 
Question and Answer with Wendy Orr
- Where do you get your ideas?
- How do you write your stories?
- Do you like writing?
- Do you use real people in your stories?
- Do you have to be a good speller or have good handwriting to be an author?
- What is your favourite book that you've written?
- What are some of your favourite books that you didn't write?
- I want to write a book. What hints do you have for aspiring writers?
1. Where do you get your ideas?
Ideas come from all over - things we do, see hear - there are hundreds to choose from every day!
Some of my story ideas come from personal experience - Yasou Nikki is based on my first day of school, when I didn't speak the language; Peeling the Onion is based on my own car accident and injuries.
Mindblowing!/Light in Space, Nim's Island, Jessica Joan and Poppy's Path are entirely fantasy - sometimes I can't work out where the ideas come from - I'm just grateful for the magic that brings them.
Most are somewhere in between, in that something in my own life has sparked
a thought that I can play with until it turns into its own story.
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2. How do you write your stories?
I spend a lot of time thinking about them before I start; sometimes it takes
me months to decide on the characters' names. When I know their names and
what they're like, what happens at the beginning of the story, roughly what
happens at the end of the story and a few things in the middle, I wait until
I know what the first line will be and then I start.
My handwriting is so bad that I always write straight onto the computer, and
though I never intend to, I often do quite a bit of rewriting on screen
even in first drafts. When each draft is finished I read the paper copy and
scribble corrections till it's too messy to read, then correct it on the
computer and print it out again. The last few drafts are always read aloud
as well as on the page - you find a lot more mistakes and clumsy sentences when reading aloud!
For some books I also draw maps, fill in calendars and do character plans;
for others I put pictures in my office, for example sea lions for Nim's Island.
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3. Do you like writing?
Yes! Writing is not a job that you could do if you didn't love it.
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4. Do you use real people in your stories?
No. Sometimes I use a little bit of a real person, some bad habit or their
hair or their house - but it's much easier to make people up that are just right for the story. I've used my own pets in some stories (Max in
Mindblowing!/Light in Space, Sally and Ben - except his real name is Bear - in Peeling the Onion; but even they change a bit to suit the story.)
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5. Do you have to be a good speller or have good handwriting to be an
author?
NO! What matters is that you know what story you want to tell, and how you
want to tell it.
Bad spelling or bad handwriting are a nuisance, because you have to work a
bit harder at making sure people know what word you mean. If you're a bad
speller, you have to take the time to use a dictionary and the computer's
spell check. If you have bad handwriting, like me, then you'll have to use
your computer all the time instead of writing anything by hand - and when you change words on the paper you have to try and make sure you can read it
later!
Don't ever let anyone tell you that you can't write stories just because you
can't spell all the words in them.
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6. What is your favourite book that you've written?
Ark in the Park - because when I read it again, I never want to change any of the words, and because lots of happy things happened from it, like meeting Kerry Millard (because she drew the pictures) - and it was a LOT of fun winning the Australian Children's Book Council Book of the Year. Kerry and I each got a gold medal for that.
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7. What are your favourite books that you didn't write?
I have so many it's hard to choose! Here are a few that come to mind.
FOR CHILDREN
Winnie the Pooh, by A.A. Milne
Swallows and Amazons, by Arthur Ransome
The Dark is Rising series, by Susan Cooper
My Son in Law the Hippopotamus, by Ezo
Eagle of the Ninth, and any other of Rosemary Sutcliffe's Books
Two Little Savages, by Ernest Thompson Seton
The Yearling, by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
The Incredible Journey, by Sheila Burnford
Elidor, by Alan Garner
Wizard of Earthsea series, by Ursula le Guin
A Wrinkle in Time trilogy, by Madeleine l'Engle
FOR ADULTS
Possession, by AS Byatt
The Nightingale's Eye, by AS Byatt
Cat's Eye, by Margaret Atwood
Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen
The Bachelor Brothers' Bed and Breakfast, by Bill Richardson
The Art of Coarse Sailing, by Michael Green
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8. I want to write a book. What hints do you have for aspiring writers?
Write what you want to write, the story that you feel so passionate about
that it'll drive you crazy if you don't write it. Don't be critical while
you're writing, try to get the whole story down right through to the end.
Then - read it as critically as you can, both for plot and form, and for the
language in it. Rewrite it.
Repeat step 2 until when you read it right through you don't notice any
inconsistencies or illogical leaps, and when you read it aloud you like the
sound of the sentences.
Gather up your courage and submit to an appropriate publisher.
If you happen to get any criticism or advice take it seriously,
but never make a change you don't believe in - at least until you've got a contract! At that point, listen to your editor - you may still disagree and need to discuss particular points, but remember that the editor's aim is the same as yours - to produce the best book possible.
For practical advice on submissions, go to Golvan Arts Management.
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