I recently got the chance to chat with Ned Vizzini, coauthor of newly released House of Secrets, about life, storytelling, and his new TV series Believe on NBC. Check out what he had to say!
Ned Vizzini is the New York Times bestselling author of young-adult books It’s Kind of a Funny Story, The Other Normals, Be More Chill, and Teen Angst? Naaah…. In television, he has written for MTV’s Teen Wolf and currently writes for NBC’s Believe, forthcoming in March 2014 from J.J. Abrams and Alfonso Cuarón. His essays and criticism have appeared in the New York Times, the Daily Beast, and the New Yorker. He is the coauthor with Chris Columbus of the fantasy-adventure series House of Secrets. His work has been translated into 25 languages. He lives in Los Angeles.
Thanks for chatting with us today, Ned! First off, tell us a bit about yourself.
Oh jeez, who cares? I’m a writer. I have a wonderful wife and son. I’m 32.
Hey! We’re the same age! (And now I feel quite unaccomplished after reading your bio…) Moving on!
Your latest book, HOUSE OF SECRETS, was on the NYTimes Bestseller list for 5 weeks straight. (Congrats!) How did that make you feel?
It’s a relief. House of Secrets is a big book. It’s physically big and it’s big for the publisher. It also has big characters:
Big, indeed! You co-wrote HOUSE OF SECRETS with Chris Columbus. How did you guys meet and why did you decide to co-write a middle grade series?
In 2011, Chris was looking for someone to collaborate with on House of Secrets. (The book wasn’t called that then; the title came later.) He liked my books Be More Chill and It’s Kind of a Funny Story so we met up and got into it. It really came out of a desire to do something freeing.
Where did the inspiration behind HOUSE OF SECRETS come from?
Chris went jogging in San Francisco like 15 years ago and had this vision of a house floating in the ocean, getting attacked by a pirate ship.
[BAM son that’s called INSPIRATION]
Wow. So this idea has been 15 years in the making. I’m guessing Chris has an affinity for pirate ships. Goonies, anyone?
What is co-writing a book like for you?
Co-writing is great. I have been working collaboratively since 2008 with Nick Antosca in TV and film. We wrote for Teen Wolf together. The great thing about it is that you can pass work off. For example, right now, I’m answering these questions instead of working on something creative. Not that answering questions isn’t creative. I mean — oh, you know what I mean!
We know what you mean. And, hey, thanks again for taking the time to chat with us. What is your favorite thing about this series and the characters?
My favorite thing about House of Secrets is the straight-up evil people. My favorite thing about the characters is when they fall in love.
What is your favorite paragraph from the book and why?
I don’t have a favorite paragraph; I have a favorite line. It’s when Captain Sangray says, “Shoot to disfigure!” I love that. That’s the kind of thing I would say. I love all the pirates in the book:
[Gilliam the pirate from House of Secrets]
Yikes. Those pirates have some serious tatts and jewelry. How is the novel process different from the script-writing process?
Novels engage with love of language. Scripts engage with love of story.
You’re currently working on a new TV series called BELIEVE, coming to NBC in March 2014. Can you tell us what it’s about?
Sure, Believe is about a 10-year-old girl with supernatural powers named Bo who gets paired up with an ex-convict named Tate and sent on a journey to help people as she’s menaced by mysterious forces.
You can keep up with the proceedings by following the Believe writers room on Twitter. We even have the blue checkmark! How amazing is that?
Blue checkmark FTW!
This TV series has some major names attached: not only you, but also JJ Abrams and Alfonso Cuarón, who directed my personal favorite Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Prisoner from Azkaban. How has it been working with these two talented producer/directors so far?
It’s great. Alfonso is one of those people you just want to love you. JJ I spoke with about BASIC programming. You’d be surprised how many TV and film people have computer science in their backgrounds.
How did you become a scriptwriter, and what do you love most about it?
I started working with Nick Antosca on a TV idea in 2008. We moved to Los Angeles in 2010, working as a team, and we’re still at it. What I love most is the big margins on the page.
Rejection comes with the territory when you write for a living. Certain books never get published, and certain television series never make it past the first season. How do you stay positive in this industry and keep moving forward?
Kyle MacLachlan came by the Believe writers room the other day; he plays billionaire Skouras on the show.
[l. to r.: Believe writers Sneha Koorse, Kari Drake, Brynn Malone, Seamus Kevin Fahey, Holly Harold; BELIEVE STAR KYLE MACLACHLAN; Believe writers Nick Antosca, Ned Vizzini; Believe writers assistant Alex Leibowich]
We all talked about the lifestyles of billionaires. One thing Kyle said stuck with me: the past doesn’t exist for billionaires. The past is over. It’s the future, and future deals, that mean something.
It’s hard for me to live like that, but it’s something creative people can aspire to: keep your failures in the past, where they actually happened.
That’s great advice. Between writing your own novels, co-writing the HOUSE OF SECRETS series, screenwriting, and being a dad, how do you keep up with it all? Are you secretly Superman?
I don’t play video games.
Yeah, me neither. *quickly minimizes World of Warcraft*
If you hadn’t become a writer, what do you think you’d be doing right now?
I’d be a computer programmer. Hopefully at this point I’d be supervising other computer programmers.
Thanks again, Ned. Now we can let you get back to sharing some of that workload with Nick. 🙂
Check out our review of HOUSE OF SECRETS here.
Want to win a copy of HOUSE OF SECRETS? Fill out the form below! One international person will win. Good luck!
House of Secrets is on my “to-read” list and “Believe” sounds amazing too.
The secret to getting everything done, no video games or social media. Too bad that’s not me.
Love the drawings for House of Secrets – would love to read it. I’ll keeping my eyes out for Believe too.
I really like the drawings as well. They really make the story even more intriguing.
It’s very interesting that he co-wrote Teen Wolf. it’s such a great show.
sounds like a fun one!
Looking forward to that TV series!
Teen wolf, co writer?! thats awesome!
I actually want to see believe 🙂 Great interview. Love a good book with good evil characters :p
I love pirates! Looks like a cute book, even though it is BIG.
Pirates are one of my favorites – even the evil ones. Looking forward to reading this some day!
I didn’t know Teen wolf was co-written. That’s cool!
I kind of want that Believe writer’s assistant job… Anyone else with me?
The drawings look amazing. I def need this in my “to be read” list.
Evil Characters falling in love, like that. Always hope for goodness
Ned’s a busy man! Actually, so am I, but I’d MAKE time to read “House of Secrets”. It’s been on my TBR list for awhile now. First time I saw that cover, I knew I had to read the book!
I like his comments about co-writing, very interesting about the Teen Wolf…looks like a great author, thank you
The art is very nice.
Whoa, they worked on Teen Wolf?! That’s cool. 😀
I enjoyed the discussion around collaboration – this seems like it would be a difficult process when writing to find someone that writes in a way that could merge with yours.
Pirates! Awesome! And JJ Abrams and Alfonso Cuaron are my favorite directors ever! Totally psyched for that show now!
This is a great interview! Mr. Vizzini has such a great sense of humor, I love it! (hey, there’s nothing sexier, IMO, than a funny man… ;-)) I am eager to check out the new show BELIEVE. It sounds really good and definitely like something I would enjoy. I’ve been trying to get my hands on HOUSE OF SECRETS since it came out (I have to enter loads of contests because I’m not working right now and simply don’t have the budget to buy ALL of the books I want to read!)… so I’m keeping my fingers crossed for this one! Thanks a million for this giveaway, and the many, many others here that I enter… 🙂
Now I can’t wait until March 2014….Believe looks interesting!
i loved your interview… and that new show looks awesome 🙂
The book is on my to read and now those awesome sketches makes it more awesome 🙂