Dani
asked
David Wong:
What made you decide to write from a female prospective? Also, is it more difficult or take longer to write from the prospective of the opposite sex.
David Wong
I get this question a lot, but you have to remember that almost every character I write is coming from a perspective that's totally different from mine. In each case you're trying to look at their circumstances and understand them, to find the humanity in them. So that goes the same if it's a man writing a woman or a woman writing a vampire.
In Zoey's case, I think she has more in common with me than I have with Molech, for instance. In both of those cases you're thinking of where they're from, how they see the world. That's most of what writing fiction is, trying to put yourself into the heads of people who aren't you. I mean, "David" is nothing like me - I don't drink, or use drugs, or struggle to keep a job, or react the way he does to a crisis. Those are all things I had to make myself understand about him.
None of this is to say that I'm great at it or anything, I don't win many awards.
In Zoey's case, I think she has more in common with me than I have with Molech, for instance. In both of those cases you're thinking of where they're from, how they see the world. That's most of what writing fiction is, trying to put yourself into the heads of people who aren't you. I mean, "David" is nothing like me - I don't drink, or use drugs, or struggle to keep a job, or react the way he does to a crisis. Those are all things I had to make myself understand about him.
None of this is to say that I'm great at it or anything, I don't win many awards.
More Answered Questions
Erich w/ an h
asked
David Wong:
The multiple versions of JDatE are very different. Now that you don't change anything (I think) when releasing a second edition of a book, how has that changed your thought process on writing jokes? For example, the line "Oh, Fred, you're alive!" was removed from the latest JDatE edition (it's even in the movie as "... because Fred's still alive"), despite it being pretty funny. Any thoughts?
JOe
asked
David Wong:
I feel like the JDATE series is one of the few fictional universes that feels open-ended, like most anything can, will, and has happened. So what is your process around world building? And do you write linearly or do you work from a broader set of ideas and form a story around those? Please and Thanks.
Roy Eugene Singleton Jr.
asked
David Wong:
Hey, David, I noticed anytime you're asked about your work or social life, you describe how busy you are and how often you're working on this that and the other. I was wondering, you describe it as if its terribly exhausting, but is the reward greater than the effort you put in?
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