A Word with Doug Wilhelm

This week a middle schooler emailed me this question:

I cant think of anything to write about.  So, I was wondering how you thought of what to write about in all of your books?

It can be hard to understand where ideas come from, and how to develop them, and what to do when you don’t seem to have any. Nobody has all the answers to these mysteries, but here is how I answered this seventh grader:

Yes, the idea can sometimes be the most elusive thing, the hardest thing to find. I don’t think you can “think of” anything to write about. I really don’t! You have to pay attention to what’s going on, both outside you and inside.

Keep a writer’s notebook. Start to write down things you notice, things that inspire you, ideas you have. If you read or hear something that really strikes you, take out your notebook, write that thing down, then write about it for ten minutes. Don’t stop, just let stuff come up! You’re learning to flow with yourself, and with noticing your life. This, as far as I can tell, is where ideas come from.

Before long, you’ll realize how many ideas you actually have. When one seems like it might be a story, write about that for ten minutes. Ask yourself “What if” questions. “What if the girl was in, hmmm, this situation? What if she did that? What if she had a friend who …”

Write these questions down, and then write what they make you think about. Just keep flowing with it. You don’t have to answer every “what if” question, you’re just growing an idea. There are no rules for this, except that the more energy you give to this mysterious process, and the more space you let it have in your life, the more it will develop and your ideas will grow. Before long you may very well realize that you’re ready to start writing a story.

I also would think about writing a story, or stories, rather than a book. If it grows into something long enough to be a book, great — but it’s always a story, and writing stories is always what you need to be thinking about, as a fiction writer. A good short story that really works and that you’re proud of is going to be a much, much more valuable and helpful experience, for a young writer, than getting 40 pages into a book and then running out of gas or growing frustrated and giving up because it’s too much work and takes too long and you lose interest.

You build up to being able to write longer pieces, just like you build up being able to run longer distances, play an instrument for a longer piece, or dance a longer time. Just like you wouldn’t want to try to run ten miles the first time you go running, if you start writing by trying to write a book, you’ll probably become exhausted and have to give up. And that wouldn’t be a good thing! Write things that you can start and finish. Ask people for feedback. Go back to them and make them better. In time, you’ll be able to make better and better stories … and that’s the important thing, not how long or short they are.

I hope this is helpful!

best,

doug

This is a letter I wrote recently to a northern Florida community newspaper:

I wrote the book The Revealers, whose use in C——- Middle School was the subject of a recent critical letter by ———. The letter, sent to several local papers, led to the cancellation of the reading of my novel in mid-story.

Like the letter writers, I’m a parent — I have a son in college and a stepson in middle school — and like them, I’m involved with a church (I’m writing this on Sunday, before heading off to co-lead our church’s Coming of Age program for teenagers). I bet we also have in common a concern about the overwhelming flood of information and entertainment options that are available to young people today, much of it pretty edgy if not cynically exploitive. I despise “South Park,” for one — don’t even get me started! (The kids know not to.)

The real issue is how to respond. The letter writers, having apparently looked at one page in my book, have chosen to campaign against it, calling it offensive and corrupting to young people. It’s easy to say, as some local people have, that if these parents had read The Revealers as a whole story, they might feel differently. I’d like to think they would.

The Revealers is actually a pretty moral story. It deals with bullying, in the complex and various ways that bullying happens in middle schools all over this country. The heroes of my story are three kids who stand up to the culture of bullying in their school, who find a way to make everyone face the truth. In order for The Revealers to mean something to real kids, almost all of whom will at some point have to cope with bullying in some form in their own lives, my story has to be honest. It has to feel real.

Young adults are demanding readers. The second they think a novel is preaching at them or sugarcoating reality, most of them will put that book down. So a YA novel that’s full of an author’s ideas about how people should act, instead of how they actually do, simply won’t do young readers much good. On the page in my book where the letter writers find offensive language, the character speaking is a bully whose word choices mimic what an abusive parent has been saying to him. Many real children live in similar situations. Can I tell them exactly how to solve that problem? Is growing up today really that simple?

I don’t think so. All through their lives, our kids will have to deal with other people’s choices, including those that are hurtful or dishonest. They’ll have to find their way through the Internet age’s flood of communication, entertainment, exploitation. We need to help them learn to guide their lives wisely — I think the letter writers and I agree on this. There are many resources that can help. Religious books, of course, are one. I believe that honest realistic fiction is another.

What can a story like mine do for young people? It can give them an experience that respects the realities they have to sort through. It can help them see how different choices may work out in real life — and it can help them learn to empathize, to feel what another person is going through. In short,  it can help them to grow up.

But to do any of this, a realistic story has to keep one basic trust: It has to be honest. It can’t pretend that people never hurt, lie, or swear. It has to keep faith with the realities of kids’ lives. That’s what I tried to do with The Revealers, which has been read by public schools, private schools, Christian schools, Catholic schools, and Jewish schools, so far without any corruption that I’ve heard about. I hope that in the future, my book will be read in C——- Middle School once again.

Doug Wilhelm
Rutland, Vermont