New Year Writing Tips for When the Going Gets Tough: What I've Learned at the Loft

So, I was having lunch with a crit partner yesterday, and we were talking about possible workshops or craft chats for the Loft, and she mentioned wanting to do a chat about how to stick with writing a ms long enough to get to the end. I opened my big mouth, and said something like, "I've never understood why people have trouble getting to the end--that's never been a problem of mine." This friend is a multi-published author, and I had never seen her struggle to finish a manuscript. After a moment of her glaring at me, and perhaps mouthing a word that rhymed with itch, I backed up and we talked about it.

What she was saying is that writing is hard. And we all have our hang-ups. I have plenty of those. Plenty of things that get between me and writing "the end." While I do have a drive to always get to the end of a manuscript, I do find that writing is hard. Absolutely.

So, I thought of the tricks that help me write when it gets hard. And I thought I would share them with you.

Pip, the cat, trying to get into the car through the windshield. Talk about the going getting tough. 

1. Show up.

This is actually my goal in all areas of my life--perhaps I suffer from low expectations. :) I don't particularly know how to be an awesome parent, but I do know how to show up. I don't always know how to write the book that is in my head, but I do know how to open up that word doc. And when I open it up, I engage in the words.

2. Pair the dreaded activity (writing) with something awesome.

When the going gets tough, and you don't want to show up, give yourself a prize. I love drinking coke. No, love is not strong enough. I'm obsessed. Feel that it is something both medicinal and magical. So, if I don't want to write, then I crack open a coke once I show up in that word doc. :) (I leave a coke at the Loft, and it gets me out the door and to the office.)

3. Do it with a friend.

I exercise a lot. I'm not bragging here--it's just something I do. I do triathlons, pick up road races and generally am ready to compete at a moment's notice. And yet, right now it's freakin' cold outside. I don't want to go to the Y. Even though I've paired working out with a visit to the sauna, which is my favorite, I still resist this standard-to-my-life activity. It's SO cold outside. But when I receive a text from my friend, I can't not go. She's waiting for me and holding me accountable to show up. And when I show up, I work out. Magically. Medicinally. :) How do you find this for writing? Join Row80. The Blueboards. The Practice Room. NaNo (it doesn't just happen in November anymore). Find a crit group through SCBWI or some other writing community. Come hang with us at the Loft.

4. Still not feeling the desire to get to the end? Give yourself a deadline or a competition.

There are deadlines all over the place. Contests at Miss Snark's First Victim, or Cupid's site. Sign up for a conference, and note the deadline to submit something to be critted by an agent or editor. That's your hard deadline. Or, if you have an agent, you probably have deadlines built in to your schedule. Need help meeting your deadline? Join your friends in #1k1hr. Make showing up a game to be won. Join a crit group that demands pages every. single. week. That's awesome pressure for showing up.

5. Celebrate EVERYTHING.

Be kind to yourself. This is a long tough business. Celebrate things that are in your control. Celebrate showing up. Celebrate finishing a first draft. Celebrate a completed revision. And always celebrate the big stuff--even if it threatens to go by with minimal notice. Fourth book birthday? Have a nice lunch with a friend. That's how this whole blog post got started in the first place. :)

Speaking of celebrating, my oldest turned 14 this week. Look at all those candles!

So, what do you do when the writing going gets tough? How do you trick yourself into finishing a manuscript?

Pay Yourself First

I have officially gone the longest time without writing forward on my writing projects--I think it's been a full month.

I came across this post by Anna Staniszewski, who quotes another rockstar author, Jo Knowles:

"Always make writing the top priority in your life even if that means other things have to slide."

Quite honestly, I thought that quote was pretty harsh. Maybe it was just my mindset at the time, but I thought to myself, "I can't put writing first." I'm a mom. A wife. I compete in races so I stay in shape (because deadlines and accountability work for me). I volunteer for a local educational non-proft, help organize a writing conference, help teach at our church Sunday school, and last March, I created a non-profit writing community.

My days start out with me trying to figure out what is the BIGGEST fire to extinguish. And I'm pretty sure that you are all just as busy as I am. I mean, there are only so many hours in a day, right?

So my writing slides to the back of the to-do list.

But the universe started whispering to me. With Anna's post, and then with this post by another of my favorite authors/mentors, Erica Orloff--and what a beautiful post it is!

We writers lament about time management. But maybe we should take a page out of the financial management world.

When talking about finances, experts tell us to Pay Yourself First.

In order to get a future as an author, we need to start prioritizing and paying into it. Paying into our future. And if you are a writer, but you are not paying into your future--into your dream--then that dream will never happen.

So, that's my goal. I'm going to start getting my writing done first--just a little, before I do anything else. Because if I put aside a couple hundred words here and there, pretty soon, it'll grow to be a whole book.

And that's my future.

(Also, I get really crabby when I don't write.)

How do you envision your time/project management? How do you protect your writing future?

Gravity and Tom Shannon's TED Talk: Anti-Gravity Sculptures

So, my TED Talk Tuesdays are happening every day except Tuesdays. What can I say? It's summer.

Yesterday, Superman (9-yrs old) asked me, "Mom, do you know what Law I hate?"

I reviewed the laws that I thought he lived by. It was a short list. "Nope, I can't guess."

"I hate the Law of Gravity."

:)

Knowing my son's love for movement in all directions, I definitely should have guessed that he would actively dislike one that restricted his ability to fly.

And recently, I catch myself frowning. Not because I am feeling emotions connected with the facial expression, but because lost in thought, or in my busy day, I forget to defy gravity. Which allows it to pull my lips down into the frown.

When I googled things that defy gravity, I came across Tom Shannon's Anti-Gravity Sculptures, which are amazing and beautiful and all anchored in some science fiction and some fantasy. As well as science AND gravity. :) So I'd thought I'd share it with you, in case you also forget to defy gravity today.



My favorite quote? "It's sort of surfing on a magnetic field at the crest of a wave."

Poets, eat your hearts out! :)

And without gravity, we wouldn't have enjoyed the "Goblet of Fire" last night (think of what a mess that would have made):

Papa J enjoying gravity.

Last night, at the Writers' Loft, we had a great chat, led by author Anna Staniszewski, about all things Character. We discussed how to build a character with depth, whether a character needs to be likeable, what are some of our favorite characters in literature, and what an agent might mean when they say that they didn't connect with your character. We even had a high-five over the day's agent rejections.

I think that leads to one of the best ways to defy gravity--as writers, we need to extract the best understanding we can from a crit to make our ms better and not get bogged down by negativity and rejections. Which would keep us too tethered to write the way we need to. Dealing with criticism/rejections in a positive/proactive way is an essential act of defying gravity for us all. :)

A shout out to everyone who chooses to defy gravity, but enjoy it as well. :) How do you do it?

TED Talk Tuesday (On Monday): Steven Johnson, Where Good Ideas Come From

(So that it will appear that Papa J has a friend...)

I received an email this morning in that old chain letter fashion (c'mon, fess up, you know you've done/started one at some point) asking me to do a blog hop type thing by answering questions about my writing. And even though I hate those things (no offense!) and even though this is the place where chain letters come to die, I decided I might as well comply, mostly because I really want to see a blog post specifically from the other people on the chain. If I do it, then the other participants Papa J picked have to do it, too.

I had already loaded a TED Talk into the works. So, I decided to mash the two together.

First let me talk about how I have recently had a shift in thinking about my writing process. I've always said stuff like, "writing doesn't happen in a vacuum," meaning that we need a strong support system in order to write. I've also been intrigued by collaborative writing projects, and a couple of times a year, I entice a few writers to do something out-of-the-box with me.

But, I think that I was wrong about my writing process. I mean, I do need a support system, but that it is secondary (or a smaller part of) the need to create a Petri dish for the growth of my writing, which includes other writers getting into the Petri dish with me on a daily basis and weighing in on an idea or a part of a novel.

Listen to Steven Johnson, and think about how writing in a rich idea environment could spark that great idea:



"Chance favors the connected mind."--Steven Johnson

Every part of writing is about ideas--the Shiny New Idea which is the tag line for that new manuscript, or that idea of how to write the first page in order to launch it into a reader's heart. Writing a novel is one new idea after another.

In a world where we talk about tribes and twitter followings and virtual communities, what does it mean as a writer to create an environment conducive to getting that creative work done? To reaching out for and making connections which spark the necessary ideas? This is a question I am going to be exploring on the blog in the upcoming weeks. I hope you join in, and talk about your thoughts, ideas, and community.

As a direct result of other writers mixing things up in my Petri dish, I am now dusting off and revising a MG ms that I haven't looked at in two years. (This is to answer another question in the blog hop--what I'm writing...) It's a story about a boy who wishes a wish so powerfully that it ultimately pulls a star down to earth.

I've answered two out of three blog hop questions--the third I am going to answer is: Who are the authors you most admire?

As writers, we have a different view of authors--and sometimes an inside view of how authors handle their writing. The two authors I admire most are Anna Staniszewski and Erica Orloff. Because of so many reasons, but mainly because of who they are as people, because of how they help everyone and anyone they come across, and also because they write pragmatically. Not that their subject matter is pragmatic, but that they believe they can do it, they do it, then it gets published. There is no room for existential crisis. They get the work done. Every single time. (Not to say that they don't have moments of doubts or writer-related-heartache.) But they will accomplish their novels one word at a time. And those words are great ones. :)

Who do you admire? Who's in your Petri dish? Do you worry about talking your works over with other writers? What does your community look like?

Oh, yeah. The chain letter dies here. :)

Stuffed Into a Teapot

Well, I'm taking slow-blogging to new heights. :) 

Ropes course with the fam on vacation in NH

One thing that gets on my nerves is when people throw around the idea that because of TV (or the internet) kids have shorter attention spans than they ever had before. You know, when people say it authoritatively in a how-to-write-for-children book, without citing any evidence. 

Alice: From the moment I fell down that rabbit hole I've been told what I must do and who I must be. I've been shrunk, stretched, scratched, and stuffed into a teapot. I've been accused of being Alice and of not being Alice but this is my dream. I'll decide where it goes from here.

Bayard: If you diverge from the path...

Alice: I make the path!

(From the 2010 movie, Alice In Wonderland)

By making that sort of assumption, that children are being damaged by the progress of media, you might as well stuff 'em into a teapot.

It may be true that attention-deficit issues with children are on the rise, but let's face it, that's a chemical process in the brain. I don't think people have found a causal effect between that and TV or computers. And, it has been shown that kids with ADHD can actually "hyper focus" when they find something compelling to focus on. 

That's the point, right?  Give kids something compelling to focus on.

I do think that it is true that there are different sources of entertainment that can lure our kids away from books, but the takeaway for us writers is that in order to compete with these games, shows and interactive experiences, we need to grab the reader on the first sentence, and hold their interest through the whole book. Which is why writing for young readers is so darn intriguing in the first place. Want a challenge? Try to write a novel for today's youth. They expect the best. It's our job to give it to them.

My kids don't zone out after 12 minutes because they have been trained by the TV and commercials (in fact, the commercials are more compelling to my kids than the show, most times). They don't stop focusing on interesting things after a few moments and drift away. They aren't less inclined to focus. They just have more to chose from.

We need to learn from the experts in the gaming field, like Jane McGonigal, and write in a way that gives kids positive feedback and a real interaction with our books, either figuratively, if we are writing traditional stories, or literally, like Patrick Carman. (The video clips of Skeleton Creek scared the bejeesus out of my eldest. Because he didn't listen to his mother. I'm just saying.)

But let's not assume that our kids are becoming less because they have more to interest them. Let's give them the more (which I believe today's authors, in general, are accomplishing).

Take my nine-year-old son, for instance. 

Give me s'more!

Some might say that he doesn't have the attention span for reading, because he tends not to choose books at his reading level. He sees a full page of text and turns away. But it's not attention span that is his problem--(I don't happen to think he has a problem, thank you very much, teapot stuffers)--but that he is an auditory/sensory learner, and not a visual learner. So most age-appropriate books are, by definition, not his cup of tea. But give him an Alvin Ho book, and he won't put it down. For him, humor is the carrot that will pull him through an entire book.

As a writer, you don't necessarily have to hook my son. (Although the fist fight that ensued in the back seat of my car when I tossed Anna's ARC of My Sort-of Fairy Tale Ending to my kids shows that she has. I'm talking FIST FIGHT where I had to pull the car over and physically separate the kids. Thanks, Anna. #MyBoysReadGirlBooks #TheyArePassionateAboutBooks #MyDaughterWonTheFight)

But you do have to know what type of kid you are hooking, and then hook them the whole way through. Don't let 'em off the line.

And, as if I haven't mixed enough metaphors in this post, I'm encouraging you to make your own path, when it comes to writing books, and not write under the fear that children don't have the attention span to pick up a book and read anymore.  You make the path!

And, now for our regularly scheduled commercial: If anyone wants help with the path, we have an All Things Picture Book group meeting at the Writers' Loft in Sherborn on Thursday night this week, and a Craft Chat on Character on July 23rd, also in the evening. Here's the link. Join us!

A Conversation About My Epic Fairy Tale Fail

So, I had the distinct pleasure of reading the ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) of Anna Staniszewski's second book in the UnFairy Tale series, My Epic Fairy Tale Fail.

 

Here's the description (Goodreads):

Fairy tales do come true. Unfortunately.

Jenny the Adventurer is back, and this time she's off to the Land of Tales: the crazy place that all fairy tales come from. If she can defeat an evil witch and complete three impossible tasks--all without getting eaten by blood-thirsty monsters--Jenny might finally get some answers about what happened to her parents. 

This is one adventure Jenny can't afford to fail.

Of course, I have at least two fans already in the house (and my daughter is just now getting into UnFairy at the age of seven) so I couldn't just keep the book to myself.

I passed the book to my sons (i.e. the book was ripped from my hands) and also to one of their friends.

Here's the ensuing conversation: (disclaimer: the interviewer has not read this book--she is starting book one now. Also, this video is choc full of boy humor. I am manning the camera, and occasionally the camera moves because I am either laughing or shaking my mom head "no." (Which was ignored, of course.) I didn't edit the tape--what my kids (and their friend) gave me is what I'm giving to you. :))




I have to say, I was bummed out at a certain point of the book, when Jenny, the main character (spoiler alert--LOL) FAILED a task. (Dude, it's in the title.) :)

But, this happens to my kids ALL THE TIME. And to me. I fail stuff ALL THE TIME. :) The whole point is what you do AFTER YOU FAIL.

Sorry for the polyanna life lesson today. :)

Read the book--it's great and wacky and weirder than our cat wearing a bathing suit.

The Blog Post That Doesn't Suck

This is not a how-to, but a has-been.

I've been struggling this morning with writing a blog post which doesn't suck.

It hasn't gone well. :)

I normally think that a good blog post has a little something for everything. A sprinkle of real life, a touch of writing talk, a bit of humor or voice, an optimistic view of the immediate writing future, and perhaps a kitten.

However, it is vacation week for my kids, and that is sucking all the life out of me (in a good way, of course), and my writing time.

SUCK SUCK SUCK. :)

Meanwhile, my mouth is writing checks that my time can't cash.

I challenged This One to a duel. A finish-the-revision duel. Yup. On a week when she is going GREAT GUNS, and I can't find time to write a decent blog post, let alone revise a novel! If you click over, make sure to tell her that she rocks. :)

On another note, I proclaim that Laura Pauling wins my WANTED: POSTER contest. Check out these awesome posters and blurbs she created! I think she should go professional on creating blurbs--she's awesome!

I am struggling with my writing goals this week, as I focus on vacation stuff with the kids. I'm hoping that I'll be back on the ROW 80 goals come Monday. I hope all the other ROWers are doing better than me!

On Friday, make sure to stop by here since I am hosting the awesome Jeff Hirsch on the blog. Loved his book, The Eleventh Plague.

I hope you'll join me, and I hope that I can get my creativity back in gear soon!

How do you balance writing on a difficult week? How are your ROW goals? What, in your opinion, makes a blog post not suck? Are you revising--do you want to join in our challenge? We'd love to include you in the competition to finish first! Have a great rest of the week, and good luck with your writing!

Special Edition Friday Feature: Win Anna Staniszewski's MY VERY UNFAIRY TALE LIFE

This Friday Feature interview is so epic that it must span the entire weekend. Epic and yet, simple. Shall we play a game?

**Updated to add: I have decided to run this contest through the weekend, and will post Anna's spectacular answers and the winner on Monday. If you stopped by and want something new to check out, click over to Rubixboy's take on Anna's book!**

You see, Anna wrote an awesome book. Then her awesome agent, Ammi-Joan Paquette, got it awesomely published. It's due to release 11/1/11.

I love the cover art!

Here's the blurb:

Is your magical kingdom falling apart? Twelve-year-old Jenny is on the case, whether she likes it or not. Saving the world might sound exciting, but for Jenny it’s starting to get old — even staying in the real world long enough to take a math test would be a dream come true! And when you throw in bloodthirsty unicorns, psychotic clowns, and the most useless gnome sidekick ever, Jenny decides that enough is enough. She’s leaving the adventuring business and not looking back. Or… is she?

Sounds delicious, doesn't it? And it is. I was lucky enough to get my hands on the ARC, and I twitched with delight as I followed Jenny's reluctant adventures with crazed unicorns, and bizarre (but thankful) creatures from other lands. The absurd situations and fun characters tickled me.

So, I gave it some thought, and I decided that I wanted to give away this book, so that one of you can experience Jenny's awesome adventures. But then I balked. I wanted to make sure that whoever won the book was deserving of the book. Creatively deserving.

So, now I'm going to make you work for it! In the spirit of the zany creativity on display in Anna's MY VERY UNFAIRY TALE LIFE, I want you to display your creativity by answering, in the blog comments, five questions. Points will not be given for correct answers, but for craziest, funniest, absurdly creative answers.

Are you up for the challenge?

Let's start the game!

Q1: Before the cover art for MY VERY UNFAIRY TALE LIFE was completed, what did Anna think that the girl pictured on it was doing? Hint: The frog was not yet on top of the girl's head.

Q2: Anna has a room dedicated to a specific movie series in her house. What is it? WHY?


Q3. Anna’s main character, Jenny, travels to a world where the inhabitants are missing one key feature. What do you think that key feature is?


Q4. A conversation with Anna’s sister-in-law inspired a part of the book. It has to do with losing a part of the body and hot liquid. Guess what those elements are. You can explain how your chosen elements fit together, if you like.


Q5. In the style of Clue, fill in the blanks. Jenny fights ______ (who), in the ____(location), with a _____ (object).

You have the weekend to come up with five answers. Now remember, zany off-the-wall-ness garners the most points! Answer those five questions in the comment section, then pop back over Monday to see Anna reveal the true answers, and crown someone the King or Queen Of The Absurd Answers. And that person will win her book!!


Good luck!


Need a stimulus to get those creative juices flowing?
Feast your eyes on the MY VERY UNFAIRY TALE LIFE book trailer:

Awarding Awards!

Casey, over at Literary Rambles was kind enough to give me the Silver Lining Award. Thanks so much Casey! I really appreciate the sentiment behind this award!

Well, what better day to hand out awards, than a day when I am gripped by a Migraine. Especially this award. The Silver Lining Award. The silver lining to my complete body spiral to hell today? That it will be another 30 days before I have the possibility of experiencing another one. Thirty blissful days during which I know that I am going to be migraine free. And, although my dark glasses aren't rose colored, they do give me new perspective. So, on to the awarding.

(Drumroll, please!)

To Anna: For supporting anyone who happens to land at her blog, for very sweetly accepting my offer to meet over coffee (not really knowing me from Eve), and for just being a sweatheart in general. Thanks Anna!

To Jon: For spewing enthusiasm all over the blogosphere. Man, you have to get up early in the day to comment at any writerly blog before Jon. I'm pretty sure he'll be ruling the blog world sometime soon--and his enthusiasm reminds me of glitter--once you start shaking it around, it spreads EVERYWHERE! Insidious! We need more of this kind of enthusiasm to keep us afloat while facing revisions or rejections. Rock on, Jon!

To Tina: For just being awesome! For being a revision partner for me and providing the encouragement that I need to jumpstart the current round of revisions. Thanks Tina!

To Laura: For a fantastically optimistic and funny blog. Monday she confessed that she was turning into a crocodile. Great stuff--go check it out. And, for supporting me every time I hang out at her blog. Thanks Laura!

The "rules" state that you should pass on these awards to five other people, notify them, and post it on your blog. But, really, the awards are yours now, to do with as you wish!

And I am holding onto to my final award to give away at a later date. Not because I don't think that there are other bloggers that I could award it to--there are plenty others that I follow because of their positivity. But the somebody that I have in mind isn't available right now to accept it. So stay tuned.

The bottom line (as I see it) to these awards, is that I get to say that I am glad I don't have to do this writing thing alone. And these are just a few of the people who help me stay on the upswing of my writing. Thanks everyone! Now, I'm going to go sit in a dark room and lie perfectly still.

Friday Feature: Journeys Toward Publication and Beyond: Anna Staniszewski

Welcome, everyone, to another Friday Feature. If you've missed any, be sure to check them out over on the right side of my blog. Today, I am more than pleased to introduce Anna Staniszewski. I enjoy hanging out at her informative, professional conglomeration of website and blog. Anna is so genuine and supportive on-line--I feel that I already know her. I'm sure you'll feel the same after this interview!

Born in Poland and raised in the United States, Anna grew up enjoying stories in both Polish and English. After studying theater in college, she worked at the Eric Carle Museum where she rediscovered her love of children’s books. She’s been scribbling furiously ever since. Anna lives south of Boston and teaches at Simmons College. She is represented by Ammi-Joan Paquette of the Erin Murphy Literary Agency.

Welcome, Anna. Thanks so much for the interview today! What are you currently working on?

I like to have a couple projects going at once so if I get stuck on one, I have something else to obsess about. Right now I’m revising a funny MG adventure about a girl who zips around the universe helping various magical creatures. I’ve also been hacking my way through my NaNoWriMo project; it’s a YA fairy tale retelling based on Polish Gypsy folklore.

What made you start to write seriously?

Shortly after finishing grad school, I got the amazing news that I’d been chosen to be the Writer-in-Residence at the Boston Public Library. I was given my own writing space and expected to spend twenty hours a week working on a novel. After nine months of putting to use what I’d learned in my MFA program, I turned in a completed manuscript. It was the first time I felt like I could officially call myself a writer, and the experience got me in the very useful habit of writing almost every day.

Anna, in 2009, you signed with an agent. You went into depth about it in a recent blog post. Recap for us, so people don't have to click away just yet.

It took me over a year to find an agent, and it was definitely a journey. I went into the process pretty naive, not having done all that much research. I queried an agent I'd heard at a conference and miraculously got a request for a full. Unfortunately, I never heard back. I queried another agent who was recommended to me by a friend. He asked for a revision, gave me some good advice, but ultimately passed. At that point I realized I'd need to do my homework if I was going to find an agent, so I researched a lot and revised my manuscript and my query over and over. In all that time, I never stopped writing, and it's a good thing because it was a second manuscript that finally changed my luck. In the end I got offers of representation from two agents (which left me in shock after so many rejections!) and I wound up going with my gut and signing with Ammi-Joan Paquette.

How has your writing life changed since you signed with your agent?

Since I signed with Joan in June, we've been working on submitting a couple of projects and revising a couple more. In that time, I think my writing has gotten stronger because I have someone who can give me very specific feedback on how to make my manuscripts better. I've also become more aware of what a manuscript needs in order to be submission-ready. Finally, it's been great to have someone as invested in my writing as I am! It makes the writing process feel a little less lonely.

If you had to pick one favorite blog, what would it be?

Oh dear. I feel like I’m drowning in blogs these days! But if I had to pick one, I guess I’d have to say Pub Rants. It was one of the first publishing blogs I followed regularly. I love how honest Kristin Nelson is about her work as an agent and about her thoughts on the publishing industry. I always learn something new from her posts.

What is a favorite blog post that you have written?

I just finished a post that was a lot of fun to write; it’s a list of comedy writing tips based on the rules of improvisational theater. I’d never realized before how much crossover there is between the two kinds of comedy. It was interesting to see improv rules like “Don’t deny anything!” applied to fiction.

What online resource have you found most helpful?

I don’t know what I’d do without Verla Kay’s Blue Boards; everyone there is so knowledgeable and supportive. Writing tends to bring out my hermit-like tendencies, so it’s nice to have a place to chat with fellow children’s book writers who know exactly what I’m going through and who squeal along with me when I get some good news.

What has been your biggest trial in writing?

Being patient and positive! You can’t rush things in writing. Something may feel “done” to you, but then you go back a few weeks later and notice a slew of gaping holes. Then your critique group reads it and points out a million more flaws. And that’s only the writing part! Once you get into finding an agent and trying to get published, then you really need to learn patience. There are so many ups and downs in the process that it can be easy to get discouraged and wonder why you’re doing this to yourself. At those times, I have to remember that I love writing and that’s why I keep doing it.

What tricks have you acquired to make you write or create when you don’t feel up to writing?

I’ve learned that goals and deadlines are my friends. I give myself word count goals and specific dates by which to send chapters to my beta readers. Also, entering contests has been a great way to push my writing along. If I’m having a particularly hard time focusing, I use what I call the Egg Timer Method: I set an egg-timer for thirty minutes, shut off everything else (Twitter, email, etc.), and force myself to just concentrate on writing. Anyone can focus for a half hour, right?

Anna--tell us about a book that has impacted your writing life.

The Giver by Lois Lowry is one of my all-time favorite books. Every time I read it, I’m amazed all over again by the quality of the writing. The way Lowry brings us into the world at the beginning of the story and lets it develop around us is amazing. Whenever I’m feeling uninspired or stuck, I go back and reread a few chapters and it gets me going again.

What is your practical goal with your writing? Do you have a reach-for-the-stars goal that you would like to share?

Well, obviously I’d love a few shiny book contracts in my future. But as far as long-term goals go: You know those books that stay with you for days after you’ve finished reading them? I would be ecstatic if my writing had that kind of impact on someone.

So far, what has been the best part of your writing experience?

People who write children’s books are probably some of the nicest people in the world. Thanks to writing classes, critique groups, and online communities (like the Blue Boards and the Enchanted Inkpot) I’ve met writers who love the same books and enjoy thinking about the same topics I do. It makes my inner dork dance with joy.

If you could be a character in a book, and live within their world, what character would you be?

I would want to be a slightly less know-it-all version of Hermione Granger and live in the Hogwarts library. Actually, if I can cheat a little, I’d like it to be a cross between the Hogwarts library and the library in Garth Nix’s Lirael – then it would be a super magical library! I’d probably never leave there, except maybe to go get some butter beer.

And, just because I’m curious, coffee or tea?

I could drink tea all day. The moment cold weather hits, I have a mug of hot tea practically glued to my hand. I have a completely unproven theory that warm, soothing liquids help the words flow.

Everyone--Please make Anna feel at home and leave her a question in the comments--she'll be stopping by to answer them!