Authors
How Do They Come Up With Their Ideas?
Hmmm....
Some of Our Favorites
RL Stine
JK Rowling
The most important thing is to read as much as you can, like I did. It will give you an understanding of what makes good writing and it will enlarge your vocabulary. And it's a lot of fun! And also, start by writing about things you know - your own experiences, your own feelings. That's what I do.
Jeff Kinney
Beverly Cleary
Roald Dahl
Dahl didn't believe that stories just appeared, but that you had to work hard to think of them! "You start with the germ of an idea," he once said, "...a tiny germ... a chocolate factory? ... a peach, a peach that goes on growing..." He would write all of these ideas in his beloved red exercise book. But if his exercise book wasn't handy he would scribble a note on anything to remind himself – even if he had to write in crayon or lipstick!
Dahl also drew on his own life quite a bit for inspiration. For example, Dahl's Norwegian heritage can clearly be seen as an influence in The Witches. His first book of short stories, Over to You: 10 Stories of Flyers and Flying, was certainly prompted by his experiences in the R.A.F. The characters and situations in the "Claud's Dog" series fromSomeone Like You were supposedly based on actual people in Dahl's village of Aylesbury.
Tim Green
To me, the thrill of creating stories that can change the quality of a person's life is as breathtaking a notion as sacking an NFL quarterback. So, just as I worked hard in the weight room and on the practice field to get to the NFL, I read and studied and wrote just as hard to become a best-selling author.
I learned that writing is really about re-writing. That's where it all happens. First, you have to get your ideas down on paper, without worrying about how good or bad it is. Just start. Then the real writing begins, re-working the story, the characters, the themes, over and over until it shines.