Challenge Faves

Ask the Author: Jen Minkman

“You can ask me anything you like about my work and I'll reply as soon as I can! :)” Jen Minkman

Answered Questions (12)

Sort By:
Loading big
An error occurred while sorting questions for author Jen Minkman.
Hoi! ik heb je boek "Het boek van voorheen" gewonnen met een winactie en vond hem echt super goed! Ik weet dat dit verhaal 2 verhalen waren, dus mijn vraag betrekt misschien niet zo op dit boek.. Als je begint aan een verhaal, heb je dan al de hele tijdlijn in je hoofd of begin je gewoon met schrijven en zie wel waar het schip strand?
Jen Minkman Hoi Bernadette! Ik heb eigenlijk altijd wel een globale tijdlijn in mijn hoofd (omdat ik ook al weet hoe ik het wil laten eindigen) maar soms wijk ik een beetje af van 'de routeplanner' als ik ineens een nog leuker idee krijg voor hoe ik de hoofdpersonen naar dat einde toe kan schrijven!
Bedankt voor je compliment :) Ik hoop dat je ook de kans krijgt om het vervolg te lezen! (De wereld achter het water)
flag
How does a little S. Dakota librarian express her tremendous gratitude to you for your generous contribution to her small indie/YA collection of titles? I have no address with which to direct a thank you note... :( I'm going to have to take a year off just to read all of these fantastic new books coming to the library, because of fabulous authors such as yourself. :) THANK YOU soooo much! <3
Jen Minkman Just show your gratitude by reading my books and sharing them with as many other readers as possible :) thanks for dropping me a line on here!!
flag
How do you build up a good story without getting lost in scenes? What basics do you need?
Jen Minkman Oh, but sometimes I do get lost in my own scenes! In the end, though, I always know where my characters are supposed to end up and what conversations they need to have, so those are my basics. Certain things need to happen, otherwise I have no story. And if I ramble on too much in one particular scene, I cut out unnecessary stuff later on. :)
flag
I read that you're in the habit of writing your books in Dutch, and your poetry in English. Why is that? In general, do you feel poetry has a tendency to lose something in the translation from one language to the other?
Jen Minkman I never really felt the urge to write poetry in Dutch. Well, hardly ever. So most of my poetic work is in English anyway! Besides, you have a good point in saying that poetry always loses something when translating from one language to another (though I suspect it would be less of a problem if I did it myself - most poets wouldn't be able to do that, but I could give it a try :).
flag
Goh, zoveel geschreven en ik ken je niet eens.Houd je nog tijd over voor iets anders dan schrijven/lezen/doceren? Hoe ontspan je je? ik ga snel iets van je werk proeven. René
Jen Minkman Hoi Rene! Ik werk 3 dagen als docent en 2 1/2 dag als schrijver en vertaler voor Storm Publishers, dus ik hou elke week een dag en een middag vrij voor mezelf :) Eigenlijk is schrijven ook een soort ontspanning voor me ... als er geen deadline op zit tenminste! Leuk dat je werk van me gaat lezen :)
flag
You say you have to re-write and translate your books yourself. When you do that, what do you change (besides the language, of course)?
Jen Minkman Sometimes, I change the names of main characters to make them more 'palatable' for US readers. Sometimes I also have to change or cut out jokes because they don't translate to English very well! And every so often, I realize that I can edit a few sentences out because they're not really needed. If there is one effective way to edit your stories, it's translating them to become more aware of superfluous text :) !
flag
Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?
Jen Minkman It was part 3 of a series, so I basically just went back to the characters from books 1 and 2 and asked myself what I wanted for them. :)
flag
How do you get inspired to write?
Jen Minkman By watching the world and asking myself 'what if...'. That usually gets me the best ideas.
flag
How do you deal with writer’s block?
Jen Minkman I never have writer's block. The only thing I have is lack of time, and I deal with that by just not sleeping if I'm obsessed with finishing a certain book I want to write!
flag
What’s the best thing about being a writer?
Jen Minkman Being able to share your stories with the world and entertain other people with characters and situations you came up with. I am an avid reader and I can simply disappear into some books like it's a world of its own. If I can do the same thing for others, I'm very grateful for that! :)
flag
What’s your advice for aspiring writers?
Jen Minkman If you have a good idea, just start writing! It might not work out the way you wanted it, but you can't learn how to write better if you don't write at all. You have to start somewhere.
flag
What are you currently working on?
Jen Minkman I am working on the translation of my next YA paranormal novel,The Space In Between. I write most of my books in Dutch first, because I am from Holland.
flag
Jen Minkman
505 followers
To ask Jen Minkman a question, please sign up.

About Goodreads Q&A

Ask and answer questions about books!

You can pose questions to the Goodreads community with Reader Q&A, or ask your favorite author a question with Ask the Author.

See Featured Authors Answering Questions

Learn more