Recent Articles
How do you balance multiple projects?
At any given time, I’m working on between three and five manuscripts. Some people’s jaws drop when they hear a thing like that (probably because the average person can hardly imagine working on one manuscript!). Maybe it’s a leftover consequence of my decade in...
How to set goals when so much is beyond your control
As much as we like to think we have everything under our control (or maybe that’s just me), there’s a lot that’s out of our control, especially when it comes to writing. Sometimes kids get sick and writing time disappears. Sometimes there’s a freak snowstorm in Texas...
How to collect ideas
Since you’re having such a wonderfully imaginative September, I wanted to send a short-ish note about collecting ideas. Collecting ideas, for me, is incredibly important. I don’t ever want my ideas to slip through my unprepared fingers. But we’ve all been there:...
How Many Drafts Does it Take to Equal a Finished Book?
When I visit kids at schools, someone usually asks me if I just write my book and that’s that. It’s a humorous question to me; a book is hardly ever finished the first time it comes out on paper (there is, of course, the very, very rare exception). But students are...
How to Fight Off Burnout
I’m a very task-oriented person. I make my goals, I make my list of tasks to support those goals, I work myself every hour I have and don’t quit until the clock says my work day is officially done. This means that while I accomplish a ridiculous amount of tasks during...
On Believing in Yourself: an Examination
One of the most difficult and yet important pieces of the writer life is believing in yourself and believing in your work. I have a book that just launched into the world (two days ago, to be exact). This is my first traditionally published book (but certainly not my...
The Importance of Research: a Short Examination
I once heard a writer say that she could usually finish all the research she needed to do for a story in about a week. Meanwhile, this was my research stack for the summer. It could be because I’m a former journalist, but one of the biggest challenges for me is...
Write a GREAT Book Even When Your Time is Limited
