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Hi, Mythili. Here goes:

What obstacles have I faced? Not a darn one! I was extraordinarily lucky that my manuscript even got read, that the editors liked it, and that things have gone really smoothly since Day One. No suffering, no starving.

There’s no trick or miracle involved in developing a good story. It take concentration and plotting. It’s just work. And it’s completely personal — you have to have the creative imagination to know what to write. It’s also a skill that develops as you write.

Advice to a future writer: read a lot, and write every day — a diary, a journal, note to self. And think a lot about story lines, and how a character would react to a certain situation. (It’s just work too!)

Again, planning and development of motivation makes characters more “round.” Know them. Let them become real to you. And if they do certain things, let it make sense that they act and react the way they do.

I enjoy everything about my job, but I think traveling and meeting my readers and getting feedback from them is my favorite thing. I don’t know if kids know it themselves, but most of them are really thoughtful and friendly and helpful too. I feel that the people who read my stuff are really good friends of mine!

Ouch! Boring. What an awful word! You have to pace your storytelling with your background information in such a way that it’s not all Dullsville before the reader gets to the good part. There’s a knack to that. You develop it with lots of writing — a diary, laundry list, note to self, etc., etc. (and we’re back to question #1.)

There. I hope some of that makes sense. Thanks for your interest in my writing experience. I hope to be sending you a fan letter one day!

                                      Best regards,                                                 —–Gordon Korman—–