Sarah
asked
Elizabeth Wein:
You are an amazing author. Code Name Verity is the best book I have ever read, and believe me, I've read a lot. You had me laughing at Queenie's wit and sharpness, and had me crying my eyes out. Once I finished it I immediately turned back to page one and read it all over again. How did you think to write the book as the confessional journal? It is such a unique way of writing. Did you have the overall plot planned?
Elizabeth Wein
"best book I have ever read," WOW, that certainly is music to my ears! Flatterer. What a lovely thing to say.
The answers to your questions are yes and yes - before I actually started writing the general plot AND the idea of how to frame it (confessional told in two parts from different points of view) came to me in pretty much a flash of inspiration, and at that point it kind of felt like a matter of filling in the blanks. I knew that if I could pull off the actual *writing* of it, the structure would work very well.
I got the idea of writing the confession because I thought I wanted to create a coward (the thought was there anyway) - and I thought that it would be interesting to try to write the story from the point of view of someone who has broken under pressure, and that a written confession would be the obvious way to do it.
There is a book called "Pereira Maintains" which, although not exactly a confessional, was of some influence to me in framing the book as a "found" document: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7...
The answers to your questions are yes and yes - before I actually started writing the general plot AND the idea of how to frame it (confessional told in two parts from different points of view) came to me in pretty much a flash of inspiration, and at that point it kind of felt like a matter of filling in the blanks. I knew that if I could pull off the actual *writing* of it, the structure would work very well.
I got the idea of writing the confession because I thought I wanted to create a coward (the thought was there anyway) - and I thought that it would be interesting to try to write the story from the point of view of someone who has broken under pressure, and that a written confession would be the obvious way to do it.
There is a book called "Pereira Maintains" which, although not exactly a confessional, was of some influence to me in framing the book as a "found" document: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7...
More Answered Questions
David Carr
asked
Elizabeth Wein:
My daughter just became an Eagle Scout. It's a big deal as her father was a big scout advocate and volunteer. He died in 2016 so it's bittersweet. Anyhow, typically parents ask for letters of congratulation from politicians or sports figures. We're big readers and my daughter is a huge fan of yours. Would you be willing to do this? Her name is Sasha Carr from Troop 2 in Los Alamos, NM.
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