Bookwormy Wednesdays: Stephen Chbosky Speaks at SBWC

My mother gave me a newspaper article about this guy and when I saw that he was going to speak in Santa Barbara, I knew I had to go. I couldn’t afford to go to the conference, but the lecture was open to the public, and I thought I would learn something about writing YA lit if I went. I fought to get an interpreter and read the e-book as well as watched the movie of “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” so that I’d be able to fully participate in the lecture. Unfortunately, the interpreter was unskilled, tired, or not familiar with writing terminology so I didn’t understand much. I tried to explain what he talked about to my parents, but I found myself stammering because I only had these shiny stars of ideas and I was trying to make them into a constellation. Hopefully, writing these ideas and stories out will help me make sense of them. Of course, I can’t discuss everything, but here are some chunks that stand out in my memory.

 

 

One thing I am always self-conscious about is how I’m a slow writer. It takes me a year or two to crank out a book. I’m not as prolific as Stephen King or Nora Roberts. Mr. Chbosky isn’t either because he wants to find the right words. I remember that he said sometimes he would write out 45 pages for a letter and then shrink it down. He would write and then rewrite, which is a lot of work and it takes up time. Really, he was writing the book in his mind throughout his life so he just needed to piece everything together, find Charlie’s voice, and write the right words.

When he finally felt that “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” was just right (which was back in the 90s), there wasn’t really a market for YA. Now, it’s a hot market so lucky us! He gave his manuscript to his film agent hoping that he might be able to sell it, but the agent told him that it would never sell or something negative like that. Eventually, he sold the book to MTV and “Perks…” is now a modern classic! Never give up on your story if you feel it deserves to be read by the world.

The world loves his story, so it’s good that he didn’t give up. He had some stories to tell about his fans, but there was one I really liked about what a friend of his did after he read the quote, “We accept the love we think we deserve.” The friend was so inspired by it that he told this girl he’d loved for a long time that he loved her. Now, they’re husband and wife! Isn’t that a great story? I hope I have stories like that to tell someday. I’ve moved people to laughter and tears, but never to actions like that.

Of course, Mr. Chbosky was asked whether he outlines or not. That question is more common than “how are you?” in the writing world. He said that he was half a pantser (someone who doesn’t outline) and half a planner (someone who does outline). I missed what he said about that. I personally think that you shouldn’t let the outline completely take over your story. It’s good to at least have some sort of plan, but let it be flexible. Go with the flow, see what happens. Stephen King’s “On Writing” mentions this, and he is not a fan of outlining. He prefers pantsing because then the story feels more real, but it helps me to have some sort of plan. Really, I think it’s a personal thing. King kind of scares me because in his book he sends the message that it’s, “My way, or the highway!”

 

Mr. Chbosky plans to write another novel. He didn’t say much about it, but he says that it’s a tribute to one of his favorite writers: Stephen King. J He also said that he wants to direct the movie of the book and hopes to do that for every book he writes. He even is considering writing another book about Charlie and Sam when they’re older.

Mr. Chbosky is of course, a novelist, but he is also a screenwriter. He has written “The Four Corners of Nowhere”, which went to the Sundance Film Festival. He wrote the post-apocalyptic TV show, “Jericho”, which is pretty well-known. Unfortunately, it got cancelled. He also wrote the screen adaption for the film of “The Perks of Being a Wallflower”. He also directed and was a co-producer (at least that’s what I understood) for the movie. Not many authors can say that they directed the film for their novel! It was interesting to hear a little about screenwriting as I don’t know much about it. It’s really quite challenging as you have only thirty seconds or so to introduce characters. If you ramble, you lose the audience. I had to write a screenplay for class once and got a B. I’ve never been confident in my screenwriting skills, but I think it’d be fun to write a TV show or something.

 

The interviewer let people in the audience ask questions too so I asked: “One of my favorite quotes in your book is, ‘It’s just that sometimes people use thought to not participate in life.’ I’m not sure if I quite agree with it because isn’t writing thought? I often feel like my thoughts are not complete unless I put them down on paper. Do you agree with this quote?”

 

I made sure to pay special attention because I knew the answer would be very important to me. First, he said that the teacher intended to tell Charlie to “get off the wall” and start living. That was my interpretation too, but I’m a philosopher. I want to see if this idea would work in various situations, and Stephen said that it doesn’t. I agree with him. Without thought, there would be no progress. Thoughts are the fuel for action. However, if you don’t do anything with your thoughts, they’re worthless. When thinking about what Bill was trying to say to Charlie though, Mr. Chbosky said, “Look, you’re a young person, and there are things that I know that you don’t just by age. There will come a time when you have a heart broken by a boy or something and it’ll feel like the worst pain in the world, and it is. It gets better though. Don’t dwell on those thoughts and let them prevent you from participating in life.” I completely agree with him. Sometimes life sucks. I have been in the wallflower zone and it is not fun. I went through a Charlie-esque period (although it wasn’t about a boy), but I got off the wall and moved on. My life is much better now. I just wish I moved on sooner.

You know you’re deaf when you’re sweating while trying to listen to somebody. J After his answer, the interviewer started to talk about a quote she liked when Charlie was with his grandparents, but I missed what it was. It’s too bad. I would have liked to have known.

I unfortunately didn’t catch a lot of the writing advice. Sometimes I would catch something and then think about it so I would miss chunks of it. L Talk about thought preventing you from participating! What I understood though, was great and will always be important to me. I will always remember that we laughed a lot, so it really was a lot of fun.