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Skype Visit with Jennifer Nielsen

Skype Visit with Jennifer Nielsen

On the second day of school this September, my students and I embarked on an adventure. That’s when we started reading The False Prince by Jennifer Nielsen. For those of you who are not familiar with this book, it’s an amazing story about a young orphan named, Sage, who is purchased from the orphanage by Conner Bevin, one of the regents of the King’s court. It turns out that the royal family has allegedly been murdered and Conner Bevin is looking for a boy to impersonate the young Prince Jaron, so that their kingdom of Carthya can avoid civil war and the probable invasion from neighbouring countries.

The False Prince

The False Prince is, indeed, a swashbuckler of a story, complete with sword fights, diabolical schemes, betrayal, covert alliances, and deceit. But, it’s also a funny story, thanks to the smart-lipped protagonist, Sage, and it’s a heartwarming story that explores the themes of family and friendship, loyalty and honour, destiny and responsibility.

I guess you can tell by now that I love this book, and I am not alone in that sentiment. My students seemed to love it as well. It’s no wonder then, that when October 23rd finally came, we were all pumped to finally meet the author of our adventure, the author of The Ascendence Trilogy, Ms. Jennifer Nielsen.

Jennifer Nielsen
Jennifer Nielsen

The skype visit had in the works for many weeks before last Wednesday finally came. In fact the students and I had been communicating with Ms. Nielsen via twitter prior to our visit. Most of our communications involved sharing the pictures students drew during the read aloud sessions. Ms. Nielsen was so gracious, commenting on each picture that I posted through my twitter account. Here are some of the drawings we shared:

by Erin
by Erin

by Zane
by Zane

 by Jamie
by Jamie
by Chloe
by Chloe

But Wednesday October 23rd was the real treat, the icing on the cake. Our visit with Jennifer Nielsen left us bursting with excitement. The students and I found Ms. Nielsen so warm and exuberant, thoughtful and thought provoking. I think Ashley spoke for us all when she described how she felt about our conversation with Jennifer Nielsen:

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“I loved the way she spoke to us. She was relaxed and honest. She really listened to our questions. I felt like she was talking to us as if we were her friends. Her answers really touched me.”

Our questions were prepared in advance, but the answers were enlightening and sometimes quite surprising.

Maddi, for example said that the answer to her question surprised her most. Maddi asked, “What advice would you give to aspiring authors?”

Ms. Nielsen said that she’d advise an aspiring writer to identify his/her favourite book and go back to it and read it again, but this time read it as a writer. She suggested writing notes in the margins about how the author made the reader love the main character, how the author created suspense and made the reader worry and laugh and anticipate.

Another surprise for the students came when Roz and Erin asked, “How many times do you have revise a novel like The False Prince before it’s ready for publishing?”

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Jennifer Nielsen blew students away when she told us that she’d revised her novel at least 5 times before she sent it to her editor. She said that the first draft is . . . garbage. And the second and third and fourth? Garbage, garbage and more . . . garbage. Nielsen admitted that it’s only by the 5th revision that an author starts seeing something that resembles a really good novel in the writing. The final count? The False Prince was revised about 20 times before it was finally completed. Now, if you’re one of my students and you’re worried about having to do 20 revisions to each piece of writing we do, you can relax. We’ll be revising, but maybe not as much as Ms. Nielsen revises. It’s important to know, though, that Jennifer Nielsen said that if you want you want to create ‘art’ when you write, you’ll need to revise.

Grace and Brendon asked Jennifer Nielsen a question that we were all anxious to have answered: “Are the characters in The False Prince based on people you know in real life?”

Ms. Nielsen explained that she doesn’t base the characters in her books on real people because she’s TOO MEAN to her characters. I must admit that I wanted to ask her what she meant by this, but I lost my chance as the next question was asked and we were off in a new direction. If Ms. Nielsen reads this blogpost, I’d love it if she left a comment explaining this one for us.

While I’m making confessions, I might as well admit that I asked two of my students to ask MY question to Jennifer Nielsen, and so Erica and Laura asked, “Are all of the main events in your novels planned before you start or are there surprises along the way? Were there any surprises for YOU as you wrote The False Prince?”

Ms. Nielsen explained that most of the main events of the novel are planned before she begins a novel. She has a good sense of where it’s going, but there are always some surprises too. One juicy example she gave from The False Prince was that she had several ‘discussions’ with Sage about one scene in the novel. Before I tell you which scene, I should explain that Ms. Nielsen did admit that authors are a little bit crazy, that her characters do ‘talk’ to her all the time – sometimes in the wee hours of the morning! Sage and Jennifer Nielsen had a disagreement about the scene in which Sage takes the stone back. Jennifer Nielsen told him to put it back, but Sage was adamant about retrieving it. He obviously won that argument!

Another surprise for Ms. Nielsen was the way in which the characters of Mott and Cregan, who were both very similar in her early plans, seemed to develop into very different characters. I loved the idea that sometimes a character can just grow in a different direction than originally planned. I couldn’t imagine the novel without a character like Mott, so loyal and refined. Nor could I imagine The False Prince without a character like Cregan, who turned out to be quite the opposite of Mott. I guess an author has to plan, but also trust the ways in which a story grows during the writing process!

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I’m sure we’ll all remember Ms. Nielsen’s writing advice, the delicious information we got on the news of the movie of The False Prince that is presently being written as a screenplay, the stories about her characters, and the publishing process. But, there was one particular part of our visit with her that touched us all deeply.

We asked Jennifer Nielsen, “Which of your own books do YOU love the most?

She smiled. She thought about it for just a second, and then she said, “This is a trick question, you know.” She did answer it, though, and her answer rang true for all of us. It will be remembered as more than just advice from a brilliant author about reading or writing. Her answer, we decided, was an important life lesson.

Jennifer Nielsen explained that her favourite novel will ALWAYS be the one she’s working on now. The next one to be published. She asked the students to raise their hands if they played soccer, and many students raised their hands. She told them that if they were asked, “Which of your soccer games is the best game?” they should respond by saying, “The one I’m going to play next Saturday.” Why? Because your best work should always be ahead of you. The book you’re writing now. The game you’re preparing for next.

I think I speak for all of us when I say that this advice will be remembered for many years to come. I’m so glad we had the chance to share a half hour with such a wise and creative person as Jennifer Nielsen. We all learned so much.

I’m proud of my students for digging deeply to come up with such meaningful questions and for sharing the joy of reading The False Prince with me and with Ms. Nielsen. I thank Jennifer Nielsen for making our experience so full and satisfying by offering her time and her wisdom to us.

Our next read aloud?

The Runaway King

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