Scott Westerfeld
About Author
Scott Westerfeld was born in Texas in 1963. He lives with his wife, writer Justine Larbalestier, and they divide their time between their houses in New York and Sydney, Australia.
He has written five science fiction novels for adults and three sets of books for young adults. His YA novels include:
- Midnighters, a tale of five teenagers born on the stroke of midnight, for whom time freezes every night, revealing a dark and terrible hidden world.
- Uglies, set in a future where cosmetic surgery is compulsory when you turn 16, making everyone beautiful.
- Three stand-alone novels set in contemporary New York. So Yesterday is about a hunter who runs afoul of a plot to end consumerism. The second, Peeps, is a vampire novel. The third is The Last Days, set in the same world as Peeps.
This is what Scott Westerfeld says he likes about writing teen novels:
1) I get more fan mail. When adults read a cool book, they don't Google you, find your site, and then write to say they loved it. Not nearly as much, anyway. Which is sad.
2) Being a teen author means I can switch genres. Younger people are more eclectic readers. Yes, another gross generalization, but it's true. Most teens don't care whether something is fantasy or sf or a mystery or a non-fiction book about sharks; they just want to read something cool. I know too many adults who only read in one genre, or even one author!
3) Young Adult books have a longer life span. For some reason, bookstores get rid of adult titles as fast as possible. But books for teens and kids stick around on the shelves for longer. They have time to find their audience without having to go on Oprah.
4) Teens talk to each other about the books they like. There's a lot more communication among younger people about everything they like: books, music, clothes, whatever. This is great for authors, because it means (again) we don't have to go on Oprah to make a living. (Quick note: I'd love to go on Oprah if asked.)
Author link
Interview
AFTERWORLDS
SCOTT WESTERFELD
SEPTEMBER 2014
If you want to find out what it's like in the world of young adult publishing, or what authors go through during the publishing process, or the answer to the question 'Where do you get your ideas from?', then read Scott Westerfeld's ('Uglies' author) Afterworlds.
Darcey, barely out of her teenaged years, has been lucky enough to land a huge book deal for her first YA novel and travels to New York to live there as she does the final edits. There, she is taken under the wing of established novelists and other debut authors as she finds her feet in this new world.
In alternate chapters alongside her story, we read the novel, Afterworlds, that Darcey is writing: Teenaged Lizzie survives a terrorist attack by escaping to the land of the 'dead' and from that moment, has an ability to travel between the worlds of the living and the dead - she is a 'psycopomp' - but her special abilities bring new responsibilities.
The two threads weave their way through the novel, merging and intertwining their themes but remaining distinct and becoming a real exploration of how everyday life breathes into a writer's work, and vice versa.
Afterworlds is a 'big book' (608 pages) that rewards careful reading and should certainly be recommended to young people who are interested in writing. It can inform discussions around a range of themes and ideas, including how novels develop, an author's relationship with his characters - and where authors 'get their ideas from'.
We were lucky enough to be able to put the following questions to Scott Westerfeld:
Q: The author character in Darcys story, Standerson, says the worst question he is asked is, Where do you get your ideas? Did you set out to answer that question in Afterworlds, developing Darcy and Lizzies two stories concurrently so we see how ideas emerge / merge?
A: The reason writers hate that question is that the answer is so big that the words "from everywhere" don't cover it. When you're in deep writing mode, your brain is half in this world, half in the world of the novel. So reading Afterworlds, with its alternating chapters, is kind of like that experience. Everything in Darcy's life affects her book, and the issues she's exploring in her novel often bounce back into her real life. It's inescapable.
Q: How did you physically write the two novels, did you write alternate chapters with one driving changes and ideas in the other, so mirroring ideas and experiences?
A: Yes, I wrote the two threads in the same order as you read them, going back and forth. In a way, Darcy's experiences were happening to me at the same time as I was writing her book, just as they were happening to HER at the same time as she was writing it. (Bookception!)
Q: What was it like writing a novel as a debut teen female author? Did you have to change not just your style but your approach to writing a novel?
A: I was writing in character, so to speak. So there are a lot fewer explosions in Darcy's Afterworlds than in the average novel by me. And less hoverboarding, falling off of things, and flying than I would have written. Possibly more kissing, too. But it was fun to take on different narrative strategies than my usual.
Q: Is that also why you introduce some popular YA themes like vampires and the undead, romance, sick mother etc?
A: Yeah, I wanted to put all the YA tropes in this book. (You forgot snarky little sisters and divorce!)
Q: Are Darcy's experiences as a debut author based on your own experiences in the publishing world? And are many of your characters from publishing based on people you know?
A: My experiences were very different, because I am old. Back when I got started, YA was a sleepy little country town, not the sleek money-palace it is today. But Darcy's story is based on the experiences of younger friends of mine, and 93% are totally real. Roughly.
Q: Is Lizzie's story, which is full of ghosts and the 'flipside', a way of exploring the author's unconscious mind, the threading of ideas subconsciously, as well as the author's or readers' relationship with characters and stories? What about the (deeply creepy) Mr Hamlyn who repurposes the 'ghosts' for his own ends?
A: There are a lot of parallels between being a psychopomp and being a novelist. The departed spirits of Darcy's story are sort of like the characters in our books. Maybe they aren't real, but we want to respect them. We don't throw them away lightly, or change their personalities for no reason. And when they fade away on that last page, we mourn them as if they were our real friends. Mr Hamlyn is like the evil writer who kills off characters just for fun or to make a big splash.
Q: Did you write lots of different endings for Lizzie's story? Perhaps even a happy one, as her publisher demands? Will we ever see them?
A: I have more struggles with beginnings than endings. There's an editorial letter that Darcy gets in chapter 24, telling her that her chapters 2 and 3 suck. Well, that's just me writing to myself. The deleted chapter 2 is already available in the Barnes and Noble exclusive edition, and both it and the old chapter 3 will be up on my blog later this year. (But please do not read them, because they really do suck.)
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/afterworlds-scott-westerfeld/1118600494?ean=9781481438513
Q: Are you, like your character Darcey, in 'YA heaven'? What do you love about writing about young adults?
A: The first thing I noticed when I switched to YA in 2004 was how much more enthusiastic my fan mail became (and how many more exclamation points it deployed). I also love the brutal honesty of YA fans. They'll tell the exact page number when they threw your book across the room. I adore so many of the people I've met in this field - writers and editors, booksellers and librarians - that those scenes where Darcy has reveries of YA Heaven came naturally.
Q: You have also written a separate book about writing young adult novels, and when will it be published? Do you see it as a sister title to Afterworlds?
A: Writing about writers has made me think a lot about writing, which is how How to Write YA got started. (That was a great sentence. Learn from it.) Given that Afterworlds is two interwoven books, I figured that a writing manual would make it a trilogy, which is how I roll. HTWYA will probably come out in March 2015.
Q: Can you tell us a couple of your most vivid memories about being published from your early career?
A: There was one signing that Justine and I did, in about 2006, to which exactly one teenager showed up. She was awesome, though, and we three had a great chat for an hour.
Q: You've already embarked on a massive tour for Afterworlds - have you been dreading it or looking forward to it? Are you a 'foodie' like Darcy, will you be tasting your way around cities?
A: Touring is everything I like (book people, fans, bookstores) plus everything I hate (airport security, getting up early, airport security). But as long as I only have to do it six weeks a year or so, it would be churlish to complain. It really is great meeting people who've read my books. Writing can be a lonely profession, so it's wonderful when it explodes into multitudes.
As for food, I really want to go to Alinea in Chicago, but it's not open on my one night off there. This is an outrage. (One day I'd like to take I tour where I only do appearances every other day, and eat the rest.)
It'll also be great to be in the UK, where I'll be appearing with fellow aussie Garth Nix and giving a writing class, as well as signing at a couple of Waterstones. I have lots of friends there I want to see as well. The bad thing is only spending two days, which means I'll never be on the right time.
Q: Where do you write and how does your writing day go? Any bad habits?
A: I always try to make habit my friend. I write in the same chair at the same time of day, right after caffeine. My only bad habit is Dice Wars. (WARNING: Do not google 'Dice Wars'.)
Q: How important has social media become for you in communicating with your readers, is that part of what a successful writer needs to do today?
A: Suzanne Collins is pretty successful, and she doesn't do social media at all. But I love being able to interact with teens all day, to see what they're worried about, how they react to scenes in my books, and just to keep up with new music and TV through them. Social media like Twitter is also a great tool for research; you get to ask people questions, and listen to conversations among people who aren't like you.
Q: What or where is your favourite escape?
A: I like going to San Miguel de Allende in Mexico. It's a medium-size town with a very old cathedral, set in the middle of an extinct volcano. And there's a cactus preserve!
