Ask the Author: Grant Goodman
Answered Questions (7)
Grant Goodman
Eventually, my brain puzzles it out. Sometimes it happens when I'm driving and then I have to pull over and narrate my idea into my phone's note app. Voice-to-text is one of the greatest inventions ever.
Sometimes this problem solving takes weeks or months. The good news is that most of the time you can just skip a scene and plow ahead. You'll have to revise and edit the book eventually, so it's okay if the puzzle pieces don't all fit together the first time through. For me, they never do.
Sometimes this problem solving takes weeks or months. The good news is that most of the time you can just skip a scene and plow ahead. You'll have to revise and edit the book eventually, so it's okay if the puzzle pieces don't all fit together the first time through. For me, they never do.
Grant Goodman
After you finish writing your very first draft of a full novel, the Writing Fairy visits you and gives you the ability to float 5 inches off of the ground. It's pretty awesome.
Grant Goodman
You should draw inspiration from whatever it is that you love way more than anyone else.
When I was in middle school, Dragonball Z was the greatest thing on Earth. True story: it eventually reached a point where I wore a different DBZ shirt each day of the school week because I had 8 or 9 of them. I was so blown away by the fact that I was watching animation with a running storyline. I wrote a multi-chapter piece of DBZ fan-fiction starring my own characters.
Get out there, find that thing that makes your world spin and make it *your* story.
When I was in middle school, Dragonball Z was the greatest thing on Earth. True story: it eventually reached a point where I wore a different DBZ shirt each day of the school week because I had 8 or 9 of them. I was so blown away by the fact that I was watching animation with a running storyline. I wrote a multi-chapter piece of DBZ fan-fiction starring my own characters.
Get out there, find that thing that makes your world spin and make it *your* story.
Grant Goodman
In addition to the latest Agent Darcy and Ninja Steve novel, I'm writing a sci-fi novel for an older teen audience. I can't say much right now because it's still in development, but it is going to be a very serious look at the shallow ugliness of society and the way technology can destroy our lives just as easily as it can improve them. It will be WAAAAAAY different than anything else I've written.
Grant Goodman
The third Agent Darcy and Ninja Steve novel, Mecha-Mole Mayhem, is a war novel. I was inspired by the huge showdown at the end of season one of Avatar The Last Airbender. That two-part finale was a big emotional roller coaster and I wanted to recreate that feeling for my readers.
Grant Goodman
Most of the time, watching a single episode of a great cartoon does the trick. Adventure Time, Samurai Jack, or Fullmetal Alchemist get my brain warmed-up and ready to go.
Literature can make the magic happen, too. A few pages of a great novel or a magazine article can act as a lightning strike. Catherynne M. Valente and Patrick Rothfuss are two amazing wordsmiths who challenge me to raise the bar for my writing all of the time.
Literature can make the magic happen, too. A few pages of a great novel or a magazine article can act as a lightning strike. Catherynne M. Valente and Patrick Rothfuss are two amazing wordsmiths who challenge me to raise the bar for my writing all of the time.
Grant Goodman
Right now, I'm wrapping up Neal Shusterman's CHALLENGER DEEP. Then I'll be reading the second DELILAH DIRK graphic novel. Somewhere in there, I'll be finding time to read THE NAME OF THE WIND for the third time.
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