John Green
Questions
So tell us a little bit about yourself?
I am a writer with 2 kids with my wife the yeti Sarah
Out of all the protagonist/antagonists you have written about so far,which one do you feel relates to you the most?
It’s probably Alaska from looking for Alaska, it’s an odd pick because she’s a girl and i’m a guy but Alaska is probably the character who I am able to relate to in anyone of my works.
Where is your favorite place to write?
Inside on the couch.
Did you come across challenges while you wrote your books? What would you do different next time?
Yes, and no I mean like it just happens to be the way I write as I solve it at the time it decides to come.
Which books do you like to read?
I love all books and there is no way to decide what I like to read but a suggestion I would give is a funny book called round Ireland with a fridge by Tony Hawks.And *laughs* It’s about this guy who hitchhikes around Ireland with a refrigerator. It’s one of the funniest things I’ve read.
What made you fall in love with writing? What inspired you to become a writer?
I think a lot of it is because of the books that i’ve read and wanting to be apart of that conversation in a different way. Not just as a reader but also as a writer. I think I was inspired by a lot of other people’s books along the way. I mean in a way by every book that i’ve read if I liked it or not because they all *um* have a cumulative effect on you. Also this is terrible to say. I was kinda initially inspired by this profound desire to convince certain people who dumped me that *um* that they made a mistake. So yeah I mean I wish that weren’t true but it is but that’s my inspiration before now. My inspiration is by readers, the kids I meet, the people I meet and talk 2 about books and who read my books.
Tell us something about your youtube channel with your brother, and what made you both start it? (The purpose behind it)
I felt like hank and I weren’t as close as I wanted to be. I missed him and wanted to see his face every other day and make jokes with him like we had when we were growing up and I don’t want t o brag but I think it worked pretty well I just it was totally my idea Hank got nothing to do with it and its brilliant.
How would you explain your writing style?
I write the way I want to and it just happens like BAM! As I don’t have ideas until I start thinking of lower class ideas.
Tell us something about your awards.
My books have won a prince award, an Edgar award but most prestigously an MTV award. If i just get 4 more of these maybe i’ll get one of those stars.
What is a nerd fighter?
A nerd fighter is a person that is instead of bones and skin and tissue is made entirely of awesome.
Why do you think people should read your books?
I may be bias but I think people should read my books because they are great.
What advice would you give to young writer that are struggling with writing?
Read a lot. I don’t think there is any apprenticeship for writing other than reading. The other thing I should say it weirdly, strangely important to say to tell stories to your friends and listen to their stories.
What tactics do you have when you are writing?
I sit and stare the the laptop screen for 4 hours, eat lunch and do web and youtube and businessy stuff for five hours. I don’t stick to it often as I am often traveling but i’m pretty good about the schedule.
What is the most dreading part of your writing process?
Nothing really. I often get mad at myself because i’m writing poorly, or worry that i’ll never write another book or feel frustrated because i’m up against the limits of my talent, but I never dread writing. So I often feel that i’m not up to the task, but I never dread it.
How long on average does it take you to write a book?
A really long time.
Typicality of authors works: writes on teens young adult fiction, romance,
Advise the author gives:
1. Read, read, read
2. Allow yourself to make mistakes
3. Foster empathy
4. Rewriting is key
5. Write for the right reasons
6. Learn to listen
7. Why we write
8. Finish what you begin
9. All stories are important
10. Don’t confine yourself to a single genre
Samples:
1.”When did we see each other face-to-face? Not until you saw into my cracks and I saw
into yours. Before that, we were just looking at ideas of each other, like looking at your window shade but never seeing inside. But once the vessel cracks, the light can get in. The light can get out.” -Paper Towns by John Green
2. I thought at first that she was just dead. Just darkness. Just a body being eaten by bugs. I thought about her a lot like that, as something’s meal. What was her—green eyes, half a smirk, the soft curves of her legs—would soon be nothing, just the bones I never saw. I thought about the slow process of becoming bone and then fossil and then coal that will, in millions of years, be mined by humans of the future, and how they would heat their homes with her, and then she would be smoke billowing out of a smokestack, coating the atmosphere. I still think that, sometimes, think that maybe “the afterlife” is just something we made up to ease the pain of loss, to make our time in the labyrinth bearable. Maybe she was just matter, and matter gets recycled. – Looking for Alaska by John Green
Analysis:
The first excerpt from paper town details John Green’s continuous thought process throughout the entire story and just the unanswered questions to the world he has created. The second excerpt is exactly the same just finding the resolution towards the ending and a resolution to have more meaning. It’s a way to have a resolution to questions and the wish for answers to the questions. All ideas have a question to start them and all questions need an answer even if it leaves us hanging along the threads of wire among the conclusions to the fences.
Emulation:
On the idea of looking at your window shade but never looking inside from sample one
Smile
Cover you face with a thick blanket
So no one can even take a glimpse of the darkness and hatred inside you
So that no one can truly know who you are
A hateful ,deceitful and jealous person
Who puts on an act
Why? Just to please people
Why? So you can have friends
Friends that will take you away from your loneliness
That kills you deep inside
Conclusion:
We chose John Green as the novelist for our Writers Seminar because of many different reasons. Firstly, there is a lot of information about him online, on his site, social media platforms and youtube channel. He was one of the easiest author to research on. Secondly, he has a great personality, so we thought it would be fun to act him out and all. And last but not the least, he writes about “real” stuff, that actually happens in the “real” works. His work is really relatable. Because he writes on teenagers, it is easier for us to find or make a connection with his stories. His books contain reality and affirmation, and that is what inspires us all to read his work.There can be nothing better than reading something that we can relate to on a whole new level than reading stuff that might not ever in the the near future.
Quotes:
“You don’t get to choose if you get hurt in this world…but you do have some say in who hurts you. I like my choices.” F
“It is so hard to leave—until you leave. And then it is the easiest goddamned thing in the world.” P
“When did we see each other face-to-face? Not until you saw into my cracks and I saw into yours. Before that, we were just looking at ideas of each other, like looking at your window shade but never seeing inside. But once the vessel cracks, the light can get in. The light can get out.” P
“We fatties have a bond, dude. It’s like a secret society. We got all kinds of shit you don’t know about. Handshakes, special fat people dances-we got these secret fugging lairs in the center of the earth and we go down there in the middle of the night when all the skinny kids are sleeping and eat cake and fried chicken and shit. Why’d You think Hollis is still sleeping, kafir? Because we were up all night in the secret lair injecting butter frosting into our veins. …A fatty trusts another fatty.” A
“I must talk, and you must listen, for we are engaged here in the most important pursuit in history: the search for meaning. What is the nature of being a person? What is the best way to go about being a person? How did we come to be, and what will become of us when we are no longer? In short: What are the rules of this game, and how might we best play it?” L
Link to group members:
Bibliography:
http://www.johngreenbooks.com/where-i-get-my-ideas-inspiration-and-general-writing-stuff/\
https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/16827462-the-fault-in-our-stars
https://www.goodreads.com/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=+paper+towns&search_type=quotes
https://www.goodreads.com/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=an+abundance+of+katherines&search_type=quotes
http://ew.com/article/2015/06/19/john-green-most-popular-passages/http://www.johngreenbooks.com/faq/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPe76LO9hWMhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgU-LDbnsN4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixKU0DPJ1jUhttps://www.talesofsuccess.com/john-green-writing-tips-19141/