Ask the Author: Scott Craven
Answered Questions (7)
Scott Craven
The closest I'm coming is San Francisco for the ALA conference. Sorry. But if I can find any excuse at all to visit, I'd be there in a heartbeat. Love the area.
Scott Craven
Bust right through it. I've lost count of the number of times I've started Word, stared at the screen and said, "Now what?" So I wrote, knowing odds were I'd be returning soon to rewrite everything. Yet after 400 words or so, I'd find my rhythm, writing scenes that never occurred to me before I sat down.
Scott Craven
I hate to sound so trite, but it is you, readers. Two examples: After my debut at Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe, one of our few indy book dealers in Arizona, I listened to kids describe some of their favorite "Dead Jed" characters and scenes. It was so gratifying they willingly, even happily, spent a few hours dwelling in a world I created. It was an amazing realization. Second example: Jack, a young man I met at Book Expo America. He waited in line more than 30 minutes to get a signed copy, yet the last one was gone when he was just two people away. Disappointment soon turned to satisfaction when his mom gave me their address and I promised to send him a signed copy. And I did, as soon as I returned home. I received a wonderful thank-you note from Jack just a few weeks later, my first fan letter. That's a keeper.
Scott Craven
Read and when you're done, read some more. Absorb it all. Take in different styles and stories. Enjoy fiction and non-fiction. Now write as if no one is looking (because no one is looking). Write for yourself at first. The more words you put down on screen (I was about to say "paper," and who does that anymore?), the better your sentences will become. I've been a journalist more than 30 years and nothing gets you to write more, and on deadline, than having a paycheck depend on it. Most importantly, find your voice. That's the one thing no one can teach you. You have to learn it yourself.
Scott Craven
I've just wrapped the first draff of the third "Dead Jed" book in which Jed ... nah, way too early for that. I'll just say some old favorites return, but there are many new characters.
Scott Craven
My desire to write came with my love of reading. I dug into Winnie-the-Pooh when I was little, and not just because I could say stuff like "Mom, have you seen my Pooh?" and not get in trouble. But the turning point was the 13-year-old boy nestled into a beanbag chair and absolutely riveted by "The Exorcist." When I finished it over a weekend of solid reading, I had two thoughts. First, "I really want to write a story like that." Second, "This house needs more lights."
Scott Craven
I knew the second Dead Jed book would follow our zombie hero into the second semester, but I didn't want to merely repeat the first book with Jed being thrown head-first into the trash can of the day. I realized I could start with Christmas and address Jed's greatest wish that did not involve adolescent hormones (sorry Anna). A certain scene formulated in my mind, one heavy with sadness yet ... well, I will leave that for readers to discover. It turned the book around.
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