Is there such thing as YA-panel-listener high? Because I’m coming off that right now. Just had the privilege of hearing Tiffany Jackson, Claire LeGrand, Nova Ren Suma, and Anica Rissi talk about their writing processes (and latest books) at Labyrinth Books. This is my takeaway.
All stories start with sparks of inspiration, whether it’s a news story or a particularly beguiling setting (e.g., haunted house, island) or a conversation with an agent. Where you take that inspiration is up to you. Maybe you sit on it for two years, quietly but steadfastly taking notes on things around you in the notebook that seems to be a part of your body. Maybe you feel the texture of the story and you sit in that for a while until the characters and plot start to take shape. Maybe you write an outline that feels like a movie script. Maybe you outline in color-coded obsessiveness. Maybe the story can’t begin to shape in your mind until you’ve crafted a way to access it, the entryway: the first paragraph. Then as you write, you deviate from the outline. Or you don’t. And for fun you write fan fic letters from one character to another–not for your book, just to get to know them. Or you don’t. At some point you feel like you can’t go on. The wall keeping you from completion is far too high to break through. So you trick yourself and go to the dog park with a clipboard. You’re not writing, you’re just sitting there…jotting. Or you write a scene that you’ve been excited about, that gives purpose to the build-up scenes you have yet to write.
