Avi

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Writing another one just like it

True Confessions of Charlotte DoyleJonathan from Naperville, Illi­nois, writes, “Please write anoth­er book like True Con­fes­sions of Char­lotte Doyle.” One of my edi­tors urges me to “write anoth­er book like Pop­py.”  My niece Rosa sends me a note, “I loved City of Orphans. Write me anoth­er one just like that.”

It is per­fect­ly under­stand­able why read­ers, hav­ing enjoyed a par­tic­u­lar book, ask for anoth­er one just like it. There are writ­ers who can and do repli­cate their work—we are liv­ing in the age of the series. I have done so only rarely.

For exact­ly what was going in my head, my world, my hands, when I wrote  … What­ev­er … I can­not pin down. Even when I think I can, I can­not, could not repli­cate such a moment, such a book. Even if, some­times, I might wish otherwise.

PoppyMy books are more often than not the result of—I tru­ly do not know. Yes, I begin intel­lec­tu­al­ly, if you will—“This has the poten­tial of a good sto­ry.” How­ev­er, once I am engaged, it is my capac­i­ty to enter into the lives of my char­ac­ters, to have them come alive as sep­a­rate entities—separate from me anyway—that cre­ates the poten­tial to make them good sto­ries, good books.  The truth is it does not always happen.

I sus­pect it is the capac­i­ty to step inside characters—so as to make this turn, that turn, while step­ping out­side them, so as observe objec­tive­ly what they might do, can do, will do, that brings life to the page.

I am a pro. Why can’t it always happen?

City of OrphansThe fine bal­ance between simul­ta­ne­ous­ly being inside and out­side your sto­ry, your char­ac­ters, con­trol­ling while not con­trol­ling, see­ing objec­tive­ly while feel­ing sub­jec­tive­ly, is what we mean when we speak of the prac­tice of writ­ing. It’s hard.

6 thoughts on “Writing another one just like it”

  1. Dear Avi,
    I received a love­ly sur­prise in the mail yes­ter­day and I am both touched and delight­ed by your kind ges­ture. Even though I was not lucky to receive an ARC of your new book, I am eager to read it when it comes out. Thank you. I com­plete­ly under­stand your post. Not a writer per se, but sort of, I “get” the whole notion of the mag­ic of the sto­ry and the “state” you enter when it is com­ing to you and flow­ing. Many of my poems come this way. But they are much short­er then a book. So it is a slim com­par­i­son. Your work is going to last and res­onate for the ages. Once, years ago (late 1980s), we shared a lun­cheon table at a New York State Read­ing Con­fer­ence and I was able to observe you as a per­son. I hope that you are blessed in your life as your work bless­es those of us who read and learn from you. I am sure you have influ­enced, enthralled and reached many chil­dren. Thank you.

    Reply
    • I just fin­ished read­ing City of Orphans and I LOVED it, espe­cial­ly after just meet­ing you at the recent RMCSCBWI con­fer­ence in Den­ver. This book gives added mean­ing to your fab­u­lous quote, “Writ­ers don’t write writ­ing… they write read­ing.” It has become my new mantra!

      Reply
  2. Dear Avi,
    When I think of all the writ­ers that I have loved through my life I some­times think about who I would most like to be as a writer. Even though I love many writ­ers I think I would like my writ­ing career to be like yours pre­cise­ly because your books are each so dif­fer­ent from the next. I love that we nev­er know what top­ic or kind of book you will write next. And while I might real­ly want to see anoth­er “Char­lotte Doyle” I am excit­ed by the idea that we just don’t know what’s around the corner.
    Thanks for your books,
    Nancy

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  3. Thank you Avi for your love­ly let­ter I received yes­ter­day! I have been show­ing it off to every­one. I am a 5th grade teacher and always try to instill a love of books in my stu­dents and my own chil­dren and rel­a­tives. I will be buy­ing your book when released in March. Inci­den­tal­ly, my birth­day is March 15th so it will be a present to myself! God bless you, thank you for shar­ing your tal­ent with us!

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  4. I always sup­pose the rea­son why some peo­ple write books that are so dif­fer­ent from each oth­er is because each book is a reflec­tion of how their life and their tri­als and strug­gles are play­ing out at that par­tic­u­lar moment in time. You can’t repli­cate them because by the time the book is out that era has already passed.

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  5. One of my favorite quotes: “I am large, I con­tain mul­ti­tudes.” — Walt Whit­man. Life is so short, and the world is huge! I love the vari­ety of your works. You con­tain mul­ti­tudes. AND. I loved get­ting your note and card for TRAITOR! Thank you. Excit­ed to read. I think one the best thing we can do as writ­ers is be open to the mag­ic. Hap­py day!

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