Feb 13, 2016
Known as the “Wizard of Storytelling,” David Farland (who also
writes under the name David Wolverton) is the author and editor of
more than fifty books, including his Philip K. Dick Award winning
novel On My Way to Paradise and the well-known Runelords
series. A long-time mentor to writers, David spend many years
teaching writing at Bringham Young University and has also mentored
such writers as Stephanie Meyer, Brandon Sanderson, Eric Flint and
James Dashner.
KWL Director Mark Lefebvre had the chance to sit
down and chat with David about these things and much more at the
2016 annual Superstars Writing Seminars conference in Colorado
Springs where David is one of the founding faculty members of a
group of international bestselling authors who spend several
information-packed days teaching newer writers the business of
writing and publishing.
In their conversation, Mark and David discuss:
- David’s love of writing, which started when he was nine years
old and had his first writing published in a local newspaper
- The fact that David had planned on becoming a doctor and was
taken aside by a very astute teacher when he was seventeen who told
him, “Dave, you’re a writer. You don’t it yet, but you’re a writer
and you can’t get away from that. It’s going to come out some
day.”
- When he was studying pre-med and spent three days working on a
poem that just wouldn’t leave his mind.
- Winning third place in a college writing contest for a short
story and how that inspired him to write more and submit them to
other contests, where he won first place in all of them, including
first prize in the L. Ron Hubbard’s Writers of the Future
contest
- How winning that contest led to a three novel contract with
Bantam right there at the Writers of the Future ceremony
- David’s current role in helping to kick-start new writers
careers as the lead editor for the Writers of the Future annual
contest
- Tips on what David is looking for when reading submissions to
this contest
- David’s role as a writer coach and how, as an advisor to
Scholastic Books in the United States, David had suggested they
take a serious look at a then-unknown author of the Harry Potter
series
- The secret to how David can intuit a writer’s chances of
success without even having to have read any of their work
- How his real name of David Wolverton became associated with his
science fiction novels (starting with his first award winning
novel, and how he landed on the pseudonym of David Farland by
standing in a bookstore and looking at the placement of books on
the shelves and determining the best “eye-level” last name to
employ
- David’s natural storyteller ability as a Dungeon Master taking
care of twenty to thirty people at once for role playing games like
Dungeons and Dragons, and how that led to his interest and
participation in game development
- David’s work doing screenplays and movie production, and the
difference and similarities between writing novels, writing video
games and writing screenplays
- David’s work writing in the Star Wars universe, including
The Courtship of Princess Leia as well as the YA and
middle grade books for Scholastic
- The collaborative spirit and mentality required when working on
licensed properties, video games, etc
- The differences between “Hollywood” and “New York Publishing”
for a writer
- David’s advice for writers and on being a professional writer:
Deciding what you want to be and then beginning to live and BE that
part
As part of his dedication to helping other writers, David writes
the David Farland’s #WritingTips, an email bulletin for writers.
Many authors rave about how it has helped them. Out of devotion, he
provides his #WritingTips for free. You can subscribe
to David’s #WritingTips here.
LINKS OF INTEREST
David’s Website: http://davidfarland.com/
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/authordavidfarland
Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidfarland
David's Great Resources for writers, including a signup to his
“Daily Kick in the Pants” emails: www.mystorydoctor.com
YouTube Video mentioned in the podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWEP3aBVpAw