7EB wrote:
1. What gave you the idea to write a book like Luke's way of looking? Did a personal experience inspire you?
2. How long did it take you to finish the book?
3. How did you choose the illustrator and has Matt Ottley illustrated any
other of your books?
4. How long have you been writing?
8EB wrote:
1. What gave you the idea for this story? Did you base it on something from your own experience?
2. Why do you write? Is it your career or your hobby?
3. Who influences the way you write?
4. Why did you choose Matt Ottley as the illustrator for this book?
FROM Nadia:
Hi to 7EBrown and 8EB at Hay War Memorial High School.
I hope you don't mind me combining the answers to both groups of you, but as your questions doubled up a bit, I thought that would be simplest...
I met Matt in Perth during one Children's Book Week, and asked if he would like to collaborate on a book, if I came up with a story. A couple of weeks later, I thought up the story of LUKE'S WAY OF LOOKING. It came in the middle of the night, when I was worrying about how I was going to deal with a whole lot of dreary adult problems. I guess the idea came partly through the fact that my partner Ken is a painter. I think I was influenced by his stories of growing up and going to school. As you might expect, Ken and I go to art galleries a lot, and we have always taken his two children. They are grown up now, but when they were younger it was interesting to see what they liked to look at.
As to the time the book took -- I wrote the first few drafts over a fortnight or so, then stuck the bits of text onto 32 pages in a picture book format. I sent it to Matt, and he said he'd like to illustrate it, so we approached a publisher. After we got a wonderful editor, the story went through about another nine months of intensive structuring, which I did on big noticeboards in my room. It maybe went through twenty more drafts. Writing picture books is not just about choosing the right words. It is about pacing the story precisely through the 32 pages. (The fewer words you write, the more difficult it is.)
I write for the same reason that I breathe -- because if I didn't do it, I would surely die. I have been writing for myself since I was five years
old. I have been writing professionally since I was twenty five. I am fifty two now.
As to who influences the way I write... Of course I read heaps of other
writers, and I hope that the technique of the good ones rubs off a bit. But
ultimately I hope that I am the only person who influences how I write. In
writing, you have to find your own voice, and your own way.
I wish you all the best with your own writing!
Thanks for the time and thought that you have put into your work on LUKE'S WAY OF LOOKING.
Best wishes,
Nadia Wheatley
