John writes a novel about a desert island with a girl narrator (2010)
story · status: told 2× · last event: retold (2025-06-03)
In 2010 John said his next book would be a desert-island novel with a girl narrator, which his editor Julie Strauss-Gabel loved. In 2025 he recalled writing most of it but dropping it for the book that became The Fault in Our Stars.
Told alongside: The Fault in Our Stars: writing, title and publication (2011)
About: John's desert-island novel in progress (2010), Julie Strauss-Gabel, The Fault in Our Stars
| date | event | what | video |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010-06-25 (said on 2010-06-26, implied) | told | John's editor Julie Strauss-Gabel says she loves his new book (unfinished reading) and that it will be his next book: a desert island, a dangerously attractive boy and a girl narrator. | Book Nerd PARADISE 00:00:34 |
| 2025-06-03 | retold | John says that before The Fault in Our Stars he confidently said on the channel his next book would be about kids on a desert island; he wrote most of it, but it had no reason for being, so he wrote the book that became The Fault in Our Stars. | My Lies 00:01:21 |
Dates are upload dates, which set the order. Where the speaker gives a different recording date in the video, it is added as "said on YYYY-MM-DD, implied" (derived from the date said in the video).
What is said about it
7 statements, by date (the events above are the turns of the thread; these are the details).
- 2010-06-25 (said on 2010-06-26, implied) · Book Nerd PARADISE — John talks with his editor, Julie Strauss-Gabel, about his new book on camera. — 00:00:34
- 2010-06-25 (said on 2010-06-26, implied) · Book Nerd PARADISE — announcement: Julie Strauss-Gabel: Asked whether the new book will be John's next book for sure, his editor says yes; she says she loves it, though she has not finished it. (playful) — 00:00:34
- 2010-06-25 (said on 2010-06-26, implied) · Book Nerd PARADISE — announcement: Julie Strauss-Gabel: John's editor describes the book: a desert island, a dangerously attractive boy who's up to no good (John demurs), and a girl narrator. — 00:00:34
- 2025-06-03 · My Lies — John says the nonfiction books are still about imagining other people complexly, his overarching theme, and both have kids who like poetry, his other jam. — 00:01:51
- 2025-06-03 · My Lies — John: In his 20s and 30s John didn't see the point of nonfiction; when a friend left fiction for journalism, he thought it a waste of talent, believing text fiction the only way to transform readers. — 00:01:51
- 2025-06-03 · My Lies — John: After he started writing nonfiction John announced he was done with fiction: as in The Anthropocene Reviewed, he no longer saw its point and felt his historical moment could only be met with truth. — 00:02:20
- 2025-06-03 · My Lies — John says he missed writing fiction, as he once put it, the way you miss someone you used to love. — 00:02:20