FORBIDDEN
TALES
An Interview with novelist L.J.
Smith
L.J. Smith is the author of nine
bestselling novels for children and teenagers, including the
two series The Vampire Diaries and The Secret Circle. The
first volume of her latest series The Forbidden Game, is in
bookstores now.
Q:
Why did you decide to write novels for young
adults?
A:
I decided to write for kids when I was a
kid. I knew the kind of books I liked to read and there just
weren't enough of them. Nothing to do but write them myself.
I'd been telling myself stories ever since I was four or five,
and writing them down was just the next step. I suppose the
real question is: Why am I still writing YA books, since I
haven't been a young adult for...ahem!...well, quite a few
years.
Could be arrested development. I must admit that I
still read classic children's books, and get a lot of pleasure
out of it. Books about fantasy, magic, and the supernatural
just excite me, and I love to read them and write them. I'd
like to write books for adults someday, but I hope I never
grow up completely!
Q:
How did you get your first book
published?
A:
I finished The Night of the Solstice the
year I got out of college. I'd been working on the book since
I got the idea for it in high school, but the writing went
slowly because I was busy studying psychology. Besides,
everybody told me that I could never make a living being a
writer, so there was no hurry!
I took my book to a
professional typist (I didn't even have a typewriter in those
days, much less a computer) and she got very excited about it.
She said it was the best manuscript she'd seen, and she had a
friend who was a literary agent, and asked if I was I
interested in being agented.
I was. Very. Of course, it
still took some time to get the book sold -- for one thing, I
had to cut it by a hundred pages! But eventually Macmillan
bought it, and my fate was decided. I loved writing and I knew
I had to keep doing it.
Q:
What is your educational and professional
background?
A:
I got my BA in Experimental Psychology from
the University of California at Santa Barbara (great school!
great beaches!) I have two teaching credentials from San
Francisco State University, one in elementary education and
one in Special Ed. I've taught kindergarten and special
education, and enjoyed both -- but now I'm writing full time.
Every fall I get very nostalgic about teaching, but writing is
more fun -- and it pays better.
Q:
Who are some of your favorite
writers?
A:
This is a tough one. There are so many, but
I really tend to like the classics. I adore Dickens'
characters and his playful, whimsical prose. I love Jane
Austen's gentle satire, and Mark Twain's dry wit. I read
Steinbeck, Alice Walker and Toni Morrison when I want to cry.
For sheer escapism I like fantasy or science fiction --
Tolkien and C.S. Lewis and H.G. Wells. Or detective stories,
like Dorothy Sayers' Lord Peter Whimsey series. And -- please
don't laugh -- when I'm sad, I cuddle up in front of the fire
with L. Frank Baum's Oz books or Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little
House on the Prairie books. They always make me feel
better.
Q:
What advice would you give a teenager who
wants to be an author?
A: WRITE! Write, write, write.
And read, read, read. Those are the two most important things
you can do.
Write all the time -- write in a
journal, scribble down ideas on napkins at McDonald's, spend a
boring class scrawling poetry in your notebook (Okay, maybe
that last isn't the best advice, but I admit it worked for
me.) Write anything and everything you like, and don't be
critical of yourself. Just let it come out and worry about
whether it's good later.
Write when you're feeling
something; when you're mad, or in love, or in pain. The
passion will come through. And write about what you know,
write about your own school, your friends, your take on the
world. Teens often think their own lives are boring
-- they want to write about exotic places, weird people,
things out of their experience. But it's best, especially at
first, to write what you know. It may be hard to expose your
most private self to other people, but that's what writing is
about. And the ring of truth is unmistakable.
Reading is
the other important thing. Read all you can and read a variety
of books. You'll absorb all sorts of good things, grammar,
vocabulary, plot structure -- even if you don't realize it.
Try the classics, and keep trying them as you get older. Some
things that you think are really boring and stupid right now
will suddenly become interesting as you mature. A little light
goes on in your head and you say, "Oh, so that's why everybody
likes Chaucer, wow."
Q:
Is there anything else you think will
interest teenage writers?
A: I've babbled on long enough.
But I think it's great that Writes of Passage is giving kids a
forum for their work. This kind of encouragement is just what
teenagers need. Good
luck!
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