Due this week

General Writing. Send in your best work – poems, short stories, essays. (Feel free to do it throughout the year, but this gives you a deadline.)
Deadline: Oct. 10.

To submit to Newspaper Series

  • Log in. (Click "Not a YWP member?" to create an account.)

  • Click "create content" and create an ENTRY
  • Fill out "title," "author name, school & grade" and "prompt" boxes.
  • Paste story into "body."
  • Click "Submit." You are done.
    NOTES: Your account email must be accurate; a "blog" entry must be resubmitted as an ENTRY to be considered.

A couple Questions

writingdog's picture
Submitted by writingdog on May 1, 2008 - 17:03.

Hi. I loved your book on the Revealers and it really made me thinnk about bullying, like what kids can do about it. I also think I am going to read your other book Falling because that seems interesting. Well here are a few questions for you:
1. Since some of the Revealers is based on your past bullying, did you ever report the bullying to your principal or anything?
2. Are Elliot and Catella ( I think ) based on any of your friends?
3. Did you always know that you wanted to be a writer?
thanks for your writing tips by the way! they really helped.

‹ How did you get the idea?

Doug's reply

Submitted by dwilhelm on May 2, 2008 - 14:54.

Hi Writingdog,

Thanks for your encouraging comment on The Revealers, and for sharing what it made you think about. I hope you will decide to read Falling ... you might want to check out the new YWP forum on that, as well.

Here are answers to your questions:

1. The Revealers is only based in part, not even that big a part, on the bullying that I did experience (many years ago) as an awkward, strange middle schooler with apparently no social skills (as far as I can remember). Much more information for the story came from true stories of bullying experiences that I collected from kids in modern-day Vermont middle schools. But in my own experience, I don't remember reporting any bullying that was done to me. It seems like in those days we all felt like we wouldn't get any help from grownups in dealing with this. But maybe I would have, if I had tried. I definitely felt very isolated and friendless at the time. Like a lot of kids today, I probably was scared to take the risk of being labeled a squealer if I had "told." When the dangers or the risks of being bullied get really serious, though, I think it's important to go ahead and talk with someone who can help. The adults in charge of a school need to know what's going on -- and often, these days, they very much want to address this issue and help kids who are struggling with it.

2. Elliot and Catalina are made-up characters. I wish I had known them! I borrowed Elliot's name, though only his name, from a friend of my son's. But I don't remember any specific kids being models or influences on my creating them.

3. I discovered that I could write, and liked to write, in ninth grade. I always give credit to a very good English teacher I had then, Mr. Behr, who inspired me by creating a climate of respectful discussion, in class, on the books we were reading. I was a big reader, and I had a lot to say. Being listened to, instead of being mocked and told to shut up as usual, unlocked something in me, and I started to write. I haven't stopped.

Thanks again for writing -- I hope you'll write again.

best,

Doug

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