Brandon Mull on Getting Published

Warren Workman: Welcome to Tips.Net. Today we have Brandon Mull, part one of three. He's a best, New York Times' best-selling author, with a series of Fablehaven and The Candy Shop Wars.

Hey Brandon, thanks for being here on Tips.Net. Hey, tell us a little about your early beginnings. What actually got you into writing in the first place?

Brandon Mull: Umm, I have always been a massive day dreamer, and as a consequence that I love day dreaming and I love making up stories. Eventually as those stories became cooler, and cooler, and, and uh, felt more and more like something that I felt I would like to share with others, I became interested in writing so that I could, so that I could have a vehicle for taking the stuff that was in my head and sharing it with other people.

Warren: Hey Brandon, I understand you didn't start off making these best selling books. Can you tell us about the first attempts you had at writing?

Brandon: Umm, you know I mean I have always been writing ever since I was a kid. I attempted my first full length novel after I graduated from college. That was a novel I shopped around for a few years, um, just heard non-stop "No," until it came to a place called Shadow Mountain. Where they were interested in how I wrote, even though they wanted, they didn't want to publish this exact thing I had shown them. And so, um, they, they, but they were curious to see more. They wanted to see something else, and so over the next five months I wrote Fablehaven, and when I showed that, showed it to them, they were immediately enthused, and wanted to publish it.

Warren: Let me ask ya, where do get the characters that you're using for your books? Is it from family, friends, crazy people you have met while you've been a world traveler?

Brandon: Ha ha ha, generally I pu..., my characters have attributes of people I have known. Usually, it's not I'm lifting an exact persona from someone I know, and turning them straight into a character. It becomes more of a mix of people I have known, and I create a new character, um, out of different attributes.

Warren: What did your college experience do to help you become a better writer? What classes did you take to become a best selling author?

Brandon: OK. Well I majored in Public Relations, and then I got a minor in English, and through those, through that major and that minor, I took as many writing classes as I could in the COMM's department, and the English department. Along with that I wrote for the school paper. And then probably the experience that most shaped me in college was, I wrote sketch comedy, umm, for like six years I wrote sketch comedy.

We did a live show every month, and, and it was such a great way to see if my material was connecting with an audience or not. 'Cause you write this five minute skit, and you put it up on stage, and either the audience laughs or they don't. Over time, that really helped me to tighten up my style and to keep an audience in mind as I wrote. That actually translated over into helping me in my novels a lot.

Warren: Hey, thanks a lot Brandon. Be sure to tune in for part two of our interview with Brandon Mull, New York Times' bestseller for the Fablehaven and The Candy Shop Wars. This has been Tips.Net.