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January 14, 2010
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Bio
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Ned Vizzini is the author of It's Kind of a Funny Story, Be More Chill, and Teen Angst? Naaah.... He speaks at schools, universities, and libraries across the US about writing and mental health, he reviews young adult books for the New York Times Book Review, and he lives in Brooklyn, NY. His work has been has been translated into seven languages. |
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1. Can I have information on you for a report?
Yes, there is lots of information in three places:
- this FAQ!
- my bio is on the front page (on the left, under my picture)
- Wikipedia
- the the reader-submitted questions section of the FAQ -- these contain answers to questions that I have been asked for reports over the years
Here is everything else you might need:
- I was born 4/4/81.
- I went to Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan (1995-1999).
- In 1996, I started writing for New York Press, a local alternative paper. I wrote stories for them about my high school experiences that they printed every month or so.
- In 1998 I wrote something for the New York Times Magazine.
- That essay caught the eye of Free Spirit Publishing in Minnesota. In 2000, they put out my first book Teen Angst? Naaah..., a collection of stories from New York Press with some new ones added in.
- In 2000 I had my first speaking engagement at a high school in New York City. Since then, I have spoken at schools, colleges, libraries and symposiums across the US and in the UK about my books, writing skills, and mental health.
- In 2002, Random House bought the mass-market rights to Teen Angst and put out a the mass-market paperback edition.
- I entered Hunter College in Manhattan in 2000 and graduated in 2003 with a computer science degree and an English minor, honors, Phi Beta Kappa. I got the computer science degree because I never thought writing would make me any money.
- While in college, I wrote my second book and first novel, Be More Chill.
- I first explored the idea of the book with a short story about a man who gets a radio installed in his shoe to tell him how to be cool all the time. I wrote this story for a class; the instructor was the writer Regina McBride.
- In 2003 BMC was sold to Hyperion/Miramax books.
- In 2004 the Be More Chill hardcover edition was published.
- In the fall of 2004, suicidal with a lot of stress and depression that was later diagnosed and treated as manic depression, I spent a few days in the psych unit at Methodist Hospital, Park Slope, Brooklyn.
- In late 2004/early 2005 I wrote a book based on my hospital experience called It's Kind of a Funny Story. This was convenient, because the pressure that got me into the hospital in the first place was the pressure to write a follow-up to Be More Chill.
- IKOAFS was released in spring 2006 in hardcover.
- IKOAFS was released in spring 2007 in paperback.
- The jobs that I have had that I can remember include:
- dirt-bagger at a plant store
- apprentice house painter
- all-purpose gofer at my parents' company
- ColdFusion programmer for an internet startup
- founder of a internet firm that resists simple description
- 9-5er at Computer Associates (more specifically, the Computer Associates headquarters in Islandia, Long Island, which bears a striking resemblance to the psych unit at Methodist )
- bike messenger
- food service
- In April 2009, I finished a new book for adults. However, it's been shelved and I am now working on another book for young adults.
- In August 2009, it was announced that the It's Kind of a Funny Story movie is going into production, to be financed and distributed by Focus Features with a release date of 2011. Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden (Sugar, Half Nelson) adapted the book and are directing. Shooting is scheduled to begin October 2009.
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2. Are you on Facebook/Twitter etc.?
No, the best way to contact me is with the contact form. I am on a few things though. Details here.
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3. Can you come and visit my school/organization?
Yes, of course! If you are interested in a workshop or presentation/lecture, please contact my speaking agency:
"Your Source for Lectures with Impact"
call 800-743-9182; more info here
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4. Can you sign/autograph my book?
Yes I can sign your book! Here's what to do:
- Put the book, plus an envelope with 6 stamps on it, into an envelope with 7 stamps on it. Address the envelope with 7 stamps on it to me:
Ned Vizzini
285 5th Ave. Suite #405
Brooklyn, NY 11215
Be sure to put your return address on this envelope or I won't know who to send it back to. Also write MEDIA MAIL on this envelope in 2-3 places or it won't come to me.
(If you're from outside the US, email me and we'll make arrangements.)
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5. How can I be a writer? (skill)
- The first thing to do is get On Writing by Stephen King. This is really the best book I know on writing. It takes you through all the skills you need with wit and clarity. Read it!
- One you've got a foundation in King's advice, it's good to know this phrase: "kill your darlings".
- Read this great essay about being a writer: George Orwell, "Why I Write" essay.
- For inspiration, take a look at the "Raiders of the Lost Art Story Transcripts". Basically, the people who wrote Indiana Jones wrote it in a week: they sat down taped their brainstorming and came up with the entire plot just talking back and forth. This is good inspiration for being professional and not losing sight of your goals.
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6. How can I be a writer? (business)
First off, don't try to write a book.
Many people want to start writing by writing a book. Not a good idea. Especially if you're young, you might not have the discipline to follow through on a complete work of fiction, which has to be on your mind all the time for months. Start small.
Then, I have run a writing workshop at the Queens Public Library (among other places) called "From Personal to Published". It's about taking the writing that you love to do and turning it into something you do professionally.
I have a summary of the lessons of the workshop in this pdf.
Download them and check them out! Then, if you like what you see, show the PDF to your teacher or librarian and bring me to your school so I can give you more advice.
Now, if you've already written a book and you want to publish it, and you're right at the start of the process and you don't have any ins or know anybody, do get a copy of THIS BOOK:
Writer's Market 2010
It's like the yellow pages for writers. It'll list every agent and publisher you can imagine.
Send your stuff off to them with a respectful cover letter and see what happens!
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7. Can you help me get published?
Sorry, no. Not any more than with the business and artistic advice.
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8. What is your address?
Ned Vizzini
285 5th Ave. Suite #405
Brooklyn, NY 11215
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9. Isn't it hard to write about your family and friends? Do they get offended?
They can be, absolutely. The best way to deal with this is to write fiction and BASE your characters on real people instead of straight-up STEALING from them. And change names.
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10. Are you writing more books?
I wrote a fourth book (for adults), but it has been shelved (will not be printed right now). I am working on a new book for YA, it's kinda crazy and fun, more news when I'm done with it.
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11. Who are your favorite authors / What authors inspired you ?
I like literary fiction and biographies.
My favorite authors change month to month, but one amazing book I can mention I read lately was Tom Wolfe, A Man in Full. Right up off the top of my head right now, books that pop into mind are Jonathan Ames' Wake Up, Sir and Salman Rushdie, Midnight's Children. I really like reading musician biographies, i.e. Slash, Heavier Than Heaven, Nirvana, Miles.
When I was young and just starting out, my favorites were George Orwell, Michael Crichton, and Stephen King. Later I was exposed to the people who were writing for the New York Press in the late 1990s (Jim Knipfel, Amy Sohn, George Tabb), and they introduced me to the confessional essay format that I used in Teen Angst? Naah..., which set the stage for the kind of writing I do now.
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12. What is your favorite book of the ones you've written?
My favorite book of mine is It's Kind of A Funny Story. It's the most personal, and I think it has the best lines.
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13. How much of It's Kind of a Funny Story is true?
85%. What I did:
- change the names of the characters
- change the age of Craig, who is 15 when he goes into the hospital (I was 23)
- add the love triangle
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14. Are they making an It's Kind of a Funny Story movie?
In August 2009, it was announced that the It's Kind of a Funny Story movie is going into production, to be financed and distributed by Focus Features with a release date of 2011. Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden (Sugar, Half Nelson) adapted the book and are directing. Shooting is scheduled to begin October 2009.
Please note that as far as I know, auditions are closed. Sorry!
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15. Did IKOAFS really take you like a month to write?
Yes.
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16. Are the characters in the hospital real?
Yes, they were based on real people. In some cases I changed races around, or combined two people into one character.
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17. How does Craig get better so quickly?
This is everyone's chief criticism of It's Kind of A Funny Story; they feel that the ending is too tidy.
My argument is that Craig didn't get "better" as in "better--his depression is cured." He got better as in "better--I'm not going to consider suicide again." He sorted out some things in his life like I did.
Also, from Joseph Cambell's The Hero of a Thousand Faces:
"The happy ending of the fairy tale, the myth, and the divine comedy of the soul, is to be read, not as a contradiction, but as a transcendence of the universal tragedy of man. The objective world remains what it was, but, because of a shift [emphasis mine] of emphasis within the subject, is beheld as though transformed."
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18. In what year did the events that IKOAFS is based on take place?
Late 2004.
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19. Is there going to be a Be More Chill movie?
Not right now, but there is potential in the future.
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20. Where did you get the idea for the squip?
I saw so many products being advertised around me that promised to make you cool. So I thought, "What if there were just the ultimate? What if there were a pill?"
Also, there is a band called Drunk Horse that has a song called "AM/FM Shoes" about a guy who feels like a loser, except when he puts his special AM/FM shoes on. That helped give me the idea too.
Also see general info.
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21. At the end of Be More Chill, do Christine and Jeremy hook up?
It's an implied resolution, the idea being that you as a reader must decide!
(In my own mind, they probably get together but end up breaking up ultimately. But that's just me.)
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22. Is the squip real?
No. You might be thinking of the "Squip? Google It" campaign.
When BMC came out, we ran a fairly insane publicity campaign where we invented a whole universe of websites that made it seem as if the squip were real. (Link leads to Flash movie; please allow time to load, it's worth it!)
The websites, which included squippersagainstsquips.com and iwanttobecool.com, were coupled with "Squip? Google It" stickers that we gave away. Readers put these stickers up and took pictures of them.
The squip campaign ran into some problems:
- people criticized us for exploiting kids, because in many cases the people signing up for squips on websites thought they were real
- managing the "Squip? Google It" t-shirts and stickers and the large amount of email proved very difficult
- we didn't really understand the government COPPA laws when we launched, and so we misstepped, missing the chance to get thousands of people on board with the campaign because we couldn't legally ask for their email addresses
- I got very depressed (this was the summer before I went into the hospital)
For those reasons, and maybe more, the squip campaign never quite "tipped" into the phenomenon we hoped it would be and closed in 2005.
However, it had some positive results:
- we were featured in this New York Times article
- we compiled this great video of the campaign highlights, with many of the early adopters and loyal squippers
- on the message boards, a vibrant and unique community grew up around the Squip Campaign; the highest-posting members are given the status "Squip Sherrif":
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23. How much of Be More Chill is based on your real life?
65%. The infected nipple-ring incident happened to me.
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24. Is there going to be a Be More Chill sequel?
No.
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25. How much of Teen Angst is real?
95%. I just changed some names, dates.
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26. Can I have a Wormwhole demo?
No need to ask. Both Wormwhole songs are available for download:
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27. Did you ever meet the girl who kicked your backpack down the stairs? Did she read the book?
Nope.
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28. Are you still with Judith from Teen Angst? Naaah...?
No.
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29. Teen Angst? Naaah... comes in two editions -- a black one and a yellow one. What is the difference between the two editions?
Black one (guy with a box on his head)
- published by Random House
- mass-market paperback
- published in 2002
- footnotes are on the bottom of each page
Yellow one
- original version
- published by Free Spirit Publishing
- published in 2000
- trade paperback
- larger
- footnotes on the sides of the pages
- no longer in print
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30. Did you do the pictures in Teen Angst?
No, the cartoons were done by talented artist named Christopher Schons.
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31. Regarding the footnote about Rude Boys: did you ever figure that out?
During the 1970s 2 Tone ska revival in England, the terms rude boy and rude girl were often used to describe fans of that genre.
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32. (reader submitted) Why do you like writing so much?
Sometimes I don't like writing at all. It is incredibly frustrating when you are trying to write but it isn't coming out correctly. Your brain spins and you sit at the computer and go numb. So the rewards have to be great. Fortunately they are.
For the reasons why I enjoy writing, I defer to George Orwell, who wrote the following reasons for writing in his essay "Why I Write" (1946):
(i) Sheer egoism. Desire to seem clever, to be talked about, to be remembered after death, to get your own back on the grown-ups who snubbed you in childhood, etc., etc.
(ii) Aesthetic enthusiasm. Perception of beauty in the external world, or, on the other hand, in words and their right arrangement. Pleasure in the impact of one sound on another, in the firmness of good prose or the rhythm of a good story.
(iii) Historical impulse. Desire to see things as they are, to find out true facts and store them up for the use of posterity.
(iv) Political purpose.
Only for me me, (ii) is more important than (i). When I get a sentence right, or when my writing is going well, it feels better than anything on Earth. And I have another reason:
(v) Connecting with readers. To know through letters and emails that I have had experiences similar to other people, and to thank them for their support and kindness.
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33. (reader submitted) What obstacles did you have to overcome to write your books?
I was very lucky in that I did not face that many of the professional obstacles that many authors face while getting their books published. I started writing young (for New York Press), this writing was seen by Free Spirit Publishing, and they put out Teen Angst? Naaah... in 2000. At that point I began carrying flyers around everywhere to tell people about my books and I handed one to a person at a wedding and it turned out that they knew an agent and that is how I got my agent.
The obstacles I had to overcome were personal ones.
Specifically I wasn't able to write a very good book after Be More Chill. I tried and tried, and it drove me crazy, and that's how I ended up in the hospital as described in It's Kind of A Funny Story. So my obstacles have been personal and artistic.
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34. (reader submitted) What is your favorite thing to do other than writing and reading?
Errands. Seriously, a lot of the rest of my time is spent up in mundane aspects of life--finding out why Amazon owes me money, cleaning trying to get a new water heater, watching Scwab's little business webcasts...
When I'm not doing that stuff, I am a big Nirvana fan, and so I enjoy cataloging my shows and listening to them.
I also keep myself busy with various small projects, like, for example, finding and editing my "Attack of the Killer Turtle" movie. I have also begun working with a writing partner on movie and TV scripts.
Quite frankly, managing all the stuff on this website is a big deal too! And it still always seems outdated!
I am, of course, a big reader.
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35. (reader submitted) Your birth place and date?
I was born in New York on April 4, 1981.
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36. (reader submitted) Do you have siblings?
Yes, a brother and sister, both younger.
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37. (reader submitted) What college did you go to?
Hunter College in New York City.
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38. (reader submitted) When did you write your books?
- I wrote the essays in Teen Angst? Naaah... over a period of 3 years while in high school (1996-1999). I spent about a year with Free Spirit Publishing compiling and editing them before publication (2000).
- I wrote Be More Chill in 2002, in a 9-month period between roughly March and November.
- I wrote It's Kind of A Funny Story during a very intense month in December of 2004.
- I completed a fourth book (for adults) in April, 2009. It took me 22 months to write! It has currently been shelved and is not being published at this time.
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39. (reader submitted) What would you say is your style/type of writing?
Realistic, humorous young-adult fiction.
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40. (reader submitted) Have you been given any awards?
Yes, here is a list. The images aren't loading, so it's kinda messed up; email me if you need more.
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41. (reader submitted) Where are you currently living?
Brooklyn, NY.
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42. Why did you go to the hospital (It's Kind of a Funny Story)?
I was working on a book and it wasn't going well. I just couldn't make it work. I started getting depressed about it and one night I just couldn't take it and called the Suicide Hotline like Craig did. It went from there.
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Thank you!
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award  |
Best Books for Young Adults
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Teen Angst? Naaah... - A BookSense 76 Selection
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award  |
Abe Lincoln Award Master List
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Winner -- Literature for Young People, 2008 [was supposed to come with award, now there is a lawsuit]
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Mecklenburgische Literaturgesellschaft (i.e. "Golden Lufti")
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award  |
MLA Thumbs Up Reading List
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Chicago Public Library Best of the Best List
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© Ned Vizzini 2000-2010
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