 "When I do a school visit," says Paul Kropp, "I always tell kids that there are four ingredients in writing a novel: reality, imagination, sweat and showers."Kropp uses reality all the time, drawing most of his characters and situations from real life. "I've used many of my students, most of my family and sometime kids I've gone out to find in order to write my books. Reality is always the base." His Scholastic novels, for instance, use two of his own sons in hi-jinks at imagined cottages and chalets. Kropp's novel Moonkid and Liberty was inspired by the real Ian McNaughton, a gifted student at a high school in Hamilton, Ontario where Kropp was teaching in 1986. "But reality isn't enough to spin a story," Kropp says. "For that, you need imagination." Kropp uses his imagination to fill the gaps where reality and research can't provide what's needed and to make sure the story keeps churning along. In Dirt Bike, for instance, Kropp interviewed dirt bikers and flat-track racers, but never actually got on a motorcycle himself. "I've been terrified of them ever since I cracked one up at age 16. The race sequences are all imagination." Sweat is Kropp's shorthand for the laborious process of rewriting. Every book he's written has gone through five drafts or more before making its way into print. "I turn an idea into an outline, and then an outline into a book very quickly," says Kropp, "but the rewriting takes a very long time. The overall process from idea stage to finished manuscript takes at least two years, sometimes as long as four or five years before the book is between covers. Showers are the peculiar addition to Kropp's list. "For inspiration!" he says. "Whenever I get stuck in the plot, or on how to go forward, I hit the shower." Kropp actually has some scientific base for his theory on showers and inspiration, something about ionization around the shower head. "The simple truth is that a long hot shower can beat writer's block." Well, maybe for Paul Kropp.  Back to the home page. |