Frequently Asked Questions
Answered by Sylvia Engdahl
Last updated August 20, 2007 - Optimized for 800 x 600.
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Frequently Asked Questions Answered by Sylvia Engdahl Last updated August 20, 2007 - Optimized for 800 x 600. |
General information about my booksHow many books have you published?
Fourteen. Twelve of them were originally published in hardcover by Atheneum between 1970 and 1981--six YA science fiction novels, two science fiction anthologies that I edited, three nonfiction books for teenage readers, and one picture book. The novels have all been reissued in updated editions by different publishers in the 21st century.
Three of them--my trilogy This Star Shall Abide (1972), Beyond the Tomorrow Mountains (1973), and The Doors of the Universe (1981)--were issued in a single-volume edition as adult SF by Meisha Merlin under the title Children of the Star. Although Meisha Merlin has gone out of business, this book is still available at Amazon.com.
My fourteenth book is a new novel for adults only, Stewards of the Flame, which will be available from Amazon.com in mid-2007.
Which is your most successful novel?
The best-known is my Young Adult book, Enchantress from the Stars (1970), which was a 1971 Newbery Honor Book. The original edition was sold to more libraries than my others because it's interesting to younger readers as well as teens; it had several paperback editions and excerpts appeared in several 8th-grade literature textbooks. The new hardcover edition, with reset type and a jacket and interior vignettes by the award-winning artists Leo and Diane Dillon, was published in April 2001 by Walker, and a paperback edition with the same cover art was published in February 2003 by Firebird Books.
Is there a sequel to Enchantress from the Stars?
The Far Side of Evil, which was originally published in 1971 and republished with updating by Walker in March 2003 (with a paperback edition by Firebird in 2005) is related to Enchantress because it has the same heroine, but she is older than in the earlier book and it is a darker story that's less suitable for readers below teenage. I don't like to call it a "sequel" because it's very different and is completely independent from the earlier book. They can be read in either order.
Do any of the characters besides Elana appear in both books?
No. She visits a different world, accompanied by different people. It's a world very much like Earth was in the 1950s before the launching of Sputnik. (For more information, see its description page.)
What other YA novels did you write?
The only other is Journey Between Worlds (1970), which was written before Enchantress from the Stars but published second, and is a romance about the settlement of Mars. A new, updated hardcover edition was published by Putnam in 2006 and a Firebird paperback edition appeared in 2007.
Many science fiction fans have never heard of your novels. Why is that?
All except Stewards of the Flame were originally issued as Young Adult books--even though, except for Enchantress from the Stars, they aren't interesting to most readers below their mid-teens. This means they weren't marketed in the same way as other science fiction; in the publishing business, YA books are issued through the children's editorial and sales departments, which are entirely separate from those that handle adult novels. Until recently their hardcover editions were rarely carried by stores, and only the review media read by youth librarians generally saw them. Yet the new editions of my books, even the adult omnibus of Children of the Star, aren't often reviewed because few media will review reprints.
If these novels aren't interesting to younger teen readers, why were their jackets marked "ages 10-14" or "12 up"--a marking still visible on library copies of the original editions? Don't advanced readers usually seek books with a suggested age level higher than their own age?
The original publisher felt the books would sell better that way than with a more realistic marking. An author has no control whatsoever over what's said on the jacket or in advertising. Personally, I think these labels, and the resulting placement of the books in library children's rooms, kept them out of the hands of the people most apt to like them. Beyond the Tomorrow Mountains and The Doors of the Universe in particular seem boring to readers who are too young to understand the issues with which they deal.
Since mature teenagers generally read adult SF instead of children's books, why didn't you publish your trilogy as adult fiction in the first place?
Enchantress from the Stars does appeal to children although it has no child characters, and it won honors in the children's literature field. So that was the field in which I had sufficient reputation to sell the later books. However, there was also another reason. I didn't want to address my work exclusively to the "in-group" of SF fans; I wanted to reach readers who don't have background in the SF genre. That meant making the stories intelligible to reviewers not familiar with the ideas and conventions on which genre-oriented SF relies.
Still, many Young Adult science fiction novels are reprinted in mass-market SF paperback lines. Why weren't yours?
Apparently it was felt that they weren't sufficiently action-oriented to attract large paperback audiences--I think that in the 70s I was the only author of YA science fiction whose books were successful in hardcover, yet weren't sold for mass-market reprint. However, the publishing field has changed somewhat. Now the omnibus edition of the trilogy has now been issued in a trade softcover line as adult SF, and the rack-size trade paperback editions of Enchantress from the Stars, The Far Side of Evil and Journey Between Worlds are being marketed to both teen and adult sections of bookstores.
Weren't there some earlier trade paperback editions?
Not of the trilogy. Enchantress from the Stars, The Far Side of Evil and This Star Shall Abide appeared in children's paperback form, and Enchantress had a Troll Book Club edition distributed in schools. There were also 1989 Collier Books paperback editions of Enchantress and Far Side; these did reach the SF sections of some chain stores, although their covers (unfortunately, in my opinion) were designed to attract a younger audience.
Why were your books suddenly republished after being out of print so long?
In the case of Children of the Star it was because the Internet and other new technologies have made it economical for small presses to offer books that don't have the huge mass-market appeal major publishers now require. In the case of my Young Adult books, it was largely due to the phenomenal success of Harry Potter, which created a demand for hardcover fantasy and science fiction for teens and is causing bookstores to carry more of it than in the past. The original hardcover editions of my books were sold almost exclusively to libraries, whereas the new ones are available in retail outlets.
Have there been any foreign editions?
Enchantress from the Stars and The Far Side of Evil were published by Gollancz in England during the 1970s, as was This Star Shall Abide under the title Heritage of the Star (which also had a UK paperback edition). Enchantress appeared in Japanese at that time. German, Spanish, Portuguese, Finnish, Chinese and Hebrew editions of Enchantress have recently been published; Korean and Thai edtions of both Enchantress and Far Side are coming.
Why did the British edition of This Star Shall Abide have a different title than the American edition?
Because Gollancz didn't happen to like the original title. It is quite common for the U.S. and U.K. editions of the same book to have different titles (even the first Harry Potter book!) This is very confusing, especially now that books can be obtained so easily via the Internet by readers all over the world. But title decisions are made by publishers; authors' preferences are not always accepted.
Why did you drop your middle name from some reprint editions of your books?
Originally, I used my full name, Sylvia Louise Engdahl, on my novels. But my British publisher felt that a double feminine name might make them less attractive to male SF buyers, and on reflection I decided that this is probably true. Furthermore, my full name is associated with my reputation as a "children's author," which I have tried to overcome in the case of books other than Enchantress from the Stars because I don't consider older teenage readers "children." Therefore I no longer use it on editions not marketed as children's or YA books.
What awards have you won for your writing?
Besides being a 1971 Newbery Honor Book, Enchantress from the Stars later won the Children's Literature Association's 1990 Phoenix Award, which is given each year "from the perspective of time" to a children's book first published 20 years prior to the award's presentation, and it was a finalist for the 2002 Book Sense Book of the Year in the Rediscovery category.
This Star Shall Abide won a 1973 Christopher Award for "affirmation of the highest values of the human spirit."
Where do you get your ideas?
My novels grew out of my lifelong interest in space and my strong desire to convey how important our viewpoint toward space is to the future. As to the ideas for the central events in the stories, I wish I knew! They came to me than ten years before I wrote the books, and I didn't have any more until recently--although, of course, I had lots of ideas about issues I wished I could express in the form of fiction.
Have you ever published any short stories?
No, I've never had ideas appropriate for short stories--mine required complicated backgrounds. I co-authored two fairly long stories that appear in my anthologies: "The Beckoning Trail," co-authored with my friend Rick Roberson, in Universe Ahead (1975) and "Timescape," co-authored with my mother Mildred Butler, in Anywhere, Anywhen (1976). These were based on the ideas of the co-authors, not mine. They are now available here online.
Why haven't you written any novels since 1981?
I have. In 2005 I was, to my great surprise, "struck by lightning" with the idea for a story again and wrote an adult novel, Stewards of the Flame, which will be published in 2007. This novel is not suitable for young adults and is intended for an entirely different market from the one in which I am currently best known.
As to the long lapse between The Doors of the Universe and Stewards of the Flame, there have been only short periods in my life during which I could create stories at all. Thinking up the action in fiction has always been very hard for me--I've had plenty of themes, settings and characters in mind, but in a story something has to happen! It's the happenings that I can't often come up with. Strange as this seems to my friends (and for that matter, to strangers) it's something I can't control. This is not "writer's block." I never have any trouble expressing thoughts in words. But my thoughts don't normally take the form of eventful narrative. Actually, the mystery is why I was able to write fiction during the late 60s and early 70s; before and for many years thereafter, my talents were more analytical than imaginative.
To be sure, part of the trouble is that unlike most science fiction authors, I am not interested in imagining "what if" situations that don't match my actual convictions about the universe and about future human evolution (though of course, I often present ideas metaphorically rather than literally). What inspires me to write is the expression of my views on these subjects through the experiences of fictional characters. I could not, for example, write about an advanced form of life that solved its problems without expanding beyond its home world, because I believe that space colonization is the only solution to the problems that arise at the stage of evolution where it becomes possible. And I couldn't write about the Service of my Elana books intervening in the affairs of a world that could survive on its own, because I believe truly advanced beings wouldn't do that. So I'm limited by more than lack of imagination; any story situation I use has to fit my opinions.
For a more formal and detailed explanation of why I haven't written more novels, see my essay in "On Writing III," published online by Critique Magazine.
Why isn't Stewards of the Flame suitable for YA readers?
It's unlikely that the story would interest teens, as there are no young people in it--the hero and all the main characters are in their 40s or older. And they are concerned, among other things, with adult problems such as death in old age.
There are two other reasons why I emphasize that the book isn't appropriate for YA readers. First, it contains some sex and profanity, mild by the standards of adult fiction but more than readers expect from me on the basis of my YA novels. This would be objectionable to some parents, considering that my YA books are often given to middle school kids even when I say they're for older teens.
Second and perhaps most significant, the book is strongly critical of today's medical dogma and advocates ignoring government health advice, including much that is taught in today's schools. To be sure, it deals with a future society, and I hope makes plain to adults that today it would not be possible to reject orthodox medical care to the extent the characters do, since we lack the means to implement their alternative. But young readers might not make the distinction. To them the story would say "Avoid doctors, if necessary by hiding your symptoms." And a lot of parents and schools would object if they thought a noted YA author was trying to undermine the official view on this subject in the minds of kids! I don't want to damage my reputation in the YA field by upsetting parents or teachers, and I don't want to mislead kids by offering them material that they haven't the maturity to interpret.
Of course, if teens who read other adult fiction want to read it, that's okay--but because I'm known to librarians as a YA author, it's important to make clear that they shouldn't order it for the YA collection.
Why did you publish Stewards of the Flame yourself?
Because publishers of adult fiction demand that it be strictly categorized by genre, and Stewards of the Flame doesn’t fit genre requirements. Since it’s set in the future on another planet, it’s considered science fiction—yet like my YA novels, it appeals more to general audiences than to those with extensive science fiction background. This means it’s not suitable for adult SF lines, and in any case I want it to reach other readers, too. At my age, I feel it’s unlikely that marketing criteria will change during my lifetime, so the only way get the story into the hands of adult readers is to publish on my own.
But isn't it unprofessional for an author to pay for a book's publication?
I did not pay anything other than a small registration fee (and a fee for a license to use the cover photo). I have desktop publishing experience, so although the book is being printed and distributed by BookSurge, Amazon.com's print-on-demand subsidiary, I did the design and typesetting personally on my own computer.
Are you writing anything now?
At present I am writing a sequel to Stewards of the Flame--I'm wrapped up in the characters and I do have a complete plot in mind!
Why do you write only science fiction?
I write about space and other worlds because I believe that expansion into space is essential to human survival, and that how people feel about the universe beyond Earth is therefore becoming more and more crucial. I have been convinced of its importance for more than 50 years (my interest in space exploration began in 1946, long before it was either a reality or a subject popular with the general public). For more about my views on this, see Space and Human Survival at this Web site.
Do you hope to write more Young Adult novels in the future?
For many years I did not, because there was a long period when it wasn't possible to publish long, complicated books like mine--which have college-age characters and are considered "difficult reading"--in the Young Adult field; for marketing reasons, YA novels had to appeal to younger teens who weren't advanced readers. The market is changing again, so I no longer rule out the possibility. Nevertheless, if I get more ideas for fiction they're likely to be for adult novels.
Have you ever considered writing books for younger children?
That requires a gift I don't have. Besides, I don't know children well enough to write about them--I've never had any contact with them, apart from working as a summer camp counselor when I was in college and one year of teaching at which I was not very successful.
Some of your novels appear on feminist reading lists. Did you aim for that?
I never thought about it. Enchantress from the Stars was the first science fiction novel with a female protagonist to be issued as YA, and feminists liked her, especially in the related novel The Far Side of Evil where she assumes authority over a male colleague. But I'm not a women's rights activist; I wrote about a young woman because I found her easy to identify with, and I assumed that in a culture as advanced as I was portraying, men and women would naturally be equal. (Then with the trilogy, where I wrote from a male viewpoint, feminists complained that his world's society was sexist--which indeed it was, because I was trying to show that it had reverted to a backward level socially as well as technologically.)
What has been your most gratifying response from your readers?
For many years I said that apart from the awards I'd received, I was most pleased by the remark of an adult reader of Journey Between Worlds who told me it convinced her that the space program is worthwhile.
But in 1997, within two weeks of the opening of this Web site, that changed. Nothing in my experience has ever pleased (or astonished) me more than the discovery of how many adults remember my books from their childhood or teen years and feel that they were influenced by them. In my pre-Internet years, I received praise from reviewers and librarians and sometimes got mail from children assigned to write letters to authors in school, but only on rare occasions did I hear from readers who reacted personally to the novels. I have been deeply touched to learn they've had lasting impact.
Why isn't Journey Between Worlds better known?
Because it was placed on the children's science fiction shelf in libraries, when as someone once said to me, no science fiction enthusiast wants to read about a girl who doesn't want to go to Mars! It was meant to go on the Young Adult romance shelf, and if any librarians are reading this, I wish you would go and move it there. The original edition of Journey is now outdated in minor ways that I have fixed in the 2006 hardcover edition (details needed altering because of what has been learned about Mars; moreover, it contained assumptions and phrasing acceptable 30 years ago that now strike even me as sexist). Also, it appeals to a somewhat different audience than my other novels since it contains no element of fantasy or the paranormal, nor does it have an interstellar setting. However, the new edition has received quite a bit of notice from romance reviewers, and with renewed public interest in Mars, the story is more timely than ever.
Is there anything you regret about your books, that you wish you'd done differently?
I have been sorry that I connected The Far Side of Evil to Enchantress from the Stars instead of using another protagonist. The two novels, despite being set in the same SF "universe," are otherwise independent and appeal to different audiences, although many people like both. The younger readers of Enchantress are often disappointed that the second story isn't a continuation of the first, or are depressed by the subjects with which it deals--if The Far Side of Evil were a movie I would rate it PG-13. Of course, when I wrote it, I had no idea that Enchantress would become a Newbery Honor Book and be given to as many pre-teen readers as it was, so I didn't foresee that problem. Nor did I realize that few of the older teen readers for whom The Far Side of Evil was intended would discover a book that was labeled as a "sequel" to a children's book (a label I now want to avoid).
This problem is not as serious with the new editions as it was in the past, because bookstores are now carrying more books for older teens and more libraries have Young Adult sections patronized by teens. I hope, however, that adults who gave Enchantress to 10- and 11-year-olds will not assume that the related book is equally appropriate for them. And I certainly hope that it won't be passed up by older readers who didn't care for the fairy-tale aspect of Enchantress, because it's a very different kind of story.
What nonfiction have you written?
The Planet-Girded Suns: Man's View of Other Solar Systems (1974) is the history of opinions about extrasolar life--which, contrary to common belief, was assumed to exist throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. I got most of the material for it from books and magazines of that era and I once intended to revise it someday for an adult audience; the original YA version is too difficult reading for most teens, yet too oversimplified for scholars despite being based on original research in primary sources. It will never be reprinted, since its section about modern scientific beliefs is now somewhat dated; so I have put the historical chapters online.
The Subnuclear Zoo: New Discoveries in High Energy Physics (1977) and Tool for Tomorrow: New Knowledge About Genes (1979) were co-authored with Rick Roberson, who at that time was a science student with more training in those subjects than I'd had. These books were meant for 6th to 8th graders but turned out to be hard for most of them, yet oversimplified for high school. The information in them is by now outdated in many cases.
Our World is Earth (1979) is a picture book for young children. Ironically, though my books have usually been called too difficult for their intended age level, some reviewers thought this one was too easy--they assumed it was a "science book" for primary grades whereas actually I meant it to be read aloud to preschoolers.
I've also written a few essays that can be found in large libraries. Those most like to interest readers of my books are "The Mythic Role of Space Fiction," which was my Phoenix Award acceptance speech and which has been reprinted in several places (and is also now online) and my autobiography. (See my list of publications.)
Recently, I have been editing nonfiction books for Greenhaven Press. These appear under my name in book catalogs, but I merely choose the material for them and write the introductions. They do not reveal my opinions on their subjects, as the aim of the series is to present conflicting views impartially.
Personal information about my life
Where do you live?
Since 1988 my home has been in Eugene, Oregon. Before that, I lived in Portland, and earlier, in Los Angeles, with short stays in other places. I like Eugene best and am settled here permanently.
Do you have a family?
No, not since my mother died at the age of 90. For many years we lived together; she too was a writer (under her maiden name, Mildred Allen Butler). Now my two cats are my only family, as I have no close relatives.
Receiving the Phoenix Award
at the Children's Literature
Association Conference, 1990When and where were you born?
Apparently this is something teachers feel should be stated in school book reports, since students write and ask me! It's no secret: I was born in Los Angeles in 1933.
Your last name is unusual--what nationality is it?
It's Swedish; my father was born in Sweden in 1881. However, he came to America as a small child and remembered nothing about Sweden, so I have no knowledge of my Swedish heritage.
Where did you go to college?
I got my degree from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1955. Before that, I briefly attended Pomona College in Claremont, California; Reed College in Portland; and the University of Oregon in Eugene. Later, I did graduate work at Portland State University.
As a child, did you hope to be a writer?
No. I never wrote stories until I was in college, and then only about experiences I'd had on childhood vacations and as a camp counselor (none of which had enough substance to be publishable). I didn't get ideas for science fiction until my early 20s.
What inspired you to become a writer as an adult?
I wanted to express my beliefs about space and the future. At first I tried writing short stories, but my ideas proved unsuitable for that, so I put them aside. Later on, when I had more time, I developed my novels from them.
Are you a full-time writer?
While I was writing my books I listed my occupation as "writer" because during those years I had no other profession, but I never earned my living by writing. (I wouldn't want young aspiring writers to think that writing a few books like mine can support a person.) My main responsibility at that time was serving as companion to my elderly mother. Now, I am working as a freelance copyeditor and editor of nonfiction anthologies.
Did you have an earlier career other than writing?
Yes, two separate ones. In my youth I taught 4th grade for a year; that was what I had trained for in college, what I'd always thought I wanted. I also hoped to become a camp director; I had been a counselor or unit director at several camps (my favorite was Camp Sweyolakan on Coeur d'Alene Lake in Idaho) and then in the summer of 1956 I was resident director of a small camp in Oregon. But I found I wasn't suited to teaching, so I no longer had summers free for camp work.
After that, from 1957 to 1967, I was a programmer and then computer systems specialist for the SAGE Air Defense System, at a time when programming was a brand new field and trainees with degrees in other areas were being hired. I worked entirely in assembly language, doing mainly what's now called systems programming; higher level languages did not yet exist. Times have changed . . . I wrote a series for a BBS once titled "Rip Van Winkle's View of Microcomputing" and even that is now very ancient history.
Have you done any programming since then?
In the early 80s I wrote and attempted to sell assembly-language software for my TRS-80 computer, but I couldn't pay for enough advertising to get the venture off the ground. Then when I first got an IBM compatible in 1987, I quit programming, because all the software I needed was already available as shareware and there seemed to be no point in reinventing the wheel. I miss it sometimes, but my knowledge is now far too obsolete to update without more time than I could devote to it. I've been busy with online projects.
What have you done online besides create a website?
From 1985 until 1997 I was a part-time online staff and faculty member of Connected Education, Inc. of White Plains, New York, which offered online courses for college credit. I taught "Science Fiction and Space Age Mythology" several times through Connected Education for graduate credit from New York's New School for Social Research. That course (which dealt with pop-culture rather than literary SF) was based partly on my background in anthropology, a field in which I did graduate study in the late 70s. My "lectures" for it are now here at this site.
I also taught "Technology and 21st Century Medicine" and team-taught "Computer Conferencing in Business and Education" through Connect Ed for New School credit. All of these were Media Studies courses, focused on analysis of our culture's outlook.
What are you doing now?
Besides the freelance work mentioned above, I'm the webmaster for author Shirley Rousseau Murphy. In addition, I'm active in volunteer work for the Eugene Public Library, for which I desktop-publish a newsletter.
What books do you like to read? What SF and/or fantasy has influenced you most?
My all-time fantasy favorites are Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, Ursula LeGuin's Wizard of Earthsea, and The King Must Die by Mary Renault. As for science fiction, in my youth I especially enjoyed Robert Heinlein's YA novels--which I read one by one as they came out--and some of his other early fiction (I didn't like his later novels as well). I was also particularly fond of Zenna Henderson's "People" stories, Leigh Brackett's The Long Tomorrow, and some of the work of Arthur Clarke and Chad Oliver. In mainstream fiction, I loved the novels of Nevil Shute (not On the Beach, but his lesser-known and more optimistic ones, which I still re-read from time to time).
Despite my lifelong interest in space, I have never been a "science fiction fan" in the sense the term is generally used, because I don't personally care for fiction that goes out of its way to portray lifeforms and civilizations far removed from humanity as we know it, or that's in any sense "weird"--nor do I often enjoy action stories. Thus I don't have wide background in the SF/fantasy genre and have had no connection with the subculture that surrounds it (although this doesn't mean I don't admire the skill and imagination of authors in that field, especially of those who have inspired members of the subculture to believe in a spacefaring future for humankind).
On the whole, I prefer novels that focus less on adventure or "far-out" concepts than on the feelings and/or moral dilemmas of the characters. And however great its literary quality may be, I have no patience with fiction that presents a pessimistic--and therefore, in my opinion, false--view of human progress or of humanity's place in the universe.
What are your hobbies?
Mainly, the Internet! I surf the Web a lot; also, from time to time I enjoy selling personal belongings I no longer need on eBay. But more than that, online communication has meant a great deal to me since I got my first modem in 1984. While caring for my aging mother I wasn't able to leave the house often and had few outside personal contacts. Now, though I still stay home most of the time and for personal reasons am unable to travel, through the Internet I'm in touch with the world; and I welcome e-mail from my readers.
Where can more information about you be found?
The best source is my autobiography, which has been published in both Contemporary Authors Vol. 195 (which is in most large libraries) and Something About the Author Vol. 122. I'm listed in some other reference books but they're not up to date, and in any case don't contain more information than is here at this website.
Comments on issues raised by my Novels
FAQ about my Elana novels (Important! Please look at this if you have read either of them, especially if you are a teacher leading classroom discussions.)
FAQ about my Children of the Star trilogy (Contains major spoilers -- don't follow this link if you haven't yet read it; instead, see the description page.)
Advice for Aspiring Writers
What advice do you have for young people who want to write?
First of all, read a lot! You can't learn to write unless you become familiar with what has already been written--with how good writers use words, how they describe characters and turn imagined events into stories. Especially if you're still in school, it will get easier to find words for your ideas after you've spent more years reading.
Second, if you have ideas for stories, write them down, even if you can't express them as well as you'd like to. Don't worry about how good your writing is while you're working on a first draft; write simply because you enjoy it, or have a story you want to tell. The time to perfect it is later, after you have let it alone for a while. Save everything you write, whether or not you think it is worth saving! Ideas tend to disappear unless they are preserved in written form. Besides, someday when you have more skill you may want to revise your early work.
What training is needed to become a writer?
Well, of course you need to do well in English in school. Beyond that, a writer may or may not have formal training; some do and others don't.
If you are seriously interested in writing fiction, go to your public library and get some books on how to do it. There are many, which your librarian can help you find. I started reading such books when I was about 12--long before I had any intention of being a writer--because my mother wanted to write and she had them around the house; that may be why as an adult I didn't need any formal training.
In college, or if you have finished school, you may want to take classes in creative writing. Some writers are greatly helped by sharing their work with fellow-beginners and/or having it critiqued by a teacher. For others, it's inhibiting; they freeze up and cannot write well if they think somebody is going to see their work before they themselves are satisfied with it. And even experienced writers may lose enthusiam for a story if they show it too soon. If you are like this, don't listen to people who urge you to join a group.
The people who benefit most from classes and workshops are those who have lots of ideas and find that words flow freely, but who have trouble in choosing the right words or in organizing their material into well-structured stories. The latter is a skill that can be learned; the former comes naturally, if it comes at all.
Where do writers get their ideas?
There is a fine explanation of the creative process on my friend Shirley Rousseau Murphy's FAQ page, which you should read if you want to write fiction.
How should a person prepare for a career as an author?
By acquiring other skills with which to earn a living. You can't plan to support yourself by writing novels; very few authors earn enough to do so, and in all but rare cases it happens only after they've had many years of experience. The vast majority have some other means of support, either a job or the income of a spouse. This is not a bad thing, because a writer needs to gain experience in living, in active involvement with the world; otherwise he or she would have little to say to readers.
Of course, you can prepare for a related profession, like journalism, in college. But if you intend to write regularly, you may prefer to take some kind of job that will leave your evenings and weekends--and your creative energy--free for writing. On the other hand, if you choose a demanding profession, you can still write in what free time you do have, and switch careers later if your books are successful. Your first career may even give you material to write about; for example, several well-known authors of bestselling novels started out as doctors.
How do you get a book published?
By submitting it to publishers that have published similar books. Be warned that it is very difficult for a new author--or even for an experienced author--to get published nowadays. It normally takes many months or even years to find a publisher that is interested, because publishers receive far more manuscripts than they can accept. But don't be discouraged by rejections. Books that are eventually successful are often rejected by many publishers before acceptance.
To find the names and addresses of publishers that will consider unsolicited manuscripts, look in a book called The Literary Marketplace, which you will find in most public libraries. You can also learn from library books how to format your manuscript and what to say in the cover letter. Never submit a manuscript to a publisher that places ads in newspapers or magazines saying "Authors Wanted"--those publishers require authors to pay the cost of editing and printing, which regular publishers never do.
If you are an adult and can afford it, you may want to attend a writers' conference after you've been writing for some time and feel that you're ready to publish. It's an opportunity to hear advice from experts and to meet other writers, editors and literary agents. These conferences are held in many areas of the country; they are announced in writers' magazines and on the Web.
Can I send you a story I've written?
I'm sorry, but I just don't have time to read and make comments on unpublished stories. I often get this request, and it wouldn't be fair to look at a few people's work when I can't do it for everyone who asks.
Sylvia Engdahl's Home Page: www.sylviaengdahl.com
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