. . . if anyone has any specific lulu or writing related questions, please do not hesitate to ask . . . i'll check in here at least every other day, and welcome the discourse . . .cheers, je

Jonathan, I may have been so engrossed in the story and reading too fast so here's my question. Lulu got pregnant by William and that's why she tried to kill herself?

*****SPOILER WARNING*****

. . .it is never known for certain whose baby lulu is carrying . . .troy, of course, assumes it is his, while william is totally convinced that he was there at the moment of conception-- though william never tells troy (or anyone else) this, letting troy bear the burden of guilt alone (something william is not proud of) . . .lulu cannot be sure, but dreads either possibility . . .

. . .okay, so i guess this'll be the random question thread . . . if somebody has a specific topic, go ahead and start a discussion thread . . .

*****SPOILERS*****
Ok Johnny, as you say above, "it is never known for certain whose baby lulu is carrying" but as the author did you make a decision for yourself whose baby it is? You don't have to share with us who, because I understand wanting to let it be ambiguous, for everyone to have their own decisions on it and not be influenced by the author, but for your writing process, I'm curious if you made that decision for yourself or not?

Okay, okay...I have a question. I'm getting ready to finish up my junior year of my undergrad degree and debating over starting grad school immediately or taking off a year...so I'm wondering this of most everyone lately...

What kind of schooling/traning do you have? How'd you get started?

. . . hi kerry, indeed, i did make that decision (my lips are sealed!), along with a lot of other decisions beyond the scope of the narrative-- such as where will and lulu end up in their 30s (again, my lips are sealed) . . . i find that i need to know everything about a character in order to comfortable inhabit them . . .

Kerry wrote: "*****SPOILERS*****
Ok Johnny, as you say above, "it is never known for certain whose baby lulu is carrying" but as the author did you make a decision for yourself whose baby it is? You don't have..."

Callikia wrote: "Okay, okay...I have a question. I'm getting ready to finish up my junior year of my undergrad degree and debating over starting grad school immediately or taking off a year...so I'm wondering this..."

.. . hi kerry, indeed, i did make that decision (my lips are sealed!), along with a lot of other decisions beyond the scope of the narrative-- such as where will and lulu end up in their 30s (again, my lips are sealed) . . . i find that i need to know everything about a character in order to comfortable inhabit them . . .

Callikia wrote: "Okay, okay...I have a question. I'm getting ready to finish up my junior year of my undergrad degree and debating over starting grad school immediately or taking off a year...so I'm wondering this..."

. . .like will, i was a philosophy major . . .unlike will, i didn't graduate . . .i've had no formal education in writing . . .in fact, i've taught more workshops than i've attended . . . i learned by reading voraciously and by reflecting upon what i read . . . my old man read me dickens as a kid, and he gave me k.v. jr.'s breakfast of champions when i was nine . . .none of this is to say that i don't think graduate writing programs rule-- peer feedback can be an incredible resource-- although, be warned, it can also lead to the perils of narrative decision by proxy, sameness, safeness, etc . . . it's all relative . . .also, i think its important for graduate writing students to really embrace and experience things beyond academia while they're in training . . . for me, the stories were never in the classroom . . . on the other hand, i'll bet my learning curve in terms of narrative structure and so forth was slower than a lot of writers coming out of good graduate programs . . .at any rate, congrats!

SPOILERS -----------------

What made Lulu so troubled - that her dad was denying her existence, that she was in love with her brother or that the weight of his obsession was too much for her conscience?

Michele wrote: "SPOILERS -----------------

What made Lulu so troubled - that her dad was denying her existence, that she was in love with her brother or that the weight of his obsession was too much for her consc..."

. . . even before will and big bill, i hint that lulu was chemically strung on the manic side (which is why she responds like a manic to the prozac later on in the early 90s. . . on top of that, all of the above things you mentioned were also working on her roughly in equal measure, along with a healthy dose of adolesence angst, and powerlessness, further enhanced by a lot of drinking and dabbling in substances . . .

So she really is in love with Will?

. . . totally . . . will engenders in lulu the same sense of belonging that lulu engenders in will . . . pushing will away is torture for her . . .

What is your pre-writing process? What inspires you and brings the basic idea of a story into your head, and then what steps (outlining etc.) do you take to craft it into a full fledged work?

Douglas wrote: "What is your pre-writing process? What inspires you and brings the basic idea of a story into your head, and then what steps (outlining etc.) do you take to craft it into a full fledged work? "

. . . ahoy, douglas, it varies from project to project, but more often than not i start with a character or a character dynamic . . . i've likened my outlines to scaffolds . . . they sort of grow along with the story . . . i usually have a good idea in what direction my story is taking me-- it's just that i arrive at beeter and more efficient ways to get there than my outline has allowed me . . .so then i rewrite the outline . . there is also a lot of reverse engineering as i discover the story . . . MOST of my writing process consists of "re-writing" although technically much of my "re-writing" involves composition . . . once i've got the basics of a scene written, i re-inhabit that scene day after day like a theater set, until i'm totally at home in it, and can fully grasp the nuances and tiny details . . . as for what inspires me-- the act of writing itself . . . i love it, man, just love it . . .it's even better than dreaming for me . . .