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M.T. Anderson
Biography
M.T. Anderson is a multiple award-winning author of several books for children and young adults. Feed (2002) was finalist for the National Book Award and winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. His biography of composer George Frederic Handel, Handel, Who Knew What He Liked (2001), was a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Winner. His latest book, The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume 1 (Candlewick, 2006), won the 2006 National Book Award for Young People's Literature. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The Scoop
M. T. Anderson – The Scoop – Received November 2007
1. What sparked your imagination for Octavian Nothing?
Like many writers, I put together scraps of things that I see and hear, and suddenly discover it's a story. In this case, I read about real "pox parties" - parties in the 18th Century where the wealthy would go off to a country house, seclude themselves, and inject themselves with the smallpox. It was a way for them to become immune, rather than suffering the worst ravages of the disease. I thought that would be a great basis for a novel - all these kids cooped up in a house and overcoming the disease - kind of like "The Breakfast Club," but with running sores.
I added this idea to other scraps, like a story I heard long ago about a Jamaican boy who was given a Classical education at Cambridge University to test his capacity for learning. And suddenly it was a story.
2. What challenges do you face in the writing process? How do you overcome them?
I have a really hard time making up plots. Sometimes I have to force myself to write when I don't know what's going to happen, so that I can discover the plot. (Then I have to go back and cut out ten or twenty or a hundred pages of things that turn out NOT to be the plot!) And sometimes, writing forward doesn't help, and I have to pace around in circles for hours and try to think up a solution. Or I have to leave the book alone for several months and work on something else.
People underestimate the amount of revision that published writers do. We make a lot of mistakes. Most of us delete a lot. We spend a lot of time refashioning things that are imperfect.
People also underestimate the good that time spent not writing can do. The brain continues to chug away in secret, and sometimes a solution will present itself to you if you don't force it. Usually while you're taking out the garbage or brushing your teeth.
3. What tips or advice can you share with students who hope to start writing?
Read as much as you can. Read things you don't like to read, things that aren't in your area of interest, things you don't even quite understand. I'm talking about 19th century novels, mediaeval epics, mystery novels from the 1930s, issues of Scientific American, magazines for model train enthusiasts, prayer books from other religions, pamphlets on medical conditions, websites about Yemeni pop music, repair manuals for appliances you don't own. Any time you read things that aren't your usual fare, you're stretching your idea of what language can do. You will become a more flexible writer, and one with more unusual insight to bring to the world.
Second, I would recommend that you actually write. You'd be surprised how many people omit this step. Write and write, revise and revise, because this is the only way to hone your skill - and to see if the act of writing itself gives you pleasure and solace, as it should if you want to be a writer.
Don't do it for the money. Believe me, there isn't much.
4. Do you have a fun writing topic to get students started?
You can never go wrong with alien abduction.
5. One day your younger brother comes home and says he was abducted by a U.F.O. Is he telling the truth?
Mine wasn't.
6. If you were not writing, what do you think you would be doing?
Sitting on a piece of cardboard on a street corner muttering about how James Joyce is my sister and can I have a sandwich.
7. What is your advice to parents for passing the joys of reading on to their children?
Some of it is "modeling." If you read for pleasure, your kids are more likely to also. Reading books to your kids often when they're very young makes a big difference - and can become a fun family tradition for later. But don't be bummed out when the day comes that your child wants to read his/her own things on his/her own time!
8. How do you decide on themes for your books?
They kind of decide on me. They're the things that worry me, which I therefore just have to write about to try to understand my anxiety and exorcise it. We all have those issues specific to us that are particularly unsettling. It makes sense to write about them, work through them, and try to understand them refracted through the prism of fiction.
9. How important is research in the development of your books? Can you explain that process as well?
I think research is incredibly important, whether I'm writing a Revolutionary War novel set in the 18th Century or a light, comic spy novel set in the 21st. I like to see what terms people use, the language through which they understand their world. That way, the writing can take me out of myself. If I extend my knowledge of a topic, I see situations in a way I couldn't have otherwise, and that's one of the most rewarding things about writing.
I keep big bibliographies with all of the notes I've taken while doing research for my books. In order to get the 18th C language right for the two Octavian Nothing books, I amassed a file of 18th C words, clichés, and grammatical patterns that was over two hundred pages long. Then, when I needed to look up, for example, terms used to describe different types of wigs or dresses, I could just do a "Find" and zip right to a list of examples I'd collected. I found it very fun. And a great way to avoid writing for a few hours longer!
Book Covers
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Last Updated: 08/26/2008