Lauren Oliver loves to make readers hate and hates to make readers love. She flavors romantic tragedies with Gothic edge. Her authentic portrayal of high school meanies causes readers to passionately love to hate in, Before I Fall. On the flipside, Lauren’s dystopian trilogy, beginning with Delirium and followed by Pandemonium, presents an overpowering hatred of love.

Lauren modestly credits her explosive success to developing her craft over twenty years. She began journaling at the age of five.

Janie: During the years of developing your craft, how did you know when you were ready for publication? Did you read a book or reach a point where you had an epiphany telling you all the elements in your manuscript fit well together?

Lauren: In terms of your question about how I knew my writing was at the right place…I’m not sure I did, per se. I think it’s more about the fact that I began attempting longer and longer projects, using the knowledge accumulated and absorbed over the years. I completed three novels before writing Before I Fall, although I had been attempting to complete novels since high school. And eventually, I managed to complete a book that was good enough to be published and read.

Janie: When journaling, do you create an arc with each journal entry, giving a beginning, middle and end to your daily thoughts? Or do you recommend random musings?

Lauren: Well, I actually never journaled, per se. I began writing at five, but I started writing fiction from the start. So yes, from the beginning I was always working on character and plot arc. In fact, I started writing basically by extending or continuing the books my mom read me or that I was starting (barely) to read myself—it was an early version of fan fiction. I still carry notebooks, and jot down thoughts, observations, characters, metaphors, and book ideas.

The first person narrative in Lauren’s novels shares the deepest secrets of the protagonist as though she is confiding to her best friend, who happens to be the reader.

Janie: What techniques unlock your captivating voice? How do you grip the reader and shape her impressions about the protagonist?

Lauren: Oh, man! I’m not sure I know how to answer that. First of all, thank you. I think the advice I strive most to follow when it comes to voice was given to me by one of my professors at NYU (where I went to get my MFA in fiction), Chuck Wachtel. He said: “Aim for truth, and beauty will follow. Aim for beauty, and truth will not necessarily follow.”

Similar to William Shakespeare’s techniques to increase tension in Romeo & Juliet, Lauren’s sarcastic wit of her protagonist serves as comedic relief during the darkest moments. She layers tension with each chapter, giving a bang to her unexpected finale.

Janie: What are your favorite methods for heightening tension in a scene? How about the novel as a whole?

Lauren: Hmm. I’m not sure I heighten tension consciously—actually, I wish I were better at it. I tend to be much more comfortable with character, and dialogue, and long, verbose descriptions (far too comfortable, actually—my drafts always run ridiculously long). But conflict and tension are often, in books, synonymous. So placing characters that want essentially opposing things in contact creates tension. And “raising the stakes” is an essential way of creating conflict in everything from movies, to improv, to novels. This means that you take something that your character already wants or is pursuing and make it more critical that she gets it. (i.e., I need this antidote, otherwise I will die becomes I need this antidote, otherwise I will die in two hours.)

According to Aristotle’s precepts for tragedy, the story must revolve around a protagonist the reader respects, and the protagonist must have a flaw the reader is willing to excuse. In Before I Fall, Lauren lures the reader into caring for a character with an unlikeable personality.

Janie: What writing techniques make people care about a character who only exists on paper as if she is a walking, breathing relative? How do you get readers to switch from dislike to admiration?

Lauren: One of the interesting things about character development is that a reader is more likely to care—or at least proceed down the road with—a character that is deeply flawed but seems real, than one who is likable but also implausible. I think that in order to evoke a sense of vibrancy and life to your characters, it’s important that you think of them all dimensionally. Real people are inconsistent and very complex, even if, for example, their complexity manifests in silly ways—like, a person who refuses to drink regular coke (only diet!) but loves fries, or someone who won’t drink but doesn’t mind smoking weed. That’s how people are. Additionally, it’s important to give your characters a goal—wants, in other words—and also to identify what their real emotional need is, which is often distinct or even in conflict with their stated want. This is also how real people are (.i.e., I want to win this championship means I need my dad to respect me.)

In terms of growth…I mean, that is the process, through a novel, of slowly allowing the character to perceive that what they want may not be what they need.

Lauren often references her favorite literary classics, most of which are dark comedies and have desperado coming of age themes. Lauren’s novels share their timeless appeal with social messages and peeked emotions.

Janie: Must a writer have lived the emotions of his character at some point in her life in order to invoke those feelings in the reader? Can a writer successfully explore and experience an emotion for the first time in his novel?

Lauren:  That’s a wonderful question. I think, yes, you can explore an emotion for the first time, because emotions get nuance from context. For example, the “sadness” of a person saying goodbye to her boyfriend before leaving for college is qualitatively different from the “sadness” experienced by parents saying goodbye to a child before she leaves for school—sadness is just a blanket term. I’ve always thought that the most important ability a writer must have is the ability to empathize, to imaginatively project into another person’s feeling.

Contemporary dystopian fiction is set within a repressed society that is dominated with the use of technology; however, they appreciate being protected from a greater evil, until one man evolves spiritually and discovers freedom. In Delirium, Lauren portrays a monitored society that has a sense of doom.

Janie: What elements in your setting and character perspectives raise the stakes and give a sense of oppression? How important are the character’s reactions?

Lauren: The stakes become raised for Lena when she wants to oppose the strictures and rules of the society in which she lives. That is what I referenced earlier when I said that an essential element of creating tension is setting characters at odds with one another. In this case, society can be viewed as a character, and so Lena’s emotional reaction to her plight is critical. The stakes are relatively low when she believes what society preaches—they become extremely high, however, as she rebels, and increasingly feels she’ll do anything to pursue the goals and values that are in fundamental opposition to those of her culture.

One of the interesting things about writing Delirium was the chance to explore a culture in which information is rigorously controlled. Of all the forms of oppression, this is perhaps the most terrifying—a total destabilization of reality can cause far more damage than acts of immediate violence. And, unfortunately, that is a reality in many parts of the world.

While her words are perfectly arranged, Lauren is loose with the rules of writing. She switches the point of view from first to second, she ends sentences with prepositional phrases, and she plays with the verb tense. She’ll even put backstory in her beginnings. Still, she masters prose.

Janie: When is it right to break those rules preached over and over and over?

Lauren: Well, I mean, I think it’s important to understand the “rules,” because at base rules of writing are rules of clarity and communication. What is essential to good writing is simply that you are able to convey to other people what you want to convey. And like any craft, it’s often only after you understand the rules that you can perceive their flexibility. (Picasso, as I understand it, studied the rules of draftsmanship and realism for many years before he exhibited the genius of completely disregarding them.) But there are some rules—for example, the rule that no preposition should end a sentence—that seem silly to me in many cases. Who do you know that would say in actual conversation: “In which container did you put the coffee?” It’s ridiculous! Or, as Winston Churchill allegedly said: “Ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put.”

I deeply appreciate your sharing some writing techniques about how to guide the emotions of readers, Lauren. Excellent writing, by the way. I predict a long career with multiple smash hits in your future, which you’ve already accomplished so I know I’m right. Tres bien!

Learn more about Lauren Oliver at www.laurenoliverbooks.com.