Lois Lowry has written over 30 books for young readers, including the Newbery Award-winning novels NUMBER THE STARS and THE GIVER. Lowry didn’t start writing professionally until she was in her mid-30s.
She originally wrote for adults, not young people. Apparently an article she wrote for Redbook magazine caught the attention of Melanie Kroupa at Houghton Mifflin publishing; the story Lowry had written for the magazine was meant for adults but was written through the eyes of a child. The editor at Houghton Mifflin suggested that Lowry write a children’s book, and she agreed. A Summer to Die was published in 1977.
On writing for young people:
When you write for adults, they can be affected by what you’ve written but they’re already well molded and shaped. It’s kids who are still in the process of growth and change and it’s why I think I take very seriously what I do because it does affect kids that way.
On why she writes (from Reading Rockets):
…The most important thing is just the amazing satisfaction one gets, somebody like me gets, just by arranging words on a page and then rearranging them so that they flow differently, better or clearer or say better what you want to say and then to go back and look at them and read them and change them again a little bit. I could just do that all day long. In fact, I do that all day long, everyday.
On writing routines:
From an Indiebound interview:
I sit at my desk every day. I do the New York Times crossword puzzle. I watch the park through my window. My CD player plays music, usually classical (at this moment, it’s a violin concerto). I sip coffee. I type words into my computer. I retype them, rearrange them, and delete them, and retype them again and again. The phone rings. The dog woofs to go out. I get up and refill my coffee cup. Then I look at the words I’ve written and I rearrange them again. Eventually, somehow, a story is put together. There isn’t anything magical. It’s a lot of hard work, a lot of fun, and a lot of waiting for the words.
On revisions, from a WriterUnboxed interview:
I work every day, re-writing as I go. Because I use a computer, and don’t save draft after draft….it is always an ongoing revision process….I have no idea how many drafts I write.
From Scholastic.com (in a PDF for young people):
It takes Lowry about six months to write a book, and then a little
additional time for rewriting. Once she has finished the book and
reread it, she chooses a title. “I think a good title should be fairly
short, easy to remember, easy to say, and should tell something
about the book without revealing too much.”
Lois Lowry quotes:
“READING is the most productive thing for me, I think. If I read brilliant paragraphs I want to rush out and write brilliant paragraphs.”
“Agents, contracts, rejection slips. None of that has anything to do with the love of language.”
” ‘Being an author’ is sort of a public thing. Being a writer is what I love.”
Want to find out about how other authors write? Visit Author Writing Habits.
Sources:
Lois Lowry website
Video interview with Lois Lowry
Teenreads.com
Everything2com bio
Wikipedia entry on Lois Lowry
Indiebound interview with Lois Lowry
School Library Journal interview
Scholastic bio | Scholastic PDF on The Giver
Writer Unboxed interview
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
This is so great to read…this is how I’ve been writing my novel. It’s a slow go but I thought I was doing it wrong somehow because everyone, I mean everyone, has told me not to edit as I go. I just can’t help myself.
Anyway, thank you thank you for posting this.
Much love to you Miss Inkyelbows! You are the best,
Lydia
Dear Lois,
Thank you so very much for posting this on Google! I appreciate you, Inkygirl. It was great to meet you at SCBWI-Los Angeles International 2009 Conference last week~ and see the photo of 4 of us sitting, eating our sandwish lunches first day, holding up our published books (for me: “A Very, Very Special Birthday” …while on “California Level” of Grand Regency Century Plaza where conference was so beautifully held. eating our sandwish lunches first day. You and your book are awesome.
Sheralee
Sheralee Hill Iglehart
Lawrence Block writes the same way, more or less. He starts by revising/editing the previous day’s work, then, when that’s done, he writes his quota for the current day. This way, when he types “the end,” he means it. He pulls that last page out of his typewriter (or his printer — he’s been writing since before computers became popular), and then sends the manuscript off.
Gary