Tom Perotta, author of The Abstinence Teacher, Joe College, Election, Little Children, and The Wishbones, also spoke at the House of Representatives in The Capitol. Both Little Children and Election were turned into movies. The Abstinence Teacher movie is coming out in 2008. With Little Children, Perotta was nominated for an Oscar in the adapted screenplay category.
Perotta read from his newest book, The Abstinence Teacher. He chose a section where a few teachers at the school were basically in detention, and a sex education expert came in to counsel them. The high school was changing to a sex education program of teaching children abstinence only, and these teachers had broken the rules. Funny piece, good writing, real characters.
Perotta says that over time, from writing, “he’s become more clear on what he can do on a novel.”
Dialogue has always come fairly easily to him, so he is working on prose style and sentences. His prose, he says, has thickened.
He was an autobiographical writer in his earlier books.
Perotta revealed that once Election was going to be a movie, then someone stepped up to publish the book.
When he prepared for the part in The Abstinence Teacher that was about the Evangelical Church, he visited contemporary evangelical churches, read the Bible (yes, all of it), and spent time online in the virtual Christian world.
He wants to get inside the hearts of the characters.
“You shouldn’t write a novel just to end up where you are. It should challenge you.”
Here’s a short video of Perotta talking about his revision process.
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2 responses so far ↓
Linda // December 2, 2007 at 1:15 pm
Hi,
Just found your blog (neither video is working btw) and this post struck me from two perspectives. I just finished reading a novel by Stuart Nachbar (“The Sex Ed Chronicles) where sex education in public schools is a major plot line. It was very thought provoking to consider this topic from different angles. There are also other sub plots that kept my interest from cover to cover.
Also, the author has a Q&A on his web site that goes into depth about his writing process — research done, resources, historical facts that form the basis of the book, etc. I found it as interesting to learn about his writing process as it was to read this book.
Good luck in your writing as well. I will check out Perrotta’s book, too.
Cheers,
Linda
Laurie Cosbey // December 4, 2007 at 12:45 pm
Thanks Linda.
Sorry about the videos.
Nachbar sounds like a very interesting character. I liked hearing how he mixed research with having lived some of it.
Good luck to you and whatever your passions are.
Laurie