N. D. Wilson Interview

N. D. Wilson, a children’s author for Random House, consented to an interview with Pontification Ad Nauseam on what advice he could give to young authors – style, plot, the ideogenesis of themes, characters, milieu, and, of course, personal influences.

Mr. Wilson passed all our expectations, and I really recommend the interview below to anyone who’s writing fiction. It completely changed my approach to writing a (serious) story, in any case. You may have heard the things he’s said before, but I can assure you you’ve never heard them quite like he says them. Nobody in my lilliputian knowledge has ever compared writing a story to a shopping spree.

The interview took place over Skype, and special and highest thanks to Mark DenHoed for putting in a lot of time and effort editing the file. He never officially gets heard or acknowledged during the interview, but he’s behind the scenes doing important things.

Still. We qualify Mr. Wilson as a blockhead.

N. D. Wilson Interview
The Bug — (no comment.)

We will be posting a Google Documents Text Transcript as soon as possible.

Posted at 2:43 pm EST on the 11th of June 2008 by H. G. Roorda.

Under Literary and Cinematic Criticism, Sundry as , , , , , ,

There are 5 replies.
 
  1. Nate says on June 11th, 2008 at 7:26 pm

    Well done. Well-conducted and edited. I especially liked the idea that the gospel comes out in any story to a certain degree, and that the little stories are as important as the big ones.

  2. Philip Hilton says on June 13th, 2008 at 4:35 pm

    I like the Bug bit.

  3. Jasper Illusian says on June 13th, 2008 at 6:22 pm

    Great job, dudes. XD (And dudette, if you don’t like being called a dude, Han. ;) Especially the question about the bug. XD Absolutely brilliant. XD)

  4. Lauren says on June 15th, 2008 at 4:29 pm

    Ooh, it’s very interesting. Those were fantastic questions, and his answers were great.

    And the Bug part is awesome. XD

  5. Caleb says on June 17th, 2008 at 1:46 am

    This is a great interview. While I am not familiar with Wilson’s works I do like his attitude. I would just add a quote from Lewis I think sums up my ideas on creativity.
    “Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.”
    Keep up the good work.
    Regards,
    Caleb