Revealers

I was born in 1952 in Portland, Oregon, and moved to suburban New Jersey when I was in kindergarten. All through elementary school I was an avid reader. Suddenly, in middle school, I began to write. I was writing stories, poems, even a play. Until then, I hadn't been good at much of anything—I was tall, skinny, awkward, and not very popular—and it made a big difference to feel that this was something I could do.

Like the main characters in The Revealers, I was bullied a lot in middle school. The idea for the novel grew, in part, out of my own experiences. To read about that, go to The story behind The Revealers.

I studied English and played basketball at Kenyon College in Ohio, and after graduating I traveled by land from Europe to India and Nepal. It was a great adventure, and I dreamed of going back. After working as a newspaper reporter and editor back in New Jersey for several years, I did return to Asia, to spend time talking and listening with young people who were Muslim. I wrote a book about my experiences, called Street of Storytellers—but no one would publish it. It was rejected about 75 times! In those years I learned how challenging it is to be a professional writer.

I kept at it, moving up to Vermont and earning my living by writing articles, newsletters, brochures, and things like that for all kinds of organizations. My son Bradley was born in 1987. His mom and I were divorced a few years later, but we stayed good friends. I'm very proud of my son, who's now a tall, strong, kind young man.

In 1992 I was asked to write a science-fiction novel for "Choose Your Own Adventure," a popular series of interactive fiction for young readers. I went on to write eight "Choose" books, and I learned a lot about writing stories that could keep young readers turning the pages.

"How geeky is that?" - a conversation with Doug Wilhelm

This interview with author Doug Wilhelm, conducted by writer Spring Hermann, is published in the Fall 2007 issue of NERA Journal, a publication of the New England Reading Association.

SPRING: Although we've never met, I have learned about you through the www.the-revealers.com website. Tell me about your family and the kind of environment you grew up in.

DOUG: I grew up in a small house in a pleasant, suburban commuter town outside New York City. I'm the oldest of three, and we were lucky to live in a neighborhood that was full of kids. We were always outdoors playing games. Inside my house, things were more confusing. Although they're both sober now, my parents were active alcoholics all during my growing-up years.

SPRING: You say you read your way through elementary school. Do you remember any authors or books that touched you and guided you? Was the public library your refuge?

DOUG: It was! I remember once getting grounded for sneaking out of my bedroom window at night (it was on the first floor) to go to the library. How geeky is that?? In seventh grade, I became obsessed with the historical novel Johnny Tremain. Like Elliot in The Revealers, I was on the bottom of my grade's social ladder, and I didn't want to be living my life at all—so I would imagine myself as a new character in Johnny Tremain, playing minor parts in scenes in the novel.

I was so much tormented in the public junior high that my parents sent me to a private boys' day school for the next two years. Now I had hardly any contact with my neighborhood friends, and at the boys' school I was bullied horrendously—they were professionals. So books became basically my only friends. I remember getting into Twain and George Orwell, but my favorite author that I discovered then was William Saroyan.

To participate in a forum with author Doug Wilhelm, click on the book cover to the left. To see other information about Doug, click here.

The Revealers, Chapter 1
Richie
By Doug Wilhelm

When I was in seventh grade I did not understand the things that came out of my mouth. Of course I'm a year older now, and a lot happened last year—and that's what this story is about—but sometimes I think back and I just cringe.

I wanted people to say, "Hey, Russell! Sit with us!" But I'd open my mouth and what would come out would be loud and clanky and wrong. And they would give me that quick, flat, puzzled stare that is the stock weapon of the cool seventh grader and seems to ask, "What species are you, exactly?" And I would go away thinking I was hopeless. I just wished that once I could say the right thing - but next chance I had with somebody important my words would pop out clanky and loud and I would want to run my head into a wall. I'd wonder, What happened to me?

Basically, when seventh grade started I found out I was out. It was like everyone else took a secret summer course in how to act, what to say, and what groups to be in, and I never found out about it. Maybe they didn't tell me on purpose. Maybe they thought it'd be fun to see how out of it I could get. See how you could start to think? But the truth is, nobody thought much about me at all back then. I wasn't the type anybody paid attention to—not before all this started happening.

So I would go home from school by myself. I was riding my bike the particular day when this thing occurred that pretty much captures what I'm talking about: my having had this talent, just then in my life, for saying an incredibly wrong thing to exactly the person I should never, ever have said it to.

By Doug Wilhelm
Writer

From about middle school on, when we start to grow self-conscious, people very often become scared to write. We may dream of writing, and long to express ourselves and see our words in print, but we can’t get past the fear.

It doesn’t have to be this way. There is a simple, two-stage approach to writing that can allow you, if you want to write, to produce stories, essays, poems, or anything else without getting all tangled up in feeling you can’t do this well enough.

I know that fear. I have it all the time! Writing is a risk, and it feels especially risky if you want to try something personal or different or creative. It’s not that the fear of taking this chance goes away. It’s that you learn how to get past it.

Here’s how:

We write best when we approach it in two phases: First, producing a draft, and then revising it. (Teachers often break this down into more phases, including “prewriting,” but never mind about that for now.) We actually have two sides to our brain, the creative and the critical.

The creative mind is on the right side, and the critical, or analyzing, mind is on the left. Our creative mind is looser, more childlike, and wants to take chances on self-expression. Our left side – the analyzing, critical side – is more adultlike. It wants things clear, orderly and just right.

Most of us know the inner voice that says: “This isn’t coming out all perfect and brilliant. You’re a bad writer!” That’s where people get stuck. But this is only the critical mind getting in the way of writing’s first phase.

Write fast

There is a way to set that voice aside for a while, so your looser, more inventive, risk-taking mind can give you a first draft.

How can you do this? Simple: Write your first draft fast.