Here's a Q and A with Ned Vizzini who writes essays, novels, and also for television. His latest novel has JUST hit stands this week. And It's Kind of a Funny Story, the film starring Keir Gilchrist, Zach Galifianakis and Emma Roberts, based on his novel came out in 2010.
So below find a shaved head, some weapons, some love advice, writerly advice and lots of Vizzini who is not anything-ish -- not at all.
I despise the pervasive myth of inspiration – the idea that an entire book can exist simply because of an accumulation of inspired ideas – but I don’t deny that inspiration exists. There are things that have no other explanation. Was there a singular moment of inspiration for this book?
So below find a shaved head, some weapons, some love advice, writerly advice and lots of Vizzini who is not anything-ish -- not at all.
I despise the pervasive myth of inspiration – the idea that an entire book can exist simply because of an accumulation of inspired ideas – but I don’t deny that inspiration exists. There are things that have no other explanation. Was there a singular moment of inspiration for this book?
Some writers hate to write. Other writers love being engaged in the creative process. How would you describe your relationship with the page?
Writing
is tough. But as my wife tells me, "That's why it's your job." I
always get freaked out when I sit down to do it and then I eventually
get into it and it's an escape. It's when I'm not doing it that I
become un-moored and depressed.What’s your advice to someone who’s fallen in love with a writer?
Tell us a tale from the publishing world – something, ANYthing about that process from your perspective.
This was a new concept to me, but the idea is that a book cover shouldn't represent the way your characters look -- it should represent the way they want to look. Because if the book actually shows your main character in all of his/her ugliness, fatness, insanity, etc., people aren't going to pick it up. So in a way, when you look at book covers, you are looking at what the main characters dream of looking like.
Are you bloggish? Why?
I'm scared of the word "-ish". I don't have anything against people who use it, but every time I see it I just feel old and stupid. But yes, I have a blog, and I put something new up every whole month!
What other jobs have you had -- other than writing or teaching writing? Did one of these help shape you as a writer?
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I had a job for two weeks as a bike messenger in New
York City. It shaped me like this: one of my fellow bike messengers was
an actor. He told me he was jealous of me for being a writer. I was
at a bad place in my life (I was working as a bike messenger) so I
didn't understand why. But he told me, "To do what you do, all you need
is a paper and a pen. I have to find a show, and a director, and
audition..." That really hit home. For all the difficult things about
writing, it's something that you as the writer control completely. You
have no one to blame but yourself if it's bad -- but no one can take it
away from you if it's good.
Ned Vizzini is the author of It's Kind of a Funny Story, Be More Chill, and Teen Angst? Naaah.... He has written for the New York Times, Salon, and the L Magazine. In television, he has written for Season 2 of MTV's Teen Wolf and currently writes for ABC's Last Resort.
His work has been translated into seven languages. His next novel, The Other Normals, will be published on September 25, 2012.
To read more 1/2 Dozens by novelists, essayists, poets,
short story writers, and agents, click on the below.
