has those, and now they are online, which makes it even worse. It was one of those moments that I look back on a lot, and think that was horrible.
I miss the newness of Magic Eye posters, which really are amazing.
Of course I always like going to bookstores, but at stores, you're mostly meeting kids who are already into reading.
Bullying has been around forever, and so it became one of these issues that as an adult we look back on and say, 'Yeah, it's just one of those unfortunate parts of growing up.' You know you're not going to stop it, so it just became easier to call it one of those things that 'just happens.'
Novels are a safe way to talk about things.
When somebody's face-to-face with you saying, 'I may not have been here had I not read your book,' how do you respond to that? The first several times I traveled, it was almost too much. I was totally grateful, but emotionally, it was really hard.
I thought I was going to be known for my humor. But then I had an idea for a story, which was absolutely not humorous. But, of course, that's the one that sells and becomes big.
I really love visiting schools - in fact, that's my favorite part of being an author now - even though I still get stage fright! When I visit schools, I know I'm going to be talking to some kids who don't like to read.
Usually, when somebody really hates your book, they're not going to waste time on it, telling you what you need to work on.
Every action we have is going to have repercussions in ways we could not anticipate.
As an author, I love to know my book sells really well.
I knew that part of the problem with sensitive issues is that, because they're uncomfortable to address, we have a hard time doing so honestly, if at all.
'Fifty Shades' opened the door and made it easier to write about any issue that's controversial. It has helped other authors talk honestly.
My favorite aspect of being an author has always been visiting different communities and meeting my readers face to face.
If we know it's happening, and we're not having the discussion, we're contributing to the problem of making it seem like people can't open up.
There's no way to know exactly what someone's dealing with, no matter how open you are. You're just never going to know everything.
When you write a book for publication, you're writing it for other people to read.
I miss video games where the jump-kick was the trickiest combo to master.
Actually, I love trying to figure out why certain books become hits while others, which may be just as good, have trouble finding an audience.
See, I'm not a very good musician.
As a writer, my only responsibility is to tell a compelling story.
It's funny: when I go to a school and speak, and when they hear the back story about me, they want to go read the book.
The main character in the book is usually someone you're identifying with because the story is being told through this person's mind.
When me and my author friends who write about other difficult subject matter... when you hear from teens daily saying, 'Your book helped me or made me understand a friend better, what somebody else is going through,' you see the positive things.
It's important to make teens realize the influence they have over others.
There are things that aren't supposed to be comfortable to read, because those situations shouldn't be comfortable to discuss, but they still need to be discussed.
When you're being bullied, it can feel like no one cares, and I'm so excited to tell the teens at the schools I visit that I wouldn't be there if their school didn't care.
Fiction is an easy way to talk about issues: I think it feels less preachy. You can have the students discuss characters in the book as opposed to hypothetical situations, or as opposed to opening up about themselves, unless they really want to.
What you hear mostly people gripe about adaptations is, 'They took out this scene,' or, 'They had to condense these characters.' I understand why they have to do that. But if you had a favorite character, and now they've been melded together with another one, it's disappointing.
