Voice and vision

It was a 16-year-old kid, not a literary agent or a colleague, who finally forced Dr. Peter Johnson, professor of English, to write his recently released first novel, What Happened.

That kid is the narrator of the book, and his voice had been echoing through Johnson's head for years. Always wanting to write a novel, Johnson focused on short stories and poetry instead because he simply didn't have the time to devote to a novel. But one summer, things changed.

"One summer, [the novel's] 16-year-old narrator kept bugging me, as 16-year-olds often do," Johnson said. "I had the opening from the beginning, just a voice warning the reader about the way he was going to tell the story."

It's with that warning that Johnson begins the unnamed narrator's story: "I don't know what the truth is, or who needs to hear it, but I know what happened . . ."

He wrote the narrator's story in six weeks, but it would take another year of revising before Johnson was ready to put the novel into print. It was officially released in the beginning of March and has quickly gained acclaim. In April, Johnson will be honored by Rhode Island College's Association for the Study and Teaching of Adolescent Literature for What Happened, along with two other regional writers.

But Johnson is quick to note that it wasn't his goal to write a so-called young adult novel. He says he just wanted to tell a story.

"Novelists who deliberately try to write young adult fiction talk down to their readers," he said. "With What Happened, I just tried to write a good novel that happened to have a 16-year-old narrator.

"Why aren't Jane Eyre or Candide called young adult novels?" he asked. "Any 13-year-old can read them."

And anyone-adolescent or otherwise-can relate to the existential crisis of that 16-year-old kid who wouldn't leave Johnson alone.

"He's asking, 'What is it all about?' And don't we all do that every day?" he said.

Divided into five sections, each part of the book begins with a quotation-from philosophers, theologians, and even Winnie the Pooh author A.A. Milne.

But it is the first quotation, from Friedrick Nietzsche, which sets the tone of the narrator's voice throughout the novel: "There are no facts, only interpretations." The quotation, paired with the narrator's first poignant lines, give the novel an impressionistic feel-something typical young adult novels don't have.

"Almost every bestseller in young adult literature is directed at young girls calling each other sluts or falling in love with vampires, or at young boys' experiences with dragons," Johnson said. "I'm sure some poorly-read reviewers will have trouble with the impressionistic way What Happened is written. Most people don't want to think; they want to be amused."

Provoking rather than amusing his readers is Johnson's focus, and the writing community has taken notice. The author of three books of poems and a short story collection in addition to the new novel, he has received writing fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Rhode Island State Council for the Arts. His second book of poems received the 2001 James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets, which honors the best second book published that year by an American poet.

Making the move from writing poetry to writing fiction was mostly a matter of adopting a new process, Johnson said.

"My poems, though driven somewhat by narrative, are notable for what's left out," he said. "In fiction, I can focus more on character and plot but rely on those close editing skills I learned from poetry. Today most fiction is terribly overwritten."

The biggest lesson Johnson tries to pass on to his creative writing students each semester to avoid such a pitfall as overwriting is simply to read more.

"Even if you have the head for writing, you have to learn the craft," he said. "Your best teachers are the authors you read. You can't write well if your head is filled with clichéd storylines from television, movies, or video games.

"[The problem is that] people want to be famous in three weeks," he said..

Johnson himself knows that it takes years, not mere weeks, to become a published author.

"It's been an intensive and exhausting process," Johnson admits. "There are no givens when you write a book. It can take a year or four years, and that's not counting all the years you were writing it in your head."