Cassie Brumage asked Jack Gantos:

What is your primary inspiration for your books? I teach 6th grade and we are talking about the 6 traits of writing. They would love to hear about where your ideas come from and what process you use when writing!

Jack Gantos To begin with, I try to write a good story to carry a seamless narrative on the surface of the book. But then, what is essential to me is the emotional lives of the characters--their imaginative lives--their thinking--and this is where the depth to the writing can be found. When I write a book I want the reader to feel every nuance within the characters so that when the characters change, and reflect, and progress, the readers feels those same changes, and thus, they change too. As for how I write: by hand, with a fountain pen, in small notebooks and then I type it up and print it out and mark it up and then I do roughly a hundred drafts and passes until I think I have a book with a solid story, great characters and significant emotional depth.
Thanks, Jack

flag