I like journaling a lot because it's the one place I can go to
and say anything, be anyone, wear any hat,
say anything silly, say anything rowdy,
be as loud or as quiet or as crazy or as wacky as I can be,
and it's also a place where
I can discover maybe another little section of myself.
This is a short stack of journals I have.
More than 150 journals are packed away in boxes.
I try everyday to do a little something in my journal.
And a lot of times I just walk around
with a packet of Post-It notes in my pocket.
It doesn't necessarily mean that the journal entry is a
great, thoughtful, heartfelt moment.
Sometimes it's just as mundane as a recipe I'm thinking about.
This is the journal where when I get an idea
that I think this is a keeper, it goes in this journal.
This is like the chief of the journals, right here.
When I work with kids on journaling,
which I like to do a lot, one of the things I do
is make sure they set that journal up like a real pro.
So we have sections for the journal.
The first thing, we draw.
I make them draw their neighborhoods because
I want them to start paying attention to where they live.
Then we make lists of things: good days, bad days,
embarrassing days, homework, sports, music.
And then we start trying to draw connections between
where they live, who they know, what they know about, and
what they're doing. Get them to think of the connections.
That's what a story is. It's a sequence of connections.
And the journal is a great place for them to practice that.
When I started the Jack Henry books, and I knew that they
were autobiographical, the first thing I always have to do is go
back in my old journals as a child, and I reread
that section of time in those journals.
I pull out all the really good juicy details. And then when
I write a story, there is something on the gut level or
some incident that really took place that's true.
And so whenever I get ready to write a Jack Henry book,
first person I look at is me.
ROTTEN RALPH has been around for 26 years, because
every kid makes mistakes. Every kid explores the other side.
Now, Rotten Ralph is a character that's always violating
that line of behavior. But one of the great things for Ralph,
Sarah provides unconditional love.
Recently I've started writing Rotten Ralph chapter books.
I just wanted to give some of those emerging readers just
a little more time with the book.
So they're short chapters, high energy, lots of rotten stuff,
naturally, to keep them interested,
but just a little bit longer.
Probably one of the most attractive qualities that the
Joey books offer the reader is that Joey,
at the center of his heart, is a very good kid.
He's got problems, personal problems.
He's got family problems. He's got community problems.
He's got school problems. He's got special ed problems.
And so for him every time he has a desire to do good,
there just seems to be a hurdle for him.
Sometimes he gets over it. Sometimes he trips over it.
But, still, in the reader's mind, he's trying,
and every kid tries.
When I get ready to put together a novel,
I write all the really juicy sections first because that's
where I'm having the biggest gut feeling for the book,
and I trust that gut feeling.
I write a lot at the Boston Public Library.
And I was sharpening a pencil, and I looked at
that and I saw this big hole, and I thought Joey would
stick his finger in the hole and he'd give that a rip.
So I got that little template.
The shoe fly pie, got that little template.
And so once I started getting those moments, I knew
I was going to draw lines from one to the next to the next.
I know one of the reasons why I write for children.
It's because children are the best readers in the country.
They live those books. They imagine those books.
They travel emotionally and mentally into the books.
They're actually the most absorbent readers there are.
They're adhesive to the word.
And when I get letters from children, I get letters from
children who have read a book, are motivated to write me,
and tell me exactly how it changed something in their life.
And that would always make me write for children.