A Walk Down Memory Lane

It's day four of Thinking to Inking's birthday month and the celebrations keep coming. Thanks to everyone for posting and tweeting about our anniversary and giveaways!  

June is all about throwbacks where we highlight some of our favourite blog posts from the past two years.  On Monday, I wrote about blogmate Stacy's publishing adventure. Every Wednesday, each contributor will talk about their favourite blog post from their own blog adventures.  

Over the years, I've learned a lot from my work as a blogger for Thinking to Inking.  Tips of the trade, what's new in the industry and growing with my blog-sisters.  But at the beginning, it was a bit nerve wracking.  How to you make yourself known in the blogsphere?  Who's going to read it? Will people like it? 

With my background in film and television, I had an idea to interview authors for a segment called "From Book to Screen (and back again)".  I would reach out to authors that have either had experience in script writing or who had recently had their novels optioned for film and television projects and ask them questions about their experience.  I had no idea where to start or if anyone would say yes.  

As luck would have it, I was at the 2012 LA Festival of Books when I stumbled upon the "YA to be Continued" Panel.  There, D.J. MacHale happened to be speaking.  Not only was he the author of the New York Times #1 bestselling Pendragon book series, he was also a writer, director, executive producer and creator of several popular television series and movies including Flight 29 Down and Are You Afraid of the Dark.

After his panel, I sheepishly approached him and asked if I could interview him for our new up and coming blog.  I totally expected him to blow me off, but he smiled, looked at his watch and said "I'm done shortly here, why don't we meet in a few hours."

I was flabbergasted.  The interview was informative, fun and so easy going.  Most importantly, it set the stage for our little blog that could.  Since then, I've had the privilege of interviewing great writers including Jay Asher, Holly Goldberg Sloan and Lauren Kate to name a few.  But it all started with D.J. MacHale and that's why I've chosen my interview with him as my favourite post. 

Click here to check out the original From Book to Screen (and back again) interview with D.J.. 

If you haven't already checked out our giveaway below, definitely take a look.  Lots of great prizes to be won!

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From Book to Screen (and back again): Let's Roll!

Young Adult fiction continues to be a hit with kids and adults alike and with the success of The Hunger Games, Twilight and Harry Potter, entertainment companies are quick to option new properties in the young adult space. 

The LA Times recently published a list of newly optioned young adult and middle grade fiction.  These include Veronica Roth's Divergent, John Green's The Fault in Our Stars, and Veronica Rossi's Under the Never Sky.  It's great to see the variety of projects that are being optioned and should the one's I've mentioned make their way from development to production, they show great promise because they are after all, based on great books. 

I've had the pleasure of interviewing a number of bestselling authors for Thinking to Inking's From Book to Screen (and back again) series including D.J. MacHale, Holly Goldberg Sloan and Lauren Kate.  All have been gracious with their time and provided thoughtful and informative answers to my questions. 

This Fall is gearing up to be no exception. I'm excited to announce that I will be posting From Book to Screen (and back again) interviews with authors Lesley Livingston, Lissa Price and Jay Asher prior to the New Year.  

All have had their first published novel optioned and are currently in the process of transforming their babies from the written word to the big screen. 

This is an especially busy week for two of these authors as Lesley Livingson will be launching her new novel Starling in the U.S. (launched last week in Canada) and Lissa Price will be at Chicon's Sudden Inspiration Panel - How Do You Get Your Ideas?  If you're there, be sure to check it out!

From Book to Screen (and back again): An Interview with YA Author D.J. MacHale

Twilight, Hunger Games, Gossip Girls, Vampire Diaries…. the list of books turned successful film and television franchise seems endless.  We think to ourselves, if they can do it, why can’t we? 

We write novels, screenplays, sometimes both! We’re half way to a three-book deal with a hefty advance… it’s all up here, in our heads…we’ve just…got to get it on paper.

Needless to say, the written road, whether it’s a feature, television series or our soon to be billion dollar novel franchise is filled with long hours, late nights and lots and lots of writing.  Lucky for us, there are those who’ve paved the way and who’s advice can help us reach our goals (or at least avoid a pothole or two). 

On my Thursday of every month, I’ll be interviewing an author who has successfully bridged the chasm between books and film. 

D.J. MacHale

We begin with writer, director, executive producer and creator of several popular television series and movies D.J. MacHale.  Oh, did I forget to mention he’s also the New York Times #1 bestselling author of the Pendragon book series?

JP: So what’s harder, writing a screenplay or a novel?

DJM:  It’s always about good characters and good storytelling.  Coming up with a good plot and plot twists is important no matter what you’re writing.  The challenge with script writing is that it’s not the finished product.  You’re writing the blueprint for a lot of people to then transform it into something else.  So what you write on the page has to be literal.  It has to be exactly what you see.

With novel writing, the word is the finished product.  It goes from my head (through a couple of steps) right to the reader.  So I find novel writing easier in that it’s less collaborative.  It’s pretty much whatever I say goes.  Where with screenwriting, you have many people that you have to appeal to, whether its producers, execs, you name it. Everyone thinks they know it better than you do, so it can be very frustrating.

JP: How did your background in TV help when you started writing your first novel?

DJM: My prose isn’t the most literary and wonderful in terms of flow.  But what you’re trained with in screenwriting is to write visually.  My readers can see what I’m writing, especially since I’m writing a lot of action adventure.  There’s no confusion to what they’re reading. They say to me, “Wow, it’s like watching a movie.”  So that’s helped immeasurably. 

D.J. MacHale, YA To Be Continued Panel, LA Festival of Books

JP: If one of your novels were to be produced (for film/TV), would you want to write the screenplay?

DJM: For TV – yes, because I have a history in TV.  Where with movies I haven’t written any feature films that have been produced.  So there’s that hesitation in Hollywood.  They say, well, he’s never written [a feature] before so he can’t.  So I wouldn’t even attempt to do that.

JP: What advice would you give to an aspiring YA writer?

DJM: You have to write what you know.  The people, places, events, conflicts, and emotions that you are either familiar with directly or indirectly (through someone you know) because if you do that, you’re writing from a place of authority. Even if you’re writing huge fantasy adventure stories, at its core there has to be a character or characters in conflict that are relatable and understandable and will be interesting because that gives you the heart of the story.  The rest is the explosions, the running around, the cliffhangers and all that stuff.  The best stories are at their heart about characters that we care about and I think that has to come from experience.

JP: Finally, book you just finished reading?

DJM: Stephen King’s 11/22/63

JP: Book you would recommend?

DJM: Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand.  It’s non-fiction but the story is incredible.  It’s about a Japanese POW from WWII and you wouldn’t believe it if someone made up the stuff that this man went through.

Find out more about D.J. MacHale and his book series PENDRAGON and MORPHEUS ROAD here.  

Have a Book to Screen author you'd love to read about? Post their name in the comment section below and I'll get right on it!