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When I make classroom visits, students and teachers ask all kinds of questions about my writing life. Here are a few of the questions I’m sure to be asked:
· How do you research your stories?
I look for information in four places—from people who are experts in the field, from books, magazines and internet sources, and from visiting the sites that become the settings for my stories. The best sources, however, are diaries and letters from the people I write about.
· How long does it take you to write a book?
It varies, but usually it takes three years: one year for research, a few months for writing, and then I set it aside. After a year, I take it out and polish it up before sending it to the publisher for advice. Then I rewrite and send it out to more readers.
· What advice do you have for young writers?
Read, read, read. Don’t just read the stuff that interests you—choose a wide variety of reading material. When you eat breakfast, read the back of the cereal box. When you go to the beach, take a book of poetry. When you’re waiting in the dentist’s office, pick up and read a magazine you’ve never seen before.
· Of those you’ve written, what is your favorite book?
I enjoyed writing Silver Ribbon Skinny because I wrote it in first person. When I was writing about Skinny’s adventures, I felt as if I WAS Skinny.
· What are you working on now?
I am interested in assembling a collection of scrapbooks, diaries and letters written by young people in the 19th century. There is a wealth of published primary resource material from adults, but we rarely hear the voices of the children who lived in the past.
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“My favorite author to read as a youngster was Laura Ingalls Wilder, who wrote the Little House series.” |
