Back in the early 1990s I worked part-time at a book package called Parachute Press, which was creating a new horror series called Goosebumps. The series' author, R.L. Stine, had begun his career as a humor writer, then found a wider audience with his YA horror series Fear Street. But no one had ever done a horror series for the middle grade crowd, so Parachute decides to give Stine's series a try.

The rest is publishing history. Goosebumps made Stine the best-selling author of all time for many years. He now occupies the Number 2 spot, right behind J.K. Rowling. There's a Goosebumps attraction at Disney World, Goosebumps TV shows and merchandise, and new Goosebumps titles still coming out every year. Stine's journey is enviable, inspiring and amazing, and you can read about it in this Writer's Digest interview. Here's my favorite quote. When asked about the worst piece of writing advice he's ever heard, Stine said:

“Well, I hate it when authors come into a school and they say to kids, ‘Write from your heart, write from your heart, only write what you know, and write from your heart.’ I hate that because it’s useless. I’ve written over 300 books—not one was written from my heart. Not one. They were all written for an audience, they were all written to entertain a certain audience.”

The problem with such advice, Stine says, is that if you tell people to write from their hearts and to write only something they know, they get blocked totally. Instead, he says, it’s all about the imagination. (Hey, it worked for him.)

Yes it did. Check out this story of an incredibly hard-working writer and a really nice guy.