Zentner’s unique experiences, passion for book inspires young writers

On an average day, you may find Jeff Zentner going over murder cases on his desk or writing a song on his guitar, but it wasn’t either of those things that brought the Tennessee native to the library of Coppell High School on Wednesday.

The prosecutor/musician-turned-author spoke to creative writing students about his unreleased young adult book, The Serpent King, however the students were not completely in the dark.

Each student had received an advanced copy of the novel in the weeks leading up to the visit so they were armed with questions on topics ranging from characters and writing process to the large tattoo on his forearm- and Zentner had answers.

The Serpent King, despite what it’s name suggests, is not about an actual king but instead focuses on the lives of high school outcasts Dill, Lydia and Travis as they try to navigate life in rural Tennessee. The book highlights the highest and lowest points of their senior year from each character’s point of view.

The book is one of many firsts for Zentner, another being his first time speaking in front of students but the laughs he drew from them and confidence he spoke with made it hard to tell.

What really differentiates Zentner from any other experienced author was just that; before The Serpent King he really had no experience with writing. However through the cases that came across his desk, his love for music (and a little Twitter stalking?), Zentner was able to craft an intriguing and impactful story.

“[Experience] really comes in handy when you’re creating characters, because to have a wide range of experience allows you more easily to empathize with people, and if you can empathize with people you can get into their heads, and if you can get into their heads you can know how they’ll behave in a certain situation, how they’ll talk, how they’ll dress, how they’ll do everything, it allows you to become somebody else,” Zentner said.

For writing about things a little outside of his personal experience, such as a teenage girl who runs her own online fashion blog, Zentner turned to a popular social network.

“It really is just a process of observation,” Zentner said. “To write the character of Lydia, I just went on Twitter and just followed a bunch of teenage fashion bloggers. I would be a fly on the wall to their conversations. You just start to develop them in your mind.”

It was this understanding, among other things, that appealed most to readers such as creative writing student and senior Seshu Brahma, who was able to connect with the characters Zentner created.

“I thought it was very interesting and a cool, contemporary young adult story,” Brahma said. “Since the story is about three characters in their senior year of high school and I’m also a senior, I saw a lot of myself in them, in their struggles and their aspirations.”

As a senior Brahma is writing essays to submit to colleges and found some of the tips that Zentner gave to be helpful to her writing process.

“I really liked what he said about having the patience to stick with writing and having a really good work ethic,” Sharma said. “He also talked a lot about taking constructive criticism from other people, so I can hand my essay off to some friends and not get offended if they have suggestions.”

Senior Mayuri Raja was a little late to get a copy of Zentner’s book but did not let that slow her down. She read all 350 pages in one go and was front and center during Zentner’s visit.

“I loved talking to him, and obviously he’s an adult and I’m not, so it’s interesting for me to see how he could write my life so well in a book when he’s not a high schooler, he’s just looking in, but he captured it so well,” Raja said.

The audience totaled no more than 35 people across all the creative writing classes, so Raja had no trouble getting answers to her questions and receiving responses that would fuel her passion to one day write herself.

“I do a lot of writing now, it’s a hobby but I’d like to publish something eventually,” Raja said. “That’s why I really enjoyed this one, it was a lot more intimate. Everyone asked my questions for me, and he was just so thorough with his answers.”

In 18 years of teaching creative writing at the high school, Matthew Bowden has seen authors come and go but none left the impact on himself and his students that Zentner did.

“I think he’s a real person,” Bowden said. “It didn’t seem like he was better than us or he was talking down on to us as in ‘this is what you need to do to be a writer’ he was real, and a little bit disarming to the students, which is why everyone was so open to talk to him and ask question. It felt like we were having a discussion rather than listening to a speaker.”

Bowden was not initially a big fan of YA novels but after reading The Serpent King developed some new opinions about the genre.

“I thought ‘if I’m going to ask everyone to read the book, I should do it to,’” Bowden said. “A couple chapters in, I was hooked. It dealt with real issues, it captured teenagers accurately with a sense of verisimilitude and I really loved it. I’m more open to the idea of reading YA novels now because of that.”

He is enthusiastic about how the book will be received once it is released on March 8 at bookstores and online and could see the story becoming a major success.

“From the early press that I’ve gotten from his agent representative, they predict that it could be one of the next big things in the YA genre,” Bowden said. “The fact that it’s on Crown Books which is a subsidiary, it’s their YA division of Random House, one of the giant publishing magnates. I wouldn’t be surprised if this book sold millions of copies.”

Zentner tried to reach as many people as possible through his music but never quite got to where he wanted to be. With The Serpent King, Zentner has another opportunity to share his story with the world.

“If a story’s’ worth telling, it’s worth telling to as many people as are willing to hear it,” Zentner said. “I would love for this book, for lots of people to buy it, for lots of people to own it, because I think it’s a worthwhile story. I thought it was a worthwhile enough story to write, I just hope i’m able to connect with lots of people that would be really exciting to me if I were.”

At this stage Zentner’s book is in the final edits, however the feedback he received from students still resonates with him.

“This is my audience, these are my people, this is who I need to write for,” Zentner said. “If I hear from young adults that they like my book then that’s the best imaginable compliment. Young adults are just the sharpest people, they can smell through any artifice or pretense, there’s no getting away with anything you have to be really honest. I feel like I’m really successful as a writer if I can reach young adults.”

While the characters will stay fresh in the minds of these students as they complete their senior year of high school, the experience they gained from Zentner’s visit will stick with them for far longer.

“I hope students take away from my talk that there is no one person as a writer,” Zentner said. “I went to public high school, didn’t have any creative writing classes, I just read a lot of books and wanted to tell a story. That’s what I hope people understand, becoming a writer, there’s no magical formula, and writers don’t live in some ivory tower somewhere, they’re just normal people.”