Emika

Emika asked Cornelia Funke:

Ms. Funke, Hello, I'm a great fan of yours! I hated reading until the 5th grade when I picked up inkheart. Since, I cannot get my nose out of books! (I'm reading Inkheart in German now!) I have two questions I just HAVE TO ask. (That are completely unrelated. Sorry!) 1. What are your favorite books? Any reccommended reads? 2. How much outline do you do before writing books? Thank you! Emika

Cornelia Funke Hi Emika!
what a wonderful compliment that my story made you a bookeater!:)
1. question
Favorite books: The Once and Future King, by T.H.White
The Princess Bride, by William Goldman
East of Eden, by John Steinbeck
Treasure Island, By Robert Louis Stevenson
etc etc etc:) please look into my list of books on Goodreads to find more!
2.question
I usually sketch roughly where (very important!) and how a story starts, I have a short outline of about 10 chapters, some ideas about possible endings, but then I start writing and everything changes. I do research before and while I write as I believe you need to feed stories with the miraculous reality of this world. I allow the story to take me to places I didn't expect.And I rewrite between 5 and 10 times - sometimes almost every sentence.

More Answered Questions

Dani

Dani asked Cornelia Funke:

Hello Mrs. Funke, One of my favorite parts from the InkWorld books was whenever one of the Silvertounges would read out a famous character/object from the famous books of our world. Since there were so many different possibilities of books for Meggie, Mo, Orpheus, etc. to read aloud from, how did you decide which ones to use for the story? Also, were there any books you almost considered using instead? Thanks:)

Hannah

Hannah asked Cornelia Funke:

Hello, Ms. Funke. I work at this wonderful library and our board of directors want to cut our funding in half. Many of our patrons are writing letters and signing the petition we set up to change their minds, but do you have any advice on what else we could do?

A Goodreads user

A Goodreads user asked Cornelia Funke:

Hi Cornelia, another question. I always liked the idea of Fenoglio the writer as a character in the book, and then how we go into his written world - I love Chapter 13 of Inkspell when we see his viewpoint of this. Were you at all inspired by any books that do a similar thing, such as a writer of the world the book is set in, like Melquíades in 100 Years Of Solitude or anything else similar to that?

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