Today, CVHS invited two renowned YA fiction authors, Meagan Spooner and Sarah Glenn Marsh, to speak to students about a broad range of things, including their books, their writing experiences, and advice for aspiring writers. The meeting was conducted in a casual Q&A setting with both authors not only accepting questions from students, but interviewing each other as well.

The authors began talking about what motivated them to begin writing. Despite beginning to write in different ways, they both found motivation from fan-fiction and role-playing games. Spooner stated that being a part of her school’s anime club allowed her to create ideas for her fan-fiction. Marsh got serious about writing during high school, when creative writing classes helped not only to fuel her passion for writing, but made her consider it as something she would like to pursue as a career. Additionally, both authors agreed that role-playing dialogues allowed them to create their characters for their writing.

Students jumped on the chance to ask the authors questions. Directing this question to both authors, one student asked where they got the ideas for their books from. For her book Reign of the Fallen, Spooner replied that she got the idea for it after a particularly frightening incident where her grandmother was hospitalized. The darkness and distraught she felt at that time made her wonder how far people would go to bring their loved ones back from the dead. Marsh, on the other hand, stated that ideas for her books were less personal, but came from what was going on around her, or something that she had learned about that interested her, as with her book Unearthed, that she co-wrote with Amie Kaufman. It spurred from her love of archaeology as well as adventure and science fiction.

A great takeaway from their visit was their advice for fledgling writers: to practice and write as much as possible. Both authors attributed their successful writing careers to the practice they had with fan-fictions in the past that helped them hone their skills. Meagan Spooner and Sarah Glen Marsh also accredited their success to their support groups, including friends, family, and readers, who always lent an ear when they sought advice.

Both authors agreed that only question a writer needs to ask to jump down the rabbit hole of creativity is “what if…”