Shipwreck

Korman’s first book, This Can’t be Happening at MacDonald Hall, was written when Korman was in the seventh grade and published by Scholastic in 1977, when Korman was 14 years old. By the time Korman graduated from Thornhill High School in Ontario, he had written and published five books. Korman has since written over 100 books for children and young adults, including individual novels, mystery series, and poetry. Korman started writing adventure series in 2001, beginning with the Island Trilogy. Shipwreck is the first book of the Island Trilogy, followed by Survival and Escape (2001). The Island Trilogy was followed by the Everest Trilogy (2002), the Dive Trilogy (2003), and the Titanic Trilogy (2011), all of which involve a group of children and young adults figuring out how to survive in the face of extreme natural danger. Korman uses the same formula when writing his books. In an interview with Scholastic, he says: “It's a combination between real life and pure imagination. […] I always start off with something real, but then I unleash my imagination to make it more exciting, funnier, or a better story” (“Gordon Korman.” Scholastic).

In addition to his solo projects, Korman worked collaboratively with multiple authors on the 39 Clues Series (2008, 2010), which he wrote while also completing the Titanic Trilogy. In an interview with INDY Week, Korman shares the process of his collaboration work:

That’s been a lot of fun, because the job of writing is obviously very isolating. So having co-workers is a real treat, and a real thrill. What happens is, someone does an outline. It’s very much a Scholastic gig—Rick Riordan plotted out the first arc, Jude Watson plotted the second and third, and so on. I got to read the first couple books and I knew what was happening in upcoming books, so I worked the plot around those elements, but had plenty of freedom to do my own thing. The interesting thing is, you’d think it’d limit your creativity to be given this much structure to write within. But I actually find that it helps—I’m more creative, and it gets me places that my imagination would not get on my own, and I find that’s really special for a writer (Smith, Zack. “Interview: Trying to Keep Up With Prolific Children's Book Author Gordon Korman.” INDY Week, 9 Feb. 2015).