Give me 75,000 words and I can make sense of a situation. How is this writing process different and do you prefer one over the other?Įric: I’m still most comfortable writing novels. Margriet: Recently you branched out from novels to picture books. They provide feedback that shapes the story. I also often use a test audience – a class or school that takes the place of my original audience, my class. I want to feel the story not just in my head but in my heart and in the bottoms of my feet. For Run I ran marathons in provinces where Terry Fox ran. For Just Deserts I walked across the Sahara Desert, for Between Heaven and Earth I climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, for Walking Home I walked 200 kilometres across Kenya following the route my characters traveled. I interview experts, view videos, read background books, go on YouTube and actually do the things my characters do. As much as I’m a plotter I am a researcher. I have an idea where the story is going, even if I end up taking a detour. I follow leads, go in unexpected directions, allow the story to take flight. I am a “plotter.” I follow the advice I always gave my students: do a story map, figure out the story, have an outline of your characters. Tell us about your “getting an idea” and writing process.Įric: Ideas come from everywhere, all the time. Margriet: You have written over a hundred books in 23 years. I’ve now been out of the class for twelve years, writing and presenting to over 1.8 million students. While I loved teaching – and still consider myself a teacher – it became time for me to pursue writing on a full time basis. If you look at the history of writers you’ll see that many started as teachers. I always joke that prior to my first novel coming out, my only “fictional writing” was report cards. It’s a fact that teachers know what students read and like. I was in the wonderful position that I could see, day by day, what worked and what didn’t. I wrote books that fit into the curriculum I was teaching. At the start of the next school year the students asked, “What are you going to write about this year?” Apparently I was a writer! I wrote my first 25 novels while working as a teacher.
Now I had written a book, but I wasn’t a writer.
I sent it off to six publishers, five rejected it but one accepted it. Why don’t you try to have it published?” This was a huge compliment from that group. Walters, your book isn’t as bad as some in the library. At the end of the story one of the kids said, “You know, Mr. I set the first book in that school and, with permission, made some of them characters in my book. They didn’t like to read or write, but were very good at making up stories – usually to avoid another suspension. Eric Walters and his elementary school teacher.Įric: I started writing for my class.
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