You’ll find interviews of me in two places this week…
First, check out “A Passion for Books,” where you’ll find me talking about Dani’s voice and big attitude and what I hope readers will take away from the book. Here’s a peek:
Dani has such a spunky attitude and she had me laughing the entire time with her creative remarks. Was her voice easy for you to write?
I’m glad she made you laugh! Her voice was very easy to get down—sometimes too easy, to the point where I could probably write hundreds more pages in Dani’s voice, even though the story is long over. Maybe you noticed this about Dani when you were reading her, but she’s sure not afraid to say what she thinks, and her imagination tends to take her up and away from reality in crazy little diversions. I loved going off on those movie-inspired fantasy sequences with her. There was a point, during the writing of this novel, when I was walking around in my own life going, “Now, if this were a movie, I wouldn’t have to stay at work all day. I’d just jump out the window…”
No writers got hurt jumping out of any windows during the writing of this novel, though, don’t worry!
Check out the full interview here.
And that’s not all! Guess I can’t shut up this week. Because you’ll also find me interviewed on Shelf Elf as a part of the Winter Blog Blast Tour 2009, in the company of some amazing writers—check out the full tour schedule, and go read those other interviews!
In the interview you’ll find me talking about how strongly I really believe in the motto “What if?”, my cure for writer’s block, three films that changed my life, and much more. Here’s a peek:
Best Writing Advice:
Make your own rules, and then break them when you need to.
I think it’s important to make up your own rules for YOU. Other people may have great success with their writing methods, but that doesn’t mean they’ll translate for someone else. I try to force myself to write every morning; some people write better at night or like to save it all up for the weekend. I outline first; lots of writers abhor outlines (and I admire them for it!). I line-edit my first draft as I go; apparently that’s a big no-no and it would probably be the worst possible advice I could give another writer. Once you start experimenting, you’ll know what works for you.
As for breaking the rules. I do this more than I should, but so far it’s worked for me. Like, when I was writing DANI, I was determined to write it straight through from start to finish, no skipping around and no putting scenes aside to write later. Then I got all muddled up in the middle and had no idea how to get myself out. I was NOT ALLOWED to skip any chapters (this was my rule), so for weeks I struggled and fought and put down awful sentences and then erased them and replaced them with even more awful sentences. Then I realized I was the only one keeping myself to this rule of not skipping around. So I jumped—to the end of the book. I wrote the last four chapters and went back and wrote the middle. It was exactly what I needed to write that particular book. Now I’m writing a new manuscript without allowing myself to skip around (but I’ll totally break my own rule if I think I have to, shh!).
There’s much more—so be sure to check out the full interview.
Blog interviews are so much fun. Thanks to both A Passion for Books and Shelf Elf for having me—and thank you for letting me be a part of the Winter Blog Blast Tour!
