SBBT Interview: Gary D. Schmidt

Gary D. Schmidt is a new favorite author of mine. I was first introduced to his work last year when I read The Wednesday Wars, which I enjoyed a whole lot. He's been awarded two Newbery Honors (for The Wednesday Wars and Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy) and a Printz Honor (for Lizzie Bright). I recently read his newest book Trouble and thought it was brilliant. It's even earned a spot in my top favorite books. I was totally thrilled (and a little nervous!) to interview the amazing Mr. Schmidt, but he was very gracious and sent me wonderful answers to all my questions.

What was your inspiration for The Wednesday Wars? Did you do any acting when you were young? Did you like Shakespeare when you were Holling Hoodhood's age?

The inspiration for The Wednesday Wars was really not Shakespeare so much, but the times I was alone in a classroom just like Holling Hoodhood, with a teacher who was not happy about that. I really did do the janitor thing for the opening weeks. Later, I did read the Shakespeare plays. For the most part, they were much too hard for me, but I read for the story only, and skipped much that I didn't get, and enjoyed them as much as I could--and they are, of course, great stories first, before everything else. Did I like Shakespeare in those years? I loved the stories, but not the language so much. That came later.

I have not acted since second grade--I hated it then, and swore I would never do it again--which I have for the most part kept to, except for a forced stint on a quad play in graduate school.

What do you like best about Shakespeare's plays? What's your favorite of his plays?

Today, what I like most about Shakespeare's plays are his use of language--his stunning turns, his amazing coinage--as when he changes nouns to verbs ("he eyed him") or his addition of latin forms into English ("the seas incarnadine"). So that first now--but always with his story. My favroite plays are The Tempest and Much Ado About Nothing.

Where did you get the idea for Trouble?

I got the idea for Trouble from a morning visit in a bed and breakfast in Concord, MA. I met a kid, ten years old or so, who was interviewing with a local prep school. He and his family were obviously phenomenally wealthy, and it struck me then how insulated that kid was from the real world, with his blue blazer and beige pants. I wondered how he would respond if he ever came face to face with something that his easy money couldn't solve. I've thought about that for ten years now--that kid is probably in college. I wonder how much empathy his money allows him. So, I wrote this novel about a kid whose money seems to keep trouble away, who meets a kid who has never known anything but trouble--and what happens when Trouble brings them together.

In Trouble, there's a lot of sorrow but a lot of hope and joy, too. Is balancing the dark and the light, the good and the bad in a novel a difficult thing to do? Or does it come easily for you?

Does balancing the light and dark come easily? Never--though nothing comes easily for me in a novel. But we all do have practice with this, certainly. Everyone knows both impulses, and everyone makes choices that lean one way or the other--though those choices are rarely so clear as all of that. It seems to me that a novel on some level must show real life, and I hope that as characters struggle with that balance, readers will feel both empathy and recognition.

In another interview, you said, "I've got some responsibilities to my audience, and I need to take that responsibility very, very seriously because what I want to talk to them about are things like hope [....] and you can't be screwing around when you're talking to kids about hope." Bravo for saying that, and why do you think it's so important to have a strong message of hope in stories?

If there was ever a time in recent history when a strong message of hope is important, it's now. Of course, hope is important for all times, but when we look around us, it's pretty clear that we live in troubled times, with a shocking cynicism in our culture's power centers. Hope for something better is not something tht just happens; it's something that needs to be cultivated.

Which comes easier for you: plot or characters? What is your process like for fleshing out either one of those things?

Well, before plot and character comes voice. I have to get that right. I have to know what the narrator sounds like--either first or third person. After that, I enjoy working on character. Plot comes last. Once I hear the narrator, and have interesting (I hope) characters to work with, then the plot comes as I watch them interact.

What's your favorite thing about being a writer?

My favorite thing about being a writer is, without question, revising. I like the revision process enormously. The first draft is horrible--and it takes about a year. But once that is finished, the revision is really a good time.

Thank you SO much, Gary, for your answers and your fantastic books.

And the Summer Blog Blast Tour concludes with interviews at the following sites:

Varian Johnson at Finding Wonderland
Jincy Willet at Shaken & Stirred
John Grandits at Writing & Ruminating
Meg Burden at Bookshelves of Doom
Javaka Steptoe at Seven Impossible Things
Mary Hooper at Interactive Reader