My Writing Process
If you're interested in my writing process, you might enjoy these essays:
- “Working With Fear” is available on The Horn Book web site, Sept/Oct, 2006.
- “Writing Suspense for Teens: My Three Rules” in Booklist, May, 2004.
- “The
Subconscious and the Writing Process” on The
Horn Book web site, Jan/Feb, 2001. Note that this essay was written
in reaction to the fascinating essay “Blood
from a Stone” by Jennifer Armstrong. Two writing processes
could not possibly be more different.
After this collision at Horn Book (a ridiculous claim from Jennifer, that art is always "the workings of a conscious mind"!), who'd a thought we'd end up friends? But it's so. Check out Jennifer's blog.
I do not keep a blog, myself (except on special occasions like the National Book Awards; see "Special Exhibits" in the menu at the left). A regular blog would require far too much of my conscious mind.
On Writing
“Fictional truth is a question of perspective, not autobiography. It is what you can't help tell if you write well; it is the watermark of self that runs through everything you do.”
—Zadie Smith
“The most heroic thing a creative person can do is live an orderly life so that the work can get done.”
—Cary Tennis
“Whether it is done quickly or slowly, however splendid the results, the process of writing fiction is inherently, inevitably, indistinguishable from wasting time.”
—Deborah Eisenberg, in The Eleventh Draft
“I would rather have the two-hundred and fifty-six imperfect books that mark the vectors of my journey through my art form than to have one perfect book that marks nothing but its own perfect self.”
—Barry Moser
“There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. It is not your business to determine how good it is, nor how valuable, nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours, clearly and directly, to keep the channel open.”
—Martha Graham
(Ursula Nordstrom, the great children's book editor,
kept a copy of this quote permanently in her handbag.)
Writing for Children & YAs
Getting Started
If you'd like to write for children and/or teens, I recommend that you join the Society for Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) and make use of their copious information, go to their conferences, etc. The SCBWI web site address is www.scbwi.org.
I also have many opinions of my own on the topic of writing for young adults:
“Experimental YA Fiction” by Nancy Werlin
Published in Booklist, October, 1998.
“When a novel's language defies our expectations—when words are invented or used in new ways, or when standard grammatic or dramatic structures are stretched, twisted, or ignored—we call the result ‘experimental fiction.’ The term implies something startlingly new but, of course, storytellers have been playing with and pushing at the barriers formed by standard language since they first began telling stories...”
“Get Rid of the Parents?” by Nancy Werlin
Published in Booklist, July, 1999.
“When my editor read the initial draft of my first young adult novel, Are You Alone on Purpose? (1994), she returned it with the comment, ‘Get rid of the parents!’ And, indeed, it's universally acknowledged by authors and editors that a YA novel with parents as central characters will soon be in want of an audience...”
Read more...
Recommended Books on Writing
- The Courage to Write, by Ralph Keyes
- Art and Fear, by David Bayles & Ted Orland
- Bird by Bird, by Anne Lamott
- A Writer's Time, by Kenneth Atchity
- On Writing, by Stephen King
- The Art of Fiction and Becoming a Novelist by John Gardner
- Writing Past Dark, by Bonnie Friedman
- How to Get Happily Published, by Judith Appelbaum
- From Cover to Cover, by Kathleen T. Horning (although intended primarily for beginning reviewers, Horning's discussion of what makes a good children's or YA book, and how to evaluate it, is invaluable for writers)