Author Q&A
From March 2003 Washington Writer
Best-Selling Author Shares Writing Process
By Callie Rucker Oettinger, WIW Newsletter and Web Site Managing
Editor
Jennifer Niven 's first best-selling book idea came
from a TV Guide listing and a belief that "you have to write
something that you are passionate about and you have to not care if it
makes any money. You just have to want to write it for the writing itself."
When Niven first heard about the Karluk, the subject of her best-selling
title, The Ice Master: The Doomed 1913 Voyage of the Karluk ,
she had recently graduated from college and was searching for a film
idea. She read a documentary description about a deadly arctic expedition
in TV Guide and thought the topic sounded interesting. She set
her VCR to tape the program and forgot about it until a few months later
when she found the documentary while looking for a blank tape.
"It was really interesting and very intriguing," said Niven. "By the
end of it I was just sitting on the edge of my seat [asking] what happened
to these people and are there books about them? I started doing research
and found that there was no comprehensive account of the expedition."
For the first time in her life, Niven felt that she had to write about
this story, whether or not it earned her any money.
"I had been trying to write things that I thought Hollywood would like.
I'll write this screenplay and it has this great big idea and all the 'high-concept'
stuff that they preach to you in Hollywood. I wasn't happy with what
I was writing and it didn't ring true. Then I found this idea and I thought, 'I
don't care if this makes five dollars. I just want to tell this story.'
And I feel like once that happened everything fell into place really
quickly because I was finally doing what I should have done in the beginning."
A few weeks later, Niven sent out a query to 10 agents in New York City.
Within a week, she received requests for copies of the manuscript from
almost all the agents. Because she had just had the idea, Niven had not
yet begun writing the book. "I didn't expect that response to the idea," said
Niven.
While working a full-time job at ABC, she "sat down and very quickly
and intensely wrote a 400-page novelized version of the book in three
months." Niven sent the manuscript to her first choice for agent, who
had requested a three-week exclusive to look at it. The agent called
on her birthday that year to tell Niven he wanted to represent her and
the book. The rest is history.
On Tuesday, March 25 , Niven and her mother Penelope
Niven , author of Carl Sandburg: A Biography and Steichen:
A Biography ; and co-author, with James Earl Jones ,
of Voices and Silences , will be featured at WIW's monthly
Pubspeak. They will speak about the writing process—from inspiration
to publication, including items such as working with agents and editors.
Jennifer Niven will also read from her second book, Ada Blackjack ,
which will be released this fall.
|