Author2Author Interview Speed Round

Tip of the Day: Buy yourself a lunch bag while they're on sale. The good ones are hard to find when the back to school sales end. Here in Upstate New York, we have three more weeks until school starts.

Author2Author has a mission. We're five YA writers at different stages of our careers talking about the craft and business of writing. This week, we picked each other's brains. What are we dying to know about writing, and each other? It's an interview speed round--we only got to pick ONE question to ask, so it had to be a good one!

I asked one question of Emily, our Miss Querylicious, something I need to work out in my own writing:

What do you do when you're possessed by a new idea for a writing project, and how do you know when it will be a good idea you can work on for a long time?

Emily says:

"Inspiration is everywhere and for someone with a bad memory it’s important to preserve my ideas. If I don’t, then the idea vanishes in an instant—no matter how unforgettable it appeared. As a result of learning my lesson, I keep an “ideas” file on my computer that I constantly add to.

"Before those ideas turn to books I’ve found it often takes several random ideas to click “together” to make a story grow. For example, wanting to write about a girl that gives advice she read in a self-help book with disastrous results combined with wanting to write about a missing celebrity became one of my books Don’t Ask Ally about a girl that gives advice to a celebrity and as a result the celebrity goes missing. The plot combines with ideas I’ve had about character traits, motivations, etc. that are jotted down. All of a sudden things become clear and a book idea forms.

"Sometimes it takes weeks of thinking about the idea: sometimes it takes months. Just depends on if I’m working on something else or not, and how strongly the idea is “calling me.”

"When the idea just won’t stop bugging me, then I at least try to write something down. Usually the first chapter, a synopsis, outline, or something to get the story out of my head. If it seems to have potential, then I might move onto writing the whole thing. If it doesn’t, then it usually just rests in my head for longer—until the day when I get another idea that “clicks” with the story and I can’t help but write more of it.

"It’s really a never ending cycle.

"Since I haven’t sold yet, I’m now finding new ideas to update old books and give them new life. Sometimes it’s small ideas, but it’s also been bigger “concept” ideas that make me rethink previous attempts at a novel. I haven’t completely rehashed the old books yet, but I’m giving them more time to settle in my brain until I can’t help but write them."

Thanks a lot, Emily! I like how your favorite story ideas seem to accumulate more ideas to them like they have gravity. Does anyone else have this experience?

-- Kate, Miss Perfecting the Pages