“One of the most common questions I get in school visits is, ‘How long does it take to write a book?’ … I think the truest answer is that the time it takes to write a story is how old you were when you finished writing it.”
Ideas are like Legos. One is just a plastic block but put many together, and you have a castle or a ship — or a story.
I thought that by writing about a day that is stressful and overwhelming, I would help some readers see themselves in this book and I would help others understand what being overwhelmed feels like.
People often say you should “write what you know.” Yeah, maybe. I think it’s more important to focus on something that fascinates you, something that really fires your curiosity.
Author Ellen Oh shares that the idea for Haru, Zombie Dog Hero was inspired because “I love dogs. I have two of my own that I spoil more than my human children. Kiko is a very sweet golden doodle and Tokki is a grumpy coton.”
There are a number of things about my new, middle grade novel, Rez Dogs that make it different from any book I’ve done before. In fact, before I go any further, I should point out that, even though I am listed as the author, I did not write it.
Where did Susan get the idea for The Boy Who Dared? At the age of 17, Helmuth Hübener was the youngest person on death row in Nazi Germany. What did Helmuth do? | Her writing advice: Ask a lot of questions. Read more …
Where do you get your ideas? Best writing tips? This summer I have asked writer friends and colleagues to answer these same two questions that I am sure they too are constantly being asked by young people — their readers.
When you write historical fiction, such as I do, my research can take me anywhere and generally does. Such searches are helped by a wonderful truth: there seems to be a book, an article, or a memoir about anything and everything.
All of these factors are radically muting the love of free deep reading at a crucial stage in child development. The literary book is not what publishers want because, quite simply, they are not selling.