Ellen Hopkins Tackles Big Issues in Triangles

Ellen Hopkins, author of New York Times bestseller Crank, has recently released her first adult novel, Triangles. Although it deals with mature issues, themes such as the quest for everlasting love and the struggle of self-discovery are relatable to many teens. Always full of inspiration, Hopkins is currently working on two more novels - Collateral, a novel about deployment, and Tilt, a spinoff of the teen characters in Triangles. Hopkins was kind enough take some time out to speak with Youthink about her new book, where she draws inspiration and her favourite authors.

YT: What were some of the challenges you faced when you first started your career as a writer?
EH: Trying to find a way to get paid for it. I had a college background in journalism so I went into freelance writing. I didn’t get the degree in it because I dropped out to get married. I was always writing poetry and fiction. I thought I might be a picture-book writer, which didn’t work out so well, but we discover where we belong as writers by experimenting, moving forward and trying different things.

YT: What drew you to writing in verse narrative?
EH: I’d always been writing poetry and then Crank, my first novel, was a very personal story inspired by my daughter’s story. Since it was so close [to home], it was hard to get the voice right on it. I really wanted to write about addiction and how quickly it can change who a person is, but writing it in prose the voice sounded more like my voice instead of like Christina’s (the character's) voice. So I put the story away and went to a writer’s conference where Sonya Sones was speaking. Sonya is another verse novelist and it just came to me that I should try writing it in verse.

YT: Triangles is your first venture into adult novels. How different was it for you to write for an adult audience?
EH: It wasn’t a big difference. The language is a bit elevated; the verse in it is a bit elevated. The difference really is that teens have a very narrow sense of their lives because they have only lived a certain number of years. Adults look at their lives through this kind of wider perspective so there’s more reflection in an adult novel than a teen novel because teens don’t reflect as far back.