Robert Newton Peck Talks about Writing

I just came from hearing Robert Newton Peck talk about writing. Wow, this was a surprise visit to our writing class in our Florida retirement community. What a privilege to hear one of the great children's and teen authors of today. He's the author of 65 books and you'll find them stocked into every public library and school library across the country.

His book, A Day No Pigs Would Die, jump-started his writing career though it was not his first writing effort. His series, Soup, is tremendously popular.

(all photo taken by Virginia Allain)

Robert Newton Peck advised the retired writers to write about what they know. At age 32, he used his time on the commuter train each day to write about what he knew. He said that he knew cows and horses, so that's what his book was about. The result was A Day No Pigs Could Die.

There are so many ways to use this book with students. Here are some pages giving lesson plans for A Day No Pigs Could Die.

• He attended a one-room school for six year. His teacher, Miss Kelly, read a poem to them each morning. It might be Keats, Shelley, or Robert Burns.
• His nickname is Rob.
• He had a job in a lumber camp when he got out of the army after WWII. He called it "humanity's junkyard" as the rough and tumble life of a lumberjack drew many of the rejects from society.

Fellow writer, Jill from Canada, and I get our picture taken with the noted author.

I told him that I was a retired librarian and he responded that he liked librarians so much that he had married twice to librarians. His wife was with him and handled the crowd at the book sale table after his talk.

A big man, Rob Peck, proudly announced his age of 84 years. He exerted himself to share his knowledge of writing with a class of retirees in Florida.

• Show, don't tell. Think of yourself as writing with a camera, not a pen and paper. After writing a paragraph, read it to see if you are showing or telling.
• Don't make an outline. Create a character and write about him/her. It doesn't have to be a hero. Start writing and see where that character takes you.
• Write about what you know. Everyone has a novel inside them waiting to be written.

As an example of "show, don't tell," Robert Newton Peck recited from memory, "Best Friend." The essay about the death of his dog is included in his autobiography, Weeds in Bloom. He considers it his best writing, "You'll write your best when writing about something you love," he advised.