NaNo Tip No. 28: Take Care of Yourself
It’s my second last NaNoWriMo post! Wow, that went fast. You’ve all been at it for 28 days now.1 Which leads me to suspect that some of you may be feeling quite sore about now. Writing, like any job that involves spending hours in front of a computer, has a high injury rate. Almost every pro writer I know has some kind of neck/back/wrist problem. Carpal tunnel syndrome and other repetitive strain injury are very common. At the end of almost every first draft deadline, when I’ve been writing every day for weeks and weeks on end, and my writing days have stretched out from four hours to twelve or longer, my upper back and/or neck packs it in. I

Nan Tips No. 26: Giving Thanks
Only four more days of NaNoWriMo to go, and I’m noticing that a lot of people are beating up on themselves. They haven’t met their deadlines. They haven’t got enough words. Their words aren’t good enough. The muse is missing! Etc, etc. Welcome to the wonderful world of being a writer. At every level, writers beat up on themselves. If they’re not published yet, then that’s their source of grief. If they are published, then they aren’t selling enough, well reviewed enough, or haven’t won enough awards. If they are award-winning bestsellers, their publisher makes them tour all

NaNo Tip No. 24: Writing While White
Lately many white writers have been asking me about writing characters who aren’t white. Quite a few are doing NaNoWriMo, so I decided I’d put my responses into the NaNo tips. I’ve been asked the following questions: Why should I have non-white characters in my books? How do I write about non-white people if I’ve never known any? Should I write about non-white people at all? I’ve already addressed some of these questions a

NaNo Tip No. 22: Read Bad Books
Yesterday Scott talked about the importance of rereading books you love to figure out how the writer made you react the way you did. He advised rereading good books. Today I’m going to recommend reading and examining bad books. This may sound like strange advice but often you learn more from examining a broken thing than something that’s in perfect working order. It’s actually easier to do this than it is to figure out how a good book achieves its effects. This is because it’s much harder to get sucked into the narrative of a book that’s broken. Every time I reread Pride and Prejud

NCTE Events + Public Event in Philadelphia
I’m in Philadelphia at the National Council of Teachers of English convention. Such larks! If you’re here you can find me in the following places today: Saturday, November 21st 10:00-10:45AM Signing at Andersons (booth #544) 2:00-3:00PM Signing at the Bloomsbury (booth #609-611) 4:15-5:30PM “Authors’ Blogs: Connections, Collaboration, and Creativity” with chair Denise Johnson, Laurie Halse Anderson, Maureen Johnson, me, Barbara O’Connor, and Lisa Yee Room 103A, Street Level If you’re in Philly but not at NCTE I have one public event. Just me a