Great news after an unexpected break: I’m going to be hosting author guest blogs here now, every Wednesday (don’t hold me to that, but I’ll try)! Are you excited? I know I am! I’m also thrilled that Melissa Walker has agreed to write the first guest blog for Teen Book Review. Thanks so much for doing this, Melissa! Melissa is the author of Violet on the Runway and Violet by Design, two fabulous books that you really should read, if you haven’t yet. You can also check out my interview with Melissa here. Without further ado, here’s Melissa fantastic blog:
Oh, the places I have been…
Thanks for having me, Jocelyn! I wanted to touch on something close to my heart, which is, um, home.
Every fiction writer makes stuff up, right? Yes, but I bet if you ask them, they might admit to cribbing quite a bit from real life.
When I started writing my first novel, Violet on the Runway, I tried to set it in a small town in Tennessee. After a few chapters, I knew that I had to take a step back. This wasn’t a town I knew about, these weren’t places I’d been. So I brought Violet into my world, Chapel Hill, NC, the town where I grew up. Incidentally, Sarah Dessen’s books are based in Chapel Hill, too, but she calls her fictional town Lakeview. She made a video about that here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKYorL18sKc&eurl=http://lj-toys.com/?journalid=316975&moduleid=47&auth_token=sessionless:1207342800:embedcontent:316975%264.
People always ask me if my characters are based on my friends (or maybe enemies). And the answer is yes. Not in the way that the characters are exactly like my friends, but I definitely pick up little habits from real people I 
meet and put them into my books. For example, I have a friend who loves to order a Sprite and Twizzlers at the movies, and then bite two ends off a Twizzler and drink through the candy straw (Violet does this too). I also had a crazy boss once who was nosy and hilarious and lots of fun—so I put bits of him into Violet’s theater manager.
And while it may seem weird that Violet works where I worked (in a movie theater), walks the same high school hallways that I did (at Chapel Hill High School) and even ends up considering going to college where I went (Vassar College), it’s not that unusual. After all, there’s that old author’s adage, “Write what you know.” So far, I’m sticking with that path (except for the runway model part—that I’ve never done!).
April 9, 2008 at 7:22 pm
Oh, look! Yet another place to stalk Melissa! Yay!
Seems fitting that she should guest blog on the site where I first discovered the Violet books (thanks, Jocelyn, but I still curse you! *wink*)
I think it’s easier to write if you stick a little of what you know into the story, after all it’s what you know that helps you create new things and spark new ideas! In my opinion, anyhow!
April 10, 2008 at 12:23 pm
I definitely do this.. :) But, my characters always transform into their own person. They might start out based on someone and then take on a life of their own. But, the setting, yes, Screwball’s setting is the place where I live right now and one of my characters moves to my hometown. It’s the fun part of writing fiction.
April 10, 2008 at 4:23 pm
I love that picture of Chapel Hill you have on your blog, reminds me of where I used to live, Buffalo, in upstate NY. Thing I loved most was just walking on Elmwood, where there were so many small shoppes, bakeries, delis, ice-cream parlors, etc. Reminded me of the Gilmore Girl’s sort of town actually . . .
I don’t write, but if I did, I know most of the story would be based on what I’ve experienced and such. ^_^
April 10, 2008 at 6:55 pm
I love the idea of guest blogs,Jocelyn! And it was fun reading your post, Melissa! :-) It’s always interesting to see where an author got an idea.
April 10, 2008 at 11:28 pm
What a great, and comforting, blog. I couldn’t do anything but draw from places I’d been, people I knew and experiences I had while writing FRENEMIES. I just don’t know how it can be done any other way–at least not at this point in my fiction-writing career. Of course, I’m blown away (and a little frightened) by people who can pull fantastical, freaky, weird-psychotic stuff out of thin air and write about it. (Or did they REALLY make it all up? HMMMM!) Now I’m going to hop a flight to NC because I’ve always wanted to visit and you and Sarah make it look and sound so damn cool. XO
April 11, 2008 at 12:51 pm
I totally used to do the Twizzler/straw thing when I was little, and I worked in a movie theater in high school, and though I didn’t go to Vassar, I went to Bard, just down the road! The similarities are endless–LOL!
Violet sounds fabulous. I will definitely be looking for her on Amazon!
April 11, 2008 at 4:31 pm
Thanks for all the nice comments, guys. And thanks again for having me, Jocelyn!
April 13, 2008 at 7:39 pm
Melissa Walker—you astound. Loved reading you here, on this very fine Teen Book Review.
Beth