If I meet people socially, and there is one of those casual exchanges, “What kind of work do you do?” and I answer, “I write books for kids,” they almost inevitably answer, “That sounds like fun.” Or, as I heard today, “That’ll keep you young.”
I wish.
There are all kinds of ways to understand what people are saying here. Are they suggesting that writing for young people is all fun and games, that it’s easy? Are they projecting that such writing is about fairy tales, and dragons, and rhyming alphabets, so that I’m living an extended childhood? Might they be saying, “Hey! You get to avoid the adult world!” I don’t know, of course, but I rather suspect it’s something along those lines.
Readers of these notes know that the kind of writing I—and my writing friends—do is hard. All writing is hard—if it’s to be good. But is it never fun?
Every once in a while—and they are mostly long whiles—when I write, I sense that what I’m doing is good. It’s not smugness I feel. Nor is it, curiously, even a feeling that I am writing well. What happens is the sensation that I’ve come to really know my characters. That more and more they are coming alive. That they, not me, are writing the book. Now, that’s fun.
4 thoughts on ““That sounds like fun.””
What you are doing is good. We have used several of your books in our morning book club with 4th & 5th graders and you are one of our all time favorite authors. You pull us all into the story and we are living it along with Crispin, Jonathan (The Fighting Ground), Poppy, Ereth, McKinley (The Good Dog), Charlotte, and John Huffman (The Traitor’s Gate). It may not be “fun” everyday (is any job?), and I know it can’t be easy, but it is good!
Thanks for your kind words. I’ll keep working.
Avi
We recently met you in NYC at the ny Historical Society. My 9 year old daughter just read City of Orphans and Sophia’s War; my 8 yr old son read both books plus the 3 Crispin bks. They love reading your books and all 3 of us enjoyed hearing you speak! Thank you for making yourself and your work/ work process so accessible.
My pleasure!