3-2-1 Response: T.A. Barron

             I went to see T.A. Barron give a presentation for Fall for the Book on September 21, 2011 at Stone Bridge High School in Ashburn, Virginia.  Barron is a prolific author of young adult fantasy, including The Lost Years of Merlin epic.  In his presentation, Barron provided an overview of his books and his writing style.

            Barron identified two common elements in all of his writings.  He stated that all of his stories have young heroes who find themselves in a tough spot and must dig deep into themselves to find the courage to address their problems.  All of his stories also take place in a magical place of mystery and danger.

            I was able to pose a question to Barron about his creative process.  I wanted to know if he knew from the onset that his stories would have the two elements he identified above, or if this is something that occurred unconsciously.  He didn’t really answer my question, but instead offered me his three “truths” about writing fantasy.  First, fantasy must be true at the level of the senses.  If the hero washes ashore, the reader better feel wet while reading the scene.  Second, he story must have emotional truth.  If the hero has amnesia, the reader must feel his loneliness.  Lastly, the story must depict the truth of the human spirit.  He doesn’t believe that reading a book should merely be a good time which he likened to eating a candy bar.  Instead, the story should offer the reader the experience of “eating a full meal.”  It should contain a moral ideal woven throughout the story.

            Barron also gave two pieces of advice to prospective writers.  First, he urged writers to “really notice things.”  He elaborated by stating, “Whatever you notice and take in, you will put out in your stories.”  He also counseled his audience to never give up.  He recounted a tale of his first novel which was never published and rejected by 32 publishers.  He wallpapered his bathroom with the rejection letters, but continued to write.  Now, more than twenty books later, one of his books is being made into a movie.

            After having heard Barron speak, I am left with a number of questions.  When it comes to writing fantasy and about places that are not real, how do an author’s observations of real details (images, settings, sounds) of real places help in the writing process?  Also, if you are writing fantasy, does research come into play at all, or is it all in an author’s imagination?  Perhaps the larger question that I have is how our imagination is fueled by reality.  So, if I can liken a story to a painting, we can paint a landscape of something that is real and observable, or we can paint something that comes completely from our imagination.  How can we use what we know and observe about reality to make the unreal real?

            For class discussion, I would like to explore the idea of a “spiritual truth” as a full meal and how it relates to poems and short stories.  How can we offer the full meal experience in writings that are short in nature?