writing
Q: Do You Write When You’re on Vacation?
Minnesota
A: Yes. My life is less fun if I’m not writing, so on vacation, I usually find time to write. It’s often only a couple of hours on the plane or in the morning before I join the rest of the family, but that’s enough to keep my ideas going and stay connected to the calm, inner part of myself. I need that to fortify me in the chaos of a zillion interactions. The few times I’ve tried to leave my computer behind, thinking that would… Continue reading
Survival of the Fittest
Charles Darwin
As I understand Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, in nature, whatever can survive best in its environment will endure, allowing its offspring to evolve over generations. The theory covers lizards in the Galapagos, the prehensile nature of elephant trunks, and my own lack of a tail. I find the idea elegant and rather beautiful.
I’d like to propose the theory of Writing Darwinism, where the environment is the novel, and the characters and plot points that can survive generations of revisions must be able to evolve… Continue reading
Fan Mail and Hope
Q. Do You Get Much Fan Mail?
A. I do. It seems like a lot to me, at least. Even though the first book in the Birthmarked trilogy has been out since 2010 and the fuss around the release of the third book has died down, readers are still finding Gaia’s story for the first time, and some of them send me the nicest notes. This week, one reader told me her teenage son had recommended Birthmarked to her, and reading the series with him had… Continue reading
What Happens to Writers After They Debut? A Survey: 3 Years Out
I asked my fellow YA and MG writers whose debut novels appeared in 2010 to answer a few questions about their publishing and writing lives today, three years after our books came out. Of the original 72 writers who were eligible to reply (they were in The Tenners), 23 responded anonymously between May 20 and June 14, 2013, and all of the respondents reported themselves as actively writing still. In case you’d like a hint to remember some of the new names from 2010, our year included… Continue reading
Q: Do Your Characters Ever Surprise You?
Shadows in the Attic
A: Yes. Regularly. It isn’t simply that they make choices I didn’t see coming or say surprising things. There’s this play between what I consciously expect them to do when faced with a problem and what spontaneously happens once they’re in a scene. Sometimes they do what I expect, but their reasoning for it is more complicated than I thought. Sometimes they say what I expect, but it turns out to be a lie.
What I especially like is the… Continue reading
Bright Things in Books
This may be just me, but I need occasional bright things in books. Once, when I read a string of YA dystopias back to back, the physically dark settings had me feeling like I lived in a cave, and I needed a break. By contrast, I was rereading Levine’s Ella Enchanted this spring, and I actively noticed the happy scenes of friendship, which were just as nourishing as physical brightness. Of course, it made the contrast all the worse when Ella lost those friendships and had… Continue reading