When writing is not going well-then the bad thing about being a writer is that I also have the freedom and flexibility to do something badly, and no one else can fix it for me.- Margaret Haddix
There's something about each of my books that I am really proud of, and there's something about each of my books that I cringe over.
The deadlines are much, much longer with books. When I was a reporter, a lot of times I'd come in at 8:30 a.m., get an assignment right away, interview somebody, turn the story in by 9:30, and have the finished story in the paper that landed on my desk by noon.
Sometimes I can spend as long revising a manuscript as I spent writing it in the first place.
It's just so much fun to make up characters, situations, and everything else about a story. I have so much freedom and flexibility to do whatever I want.
I write a book over a period of months or years, and when I am done with it, usually another year goes by before I see it in print. It's hard to be patient and wait.
I was lucky enough not to face any required summer reading lists until I went to college. So I still think of summer as the best time to read for fun.
I think I learned a lot from reading in general - even from reading badly written books.
I started trying to write when I was in second or third grade.
I loved to read when I was a kid, and as soon as I realized that an actual person got to make up the books I loved so much, I decided that that was the job for me.
I like the fact that kids are willing to be imaginative and go along with me when I am telling strange tales.
I like playing around with the words; I love it when I feel like I have picked the exact right word to describe whatever it is I am trying to describe.
Generally I finish a first draft in 2-6 months, then I set it aside for a while so that when I come back to it I can read it with fresh eyes and figure out how to improve it.
Eventually the bad stuff I am writing turns into better stuff. Other times, I have just walked away from what I was working on, and figured I'd have a better perspective when I came back to it.
After I have sent my revised draft to my agent and editor, they suggest more improvement sand again, this revision phase can take anywhere from a few hours to a few months.
