A January 2006 interview with Mark Peter Hughes, author of I am the Wallpaper.

No, I actually didn’t. In fact, it didn’t even occur to me until after I finished the first draft that it was an unusual perspective for me, a mid-thirties guy, to write from. My wife pointed it out to me. But I grew up with two extroverted sisters and I suppose that’s why it didn’t seem so hard. I must have been listening.

How did you come up with the names in "I am the Wallpaper"? I especially like Floey!

Thanks! When I’m writing a first draft, I don’t like to slow down my fingers by stopping to think of the perfect name. Instead, I just throw down the first thing that pops into my mind. Sometimes it’s not even a real name, just a sound. That’s what happened with Floey’s friend Azra, for example. My feeling is that I’ll either grow to like the name or I can change it later. Floey was a name that just came to me as I was typing. I didn’t even realize at first that it could be a shortened version of Florence.

Do you have any advice for young writers?

1. Keep writing.
2. Set goals for yourself. For example: “This week I will finish a first-draft of story about (whatever it will be about).”
3. Do at least three drafts. In draft #1, try not to edit your thoughts too much. Get it all down on the page. Give yourself the permission to be terrible, bad, awful. Just get it all down. In draft #2, let your internal editor back into the process. Clean up your first-draft a little. Pay closer attention to cleaning up character and story, and don’t worry about sentences or even paragraphs so much. Just get the big stuff as right as you can. Then show draft #2 to one or two people whose opinion you trust. Get their comments. Keep an open mind about what they have to say. For draft #3, incorporate the comments you received and agree with after draft #2. After more tweaks to character and story, now get your internal line-editor into the process. Are the sentences right? The paragraphs? How does it sound when I read it out loud?
4. Get in the habit of sending out your work. Send it to whatever publication might like to see it: school literary magazines, major book and story publishers, contests, whatever. Just get it out there.
5. Keep writing some more.

If you weren't a writer, what would you be?

I would like to be either Benjamin Franklin or Paul McCartney. Barring that, though, I suppose I wouldn’t mind being a world-traveling trapeze artist.

Are you working on anything now?

I just handed in the final (I believe) draft of my new novel, LEMONADE MOUTH. It’s the story of five high school outsiders who meet in detention, decide to form a band, and then take over the world. It will be in bookstores in Spring 2007.

What is your working environment like?

I have three small children at home so I can’t get much writing done in the house. I end up doing a lot of writing in coffee shops. In fact, I’ve recently become something of a coffee fiend.

What's the best piece of advice you ever had on writing?

There are two kinds of writers: those that want to write, and those that actually sit down and do it.

What was your favorite book as a child?

There were so many. I loved The Lorax by Dr. Seuss. As a teenager I loved The World According To Garp by John Irving. I still love them both.

What is your favorite book now?

A few months ago I read Feed by M.T. Anderson. Since then, I’ve thought about it every day.

What is your favorite word?

There are so many. Here are some: onomatopoeia, zarf, phlebotomist, twyndyllyngs (look it up!), baba ghanoush (okay, that’s two), Lake Titicaca (two again) and Walla Walla Washington (okay, that’s three – but so much fun to say!)