'You don't have to get it right the first time'

 

“The beautiful part of writing is that you don't have to get it right the first time, unlike, say, a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping simile.” – Robert Cormier

 

Born in Massachusetts in 1925, Cormier was known for his brilliantly crafted yet oftentimes downbeat literature. His most popular works continue to resonate with his mostly Young Adult audience 15 years after his death.  I Am The Cheese, After the First Death, We All Fall Down and The Chocolate War all won major awards, and I Am The Cheese is considered one of the best Young Adult novels of the past 80 years.

 

Cormier began his professional writing career scripting radio commercials and went on to become an award-winning journalist and novelist.   In his lifetime (he died in 2000) he wrote 18 bestselling novels and countless short stories.   Six of his books were made into movies.

 

Cormier always kept the Young Adult audience and his local Massachusetts newspaper, the Fitchburg Sentinel, at the forefront of his writing efforts saying that writers should remember their roots.

“I simply write with an intelligent reader in mind,” he once said.  “I don't think about how old they are or where they might live.  And all the stories I'll ever need are right here on Main Street.”