Stine, everyone’s favorite question to ask successful authors “Where do you get your ideas?”
has the whole thing backward.
“I always say I don’t start with an idea,” the prolificGoosebumpsauthor tells EW.
MasterClass
“I start with a good title, and that leads me to an idea.”
“The class is about how not to be scared to be write,” Stine says.
“Writing doesn’t have to be scary, it can be just fun.
“I really believe in outlines.
If you have an outline, you might’t get stuck.
You know where you’re going, you know where the ending is.
So I said write the ending first, and she gasped, she was shocked.”
Over the course of his career, Stine has written hundreds of books for young readers.
That just means those kids will never write again,” Stine says.
“Because what does that mean?
That doesn’t mean anything!
I’ve written over 330 books not one of them came from my heart.
They were all written for an audience, they were written to entertain.
That’s one thing I want to get across.
It’s not hard work, don’t listen to them.”
After so many years and so manyGoosebumpsbooks, Stine has ironed out a consistent schedule for his writing.
The process stays similar even for slightly different projects, such as theMan-Thingcomic Stine wrote for Marvel last year.
“It was a nice experience, and I had a lot of fun.
I may do some more comic books.
That was the first one in my whole life!
Now here I am, all these years later.
Comics were a major influence on me.
They all had funny twist endings.
That’s exactly what I venture to do in all my books.
Fans interested in more writing advice from Stine can check out the new course, available now onMasterClass.
“So it was really the perfect place.”
Watch the trailer for Stine’s course above.
All courses on MasterClass are available for individual purchase or an annual all-encompassing subscription.
