August 2012
57 posts
Whose Story Can You Tell?
A lot of white people in the US don’t know they’re white. They think they just are, they think they are the default setting.
Am I talking about you? Might be. Are you white? Do you realize how relatively easy your life has been when compared to people from non-Caucasian backgrounds? Do you understand the phrase “white privilege?”
If the answer to that last question is “not sure or “no,” do...
2 tv or not 2 tv
When people find out how busy the last fifteen years have been for me, they are often confused.
“How did you find time to write all those books?” is the common question.
The answer is simple.
I turned off the television.
I’m not an anti-TV vigilante. I’ve always had a television. I got cable when they started televising professional women’s basketball. Every once in a while I’ll be hooked by...
Character Quest
Yesterday a reader wrote: ”How do you plot for characters that don’t really have an outward goal or problem they can solve? I’ve relied on yearning for this, but I’m curious how books like Speak and Twisted came about plotwise.”
It’s pretty hard, if not impossible, to complete a novel without knowing what your character wants out of her life. I guess maybe you could write an experimental book...
Having faith in your creativity
I spoke to more than a thousand kids a day at the Youngstown State University English Festival for three days at the end of March. I saw them in “smaller” groups throughout the day, then gave a final presentation to everyone before they went home. It was a life-changing experience to be in a room with a thousand kids who were completely stoked about books and reading and writing. I adored all of...
Revision & Inspiration
The concept of Revision is one of the hardest for new writers (and a few not-so-new) to wrap their heads around. You’ve put years into your story, you understand the lives of your characters, you’ve been polishing that climatic scenes in chapter 37 until it glows in the dark and by the gods, you are not going to change anything. You think it’s perfect.
I get it.
I totally get it, because...
“If I run or breathe too deep, the cheap stitches holding me together will snap,...”
– Wintergirls, Laurie Halse Anderson (via a-cautionary-tale)
Curing The Suckitude of Writer's Block
Writer’s block is actually several conditions masquerading as one. Saying, “Help me, I have writer’s block” is as useful as going to your doctor and saying, “I feel icky.”
You must figure out what kind of writer’s block you have in order to cure yourself.
Blank Screen Writer’s Block, Type 1 – You stare at the screen or the empty page and you cannot think of a single thing to write. You want to...
WORD NERDS BATTLE CALL!!
Hot historical linguistics controversy in the news today!
Word nerds, choose your sides! Warlike pastoralists or Anatolian agrarians? Do you favor the chariot and axle evidence or the cognate tree favored by Atkinson?
To arms, I say, to arms!
Do You Need An MFA to Be A Writer?
I divide the Academic Creative Writing Experience into two columns.
Column A I know a number of people who had wonderful creative writing professors who created a safe, stimulating atmosphere that fostered creativity and led to growth. I know people who graduated with an MFA in Creative Writing and then went on to publish successful books. So far, nothing to worry about, right?
Column BI also...
WatchGo read INTENTIONS, by Deborah Heiligman. Right now. Don’t cook dinner or do your homeowrk or show up to practice.
Just read it.
Thank you, Muse
Sometimes, after you plug away at a story for days or weeks or months or years, the perfect line drops into your lap. That line changes everything. That line is the puzzle piece that allows you to - finally - see the picture on the front of the box.
That line is a gift.
Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday to me!
Ideas & Mining High School
Thanks to everyone who participated in the discussion about the NPR’s Top 100 YA List. The good thing about lists and awards is that they tend to provoke conversation – sometimes debate – and in that way the titles of many more books are shared. And that’s a good thing.
But I really hope NPR follows up with some good journalism about YA and children’s literature by people of color as part of...
Happy & Sad about the NPR Top 100 YA List
This was a pleasant middle-of-summer surprise! NPR asked listeners to vote for their favorite YA novels of all times, and both SPEAK and WINTERGIRLS made the cut. (SPEAK was #26 and WINTERGIRLS was #99. Given that they only chose the top 100, that one was a little close!)
As lovely an honor as this is, it also made me sad. And angry and frustrated. This just might be the whitest YA list ever. And...
Editing as you go vs revising all at once
Question 2: Do you do any editing as you go or do you puke it all out (so to speak!) then do all your revision once the draft is done?
Answer 2: Yes. And no. It depends.
Questions like this are tricky and I hesitate to answer them. I suspect that underneath this question is anxiety about the questioner’s writing process. He could be stuck in the middle of a project. Or he has completed a book,...
My writing routine?
Question 1: Please explain your daily routine, how you revise, how you balance professional demands (deadlines etc) with creative/artistic satisfaction.
Answer: I am still looking for the answer!! I got serious about writing in 1992. I had my first book published in 1996. I quit my day job in 2002, and started supporting my family only with income from writing and speaking.
It’s been hard. Way...
