[Marcy Lenox]

Hello! My name is Duncan Aikins and I am a student at Lake Bluff Elementary School in Illinois. In writing class we are doing a writing unit on feature articles and I chose to write a profile on you because I think your books are amazing! I was wondering if you could tell me anything about your early life, education, or your craft that most wouldn't know about you from a simple search of the internet? I'd love to learn more about you. Sincerely, Duncan Aikins

Hi, Duncan Aikins,

Thanks for posting. I'm flattered and honored that you enjoy my books and want to know more about me.

I started writing in answer to a 7th grade English assignment to write what our teacher caled "a novelette." I started work on a story, got carried away, and quite accidentally wrote 100 pages. The teacher thought it was pretty good, so I got my Mom to type it up and sent it to Scholastic Canada. (I was the class monitor for their book clubs.) With a certain amount of guidance from their terrific editors, that story turned into my first book, THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING AT MACDONALD HALL. That was 50 years and almost 108 books ago. I was 12, so you do the math. Sigh.

My early career was more of the same -- going to middle school and then high school, and writing a book every summer. They were all bestsellers, so when it came time to choose a career, I already had a pretty good one.

Education: after high school I was a film student at New York University -- I took film because I didn't want to take any writing courses -- what, and screw up what I was making a good living doing??? BUT I firmly believe that studying film helped me in the construction of scenes and stories. Dialogue too.

And in a nutshell, that's it. It might not sound terribly exciting, but take it from someone who's lived it and who has a book that's been on the NYT Bestseller List for over 5 years -- RESTART! I wouldn't want to be doing anything else!

Thanks again. Hope this is what you had in mind.                                                 -----Gordon Korman-----

[Isidore Inglewood]

 

That’s a great answer for a student profile because it gives a clear timeline and a real detail that would not come from a basic bio. The part about studying film helping with scenes and dialogue is especially useful for explaining how craft can develop outside formal writing classes.

From fnf,