Joanna Marple, kid-lit blogger, author of Snow Games (see my Review HERE), and all-around awesome person, recently tagged me to join the Writing Process Blog Tour. Please visit Miss Marple’s blog by clicking HERE to learn more about her.
Following are my responses, and at the bottom you’ll find the
three
four wonderful people who’ll post next week!
Leonid Pasternak – Wikimedia Commons License
What am I working on?
Right now I am working on the next book in the Tomato and Pea series. In the first book: The evil villain Wintergreen, while trying to destroy super crime-stopper, Tomato and his sidekick, Pea, and take over planet Oarg, made a huge mistake! In a plan gone wrong, Wintergreen traps himself along with his arch-nemesis in a runaway rocket ship that crashes on a strange planet called “EAR-TH”. Now these perennial enemies must learn to work together to survive the dangers on this strange world. Hungry birds, enormous snakes and the giant inhabitants of EAR-TH stand between this brawling bunch of aliens and finding a way home. In the second book, to give you a hint, Wintergreen (the villain), is up to no good and is loose on EAR-TH (Earth). Tomato and the gang have to ask for help from some locals to get Wintergreen under control.
I am also working on several picture book drafts too. One I wrote while taking Susanna Leonard Hill’s Making Picture Book Magic class (it’s awesome, people!) and a couple of others that I am writing during Julie Hedlund’s 12×12 challenge (this is awesome too! :D ).
I am planning on submitting a poem for Dr. Niamh Clune’s upcoming anthology on the subject of “Mother” (published by Plum Tree Books). FYI they are looking for poetry and art submissions for adults and kids, click HERE for details.
I just signed up to write a short story for the “Lucky Draw” project. Here’s a description -
“Lucky Draw is a shared venture project for authors, coordinated by Sally Odgers of Affordable Manuscript Assessments and Workshops.
The goal is to write an anthology of stories for young readers.
Each member of the project will be given a story title + a character name/bio or a line drawing of a character or a premise.
Members will then write a story to match the title and character assigned.”
Ms. Odgers still has a couple slots open, click HERE to learn more.
I also have several novels I am working on (but I wait for the inspiration to hit me to write those).
How does my work differ from others of its genre?
That’s a good question. Maybe because I am a kid writing for other kids it makes it different. Sometimes I think I write my stories for myself and hopefully other kids will like it too. I also believe my writing style is unique, just like everyone else. ;)
Why do I write what I do?
I write when I have the urge to do it because I like it. It seems like I can write (or type) things down faster when I get inspired to do it. I write because I enjoy it. I love reading stories and I love learning about the writing process. Writing for me, teaches me a lot. I also love to tell stories – any kind of stories. I don’t really limit what I write about or what genre I write in. I just write about what I like or what I have an idea about.
How does my writing process work?
I tend to work better if I put goals or deadlines on myself. If I didn’t do that I would probably just read all the time. :)
I write whenever I get in the mood. I write an average of 2-3 hours a week. I plot certain parts of the books ahead of time, but if while I’m writing it goes in a different direction, that’s okay. I also make a very vague outline of the book to keep me on track (I don’t want to spend 5 chapters describing a minor point! ;) )
I have tons of journals and idea books. I carry one with me at all times (my idea journal) so I am always able to write down what I find that inspires me. When I get an urge to write I look through my journal and see what I might like to write about.
I read a lot of articles and books on writing and I took classes on how to make your writing better. I also ask for help from other people to critique my work. I think it helps to have others cheer you on and give you good advice (not necessarily what you want to hear, but honest, but polite, advice). That helps keep you motivated. It pays to have very good friends to have your back ~ Thanks everyone! :)
WHO’S UP NEXT Week?
I’m a kid so I am tagging my fellow kid-writers (and one kid at heart)!
Felicia Maziarz - Kid-author extraordinaire of “The Perpetual Papers of the Pack of Pets,” and Neighbor Girl to Stanley and Katrina (click HERE to go to the blog). Felicia and I did the interview with Rick Riordan together for HuffPost Live. It says on the Stanley and Katrina website that-
[Felicia] loves writing, reading, acting, singing, reading, gymnastics, doodling, reading, ice skating, painting, reading, doing computer stuff, oh… did we mention reading? Her latest creative project is organizing the D.I.R.T. Kids. (FYI: DIRT kids is a group of kids who love theater and raise money for charity click HERE to go to their website).
Rena Marthaler – Fourth grade writing whiz who wrote her novel “Magic The Crest” as part of NaNoWriMo. Click HERE to go to her blog. A guest review of Rick Riordan’s book “House Of Hades” by Rena will be featured on my blog this week on Thursday’s Creative Kid post and I will be interviewing her on the 27th about her book and being a writer. Be sure to check back to learn more about this young author!
Daniel Johnston – This 16-year-old aspiring author runs the blog Readers and Writers Paradise (click HERE to go THERE). Daniel recently posted a short story he wrote on my blog (click HERE to read it) and has published more of his writings on his own. Daniel is an avid reader and also reviews books for his site (he’s also a chess champ :) ). Check out some of his writings, you won’t be disappointed!
Dr. Niamh Clune – Dr Clune is the author of several adult and children’s books (check out my review of her Pa Dug and Rosie series HERE). She is also one of my biggest supporters and encouragerers (I know that’s not a real word). She is the founder of Plum Tree Books (click HERE to go to the blog and HERE to go to the official website). Her latest project is the poetry anthology I talked about earlier. You can check out her Amazon author page HERE. In addition to being a great author, Dr. Clune does a lot of good work in the world, working to help people less fortunate. She’s a great lady. :)
