A Letter to Young Writers from Jack Gantos

Posted
(reprinted with permission)

Jack's writing desk at the Boston Athenaeum.
Dear Readers and Writers, I am no different than any other writer in that the desire to write came to me after my desire to read. It is the reading that saturates the imagination with possibilities. Not just the possibility of creating a story, but with the possibility of holding a book in your hand that has your name on it. In school I was a library helper. I shelved books and you can probably guess that the G section was my favorite. I would walk my fingers across the spines of the G authors until I came to my slot with GALDONE on one side and GEORGE on the other. I could imagine my book, with my last name fitting on the shelf between them. Every school day I would pass that G shelf and imagine my book joining the others.

Book jacket, From Norvelt to Nowhere.
Of course, when you are young, it is easy to imagine a book with your name on it but as I grew older I realized a bit of effort was going to go into the construction of a book. So I bought a small black writing journal and on the spine I took a pen knife and carved my last name into the black cover. I wasn’t sure what to title the book and so I didn’t. After a while I just called it my “Black Book.” I took that book everywhere. I wrote very unorganized stories in it. But I did have an eye for the odd moment. I saw my dog eaten by an alligator. I wrote about it in my Black Book. I saw an airplane crash in my neighborhood. I wrote it down. I broke my brothers arm—three times! I saw a kid swallow his house key. My dad drove his car through a wall. I pulled the tail of a horse and kicked me—hard! And I kept filling up the Black Book. And when it was full of odds and ends and bits and pieces of stories I made a fake library call number and pasted it on the spine of my book. I glued a card pocket on the inside back cover and slipped a Date Due card inside. Then I carved my title on the spine: JACKS BLACK BOOK. When no one was looking I went to the bookshelf and slipped it between GALDONE and GEORGE. Each day I would pass it in the library. Weeks went by. It didn’t move. Then one day it was gone! I was thrilled. And panicked. Would the reader think I was a genius? Weeks went by again and I thought maybe it was pretty foolish of me to put the only copy of my book on the shelf. That was not the sign of genius. And perhaps the reader threw up on it and tossed it in the trash because it was so disgusting. But then it came back! I was working in the library and found it in the BOOK RETURN bin. I quickly flipped to the back where I had written a note on the last page asking the reader if he or she liked the book. They had responded. Eagerly I read: “Whoever wrote this book should seek help.”

Jack's Newberry Medal.
I did. But it wasn’t a doctor. I went to my teacher and told her what I had done and asked for help on how to organize my stories. She did help me. She, and reading more books, made me a better writer. I went to college for creative writing. I have published forty-five books from the ROTTEN RALPH series to the JACK HENRY series to the JOEY PIGZA series to HOLE IN MY LIFE and more—all the way to DEAD END IN NORVELT, the 2012 Newbery Medal winner. I have won many awards, but the Newbery Medal tops them all. My next job as a writer is to top myself. The sequel, FROM NORVELT TO NOWHERE, comes out this fall. Read it and let me know what you think. Thumbs up? Or thumbs down?   Download 'A Letter to Young Writers' (.doc)   Jack Gantos has developed and taught numerous courses in creative writing. He received the 2012 Newbery Medal for outstanding contribution to children’s literature and the 2012 Scott O’Dell Award for Best Historic Fiction for DEAD END in NORVELT. His next book? FROM NORVELT to NOWHERE. To find out more about Jack Gantos and his books, visit www.jackgantos.com.   Jack Gantos was one of the first authors to provide newspapers with serial stories. In one story, A Penny Tree, readers meet Jack, his older sister and his younger brother.