You’ve heard that advice before. Probably from the first time you were told to write a story. “Don’t try to get all fancy. Just stick with what you know.” Or, “If you have trouble creating a character, base him/her on someone you know.” It’s sound advice and I’m not going to knock it. And it works for any genre. That evil mermaid from a favorite book? I’m betting money SOMETHING about her was modeled after someone.

But…

Of there’s a but. All this becomes a problem if you’re ONLY basing characters on people you know. If you become too scared to step out of the box you’ve decorated so well to see if you can thrive without it.

My first manuscript was a story about three generations of one Russian-Jewish family. I liked to think of it as a Russian-Jewish JOY LUCK CLUB. It had romance, death, war, betrayal. It was a great premise. A 350 word epic. But it didn’t move. It didn’t sing. The reason? I based too much of it on my own family. Each time I dared to get creative, a voice in my head screamed “That’s not how it really happened! What will your parents say? Get back in the box!” Now, if this was a memoir, this would have been fine, but it was supposed to be fiction. In fiction, events don’t happen as they would in real life. They move quicker, toward something. There are obstacles at every step. My manuscript had obstacles but they didn’t factor in how they should have. The last 1/3 of the manuscript worked the best because that was the part most loosely based on my own life. That’s when I got my A-HA moment.

When I write now, I start with a voice. Sometimes it’s voice of someone I know/knew. Other times, it’s just a girl or guy with something to say. Along the way, they develop. I let my characters borrow some of my traits, some of people I know. I think a small part of me (like how I would react to a situation) appears in many of them. But I know to keep the story moving now, to not hold too tightly to a memory or vision of someone.

The goal is to keep stepping outside the confines of my box.

Why? Health issues, family issues, revisions…just life. It happens, sure. But what can we do to avoid delays like this?

The obvious answer is to write things down on a calendar, which I started doing, and that has helped immensely. However, even with calendars, we get bogged down. Sometimes, I feel like I’m juggling twenty balls in the air at once, and I don’t know how to keep them from falling (ok, since I can’t juggle, this analogy would have worked just fine with three balls, but twenty is more accurate and dramatic). Sometimes, I finish nineteen things and pat myself on the back, only to have the twentieth hit the ground (which is what happened this week). The thing that took the most time these last few weeks was getting my revisions done. I finished them, sent to friends, finished rereading and felt like a load had been lifted, and minutes ago I realized today is the 12th and this post was due yesterday.

I usually try to give advice in these or discuss the writing process, but today I’m asking you what you do to keep all the balls in the air. What keeps your life balanced? Do you have a huge calendar on a wall of your house? Do you use multi-colored sticky notes? Do you just remember everything?

I think it depends on the type of person you are (e.g. visual, etc.). Tomorrow, I’m buying a wall size calendar, maybe three and putting them in various rooms in my house as visual reminders. Other suggestions?

Picture Books:

1. Knuffle Bunny (and others in this series) by Mo Willems
2. You Can Do Anything, Daddy by Michael Rex
3. The Naked Mole Rat by Mo Willems
4. No, David! By David Shannon (and other books in this series)
5. My Father is Taller Than a Tree by Joseph Bruchac

Elementary School/Middle School

1. The Captain Underpants series by Dav Pilkey
2. Danny and the Champion of the World by Roald Dahl
3. Babe and Me (and others in this series) by Dan Gutman
4. The Secret Life of Ms. Finkleman by Chris Singer
5. Ramona and her Father by Beverly Cleary
6. White Fang by Jack London
7. Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell
8. Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
9. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh by Robert C. O’Brien
10. Old Yeller by Frederick Gipson
11. Mudville by Kurtis Scaletta
12. The Pigman by Paul Zindel
13. Holes by Louis Sachar

High School

1. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
2. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
3. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
4. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
5. 1984 by George Orwell
6. Animal Farm by George Orwell (this one and 1984 created lots of discussion because we originally came from the former Soviet Union so my dad shared how what he encountered during his childhood related to these books)
7. The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier

Let’s be honest. Once you’re published, things do change. You no longer write in a vacuum. You ponder over words and characters in a way you haven’t before because you know better what editors and readers look for. You can’t help but think of writing in terms of what sells; and while I won’t write solely for the market (because the market and what’s hot changes often and today’s trend may not be around a year from now and I so can’t create vampires or werewolves), if I get two ideas I like, I’ll pursue the one that’s more sellable first. I used to believe giving any thought to the market when writing was selling out and somehow hindered creative expression. But I realize now that’s silly. If you want to make a living, you explore those options. It’s like telling an architect to follow his dreams and design that fanciful building regardless of whether it will collapse. And I used to think that looking at writing in any other sense than just being one with the paper (or computer) and idea, would take away the love I have for the written word. Not true.

So, in honor of Valentine’s Day (yes, I know it’s on Monday but I’m sure people are having weekend celebrations), I’m creating a list of what I have always loved about writing and still do.

1. The euphoric feeling I get when a new idea enters my head
2. The need to stop whatever I’m doing, grab a notebook, and write two pages of a new scene that’s been nagging at me
3. Being captivated as the characters I created in my head come to life on paper, speaking their own thoughts, following their own dreams, blocking some decisions I have made for them
4. Getting that idea which fixes—so perfectly—the major plot issues I’ve been having
5. Creating words and sentences that sound poetic
6. Writing banter that cracks me up
7. Successfully tackling a paragraph or scene I found daunting
8. Having others be affected by my words, story, or characters. We may think we write in a vacuum but I think we all want to reach someone.

In the year since my novel, Forget-Her-Nots, came out, I’ve had an amazing time meeting readers, teachers, librarians, and flowers lovers. They’re always eager to hear about the language of flowers and how I came up with an original focus, but the question on many minds is:  What writing advice can you give me?  With the boom in teen fiction, so many book lovers dream of writing the next Hunger Games or The Sky Is Everywhere, two of my recent favorites.

What is the best advice any librarian, teacher, or bookseller can give these starry-eyed writers? Revise!  And then revise some more.

All writers dream of that magic moment when the words fall into place on the page and in the hearts of our readers, but most readers and wannabee writers don’t realize how much hard work that magic takes.  Writing well is not about having a muse or fairy dust or anything out of the ordinary;  it’s much more human than that. Writing requires dedication, determination, and diligence.  It requires you to be hard on yourself and on your words.  I worked on Forget-Her-Nots on and off for eight years trying to get the magic right. (I was doing lots of other things too, but still. When I started, I thought it would take me about two years to write the novel and about two months to sell.  Both predictions were wildly wrong.)

Even for published writers, the Revise! dictum holds true.  Last fall I also realized that my WIP, called String Theories, which I thought was done, wasn’t.  It needed another round of intense scrutiny, which I’ve given it over the past months.  During those months, I’ve discovered all sorts of wonderful things about my story.  It’s been an emotional and intellectual challenge, but the connections have deepened, the emotional impact is stronger, and loose ends have tied together.  And all this was after I’d already declared it done. Silly me.

But don’t trust me, a writer who’s published only one book so far.  Take a look at Shannon Hale’s section on writing advice to see how many times she mentions the word.  The prolific Stephen King recommends setting aside a manuscript without a peak at it for at least six weeks after the first draft, but I’d give it three months.  It feels like a long time when you’re hoping that the dream agent or dream contract will arrive by Fed Ex tomorrow, but be patient.  Work on something else.  Read books about the writing life and the writing process.  Read books and try to figure out why they work and why they don’t.  And then, when your mind is sufficiently distanced from your darling manuscript, take another look.  You’ll be amazed by both the things you got right and the things that are wildly wrong.  Revise away!!

This may not be secret or sexy advice, but I promise that it’s the best and the one that most aspiring writers need to hear.

I’m not naïve. I understand that the way students behave for a guest speaker is not the same way they always behave. I taught for over ten years (8 of those in a public school classroom). I remember that as awesome as students think you are, you are still their teacher—one they have to see every day for 10 months of the year. There will be days they love you. There will be days they wish you would stop talking and let them pass notes or sleep or just tune out. Sometimes those days will be consecutive. You do the best you can. You show them you care. Years later some of them may contact you on Facebook and tell you you meant something and that means a lot. If they don’t do that, that’s fine too. You don’t need to be THE teacher who made a difference (yes, when I started teaching during my practicums that’s what I wanted but I grew up). But you do hope they took away something from your class. I once looked at a former student’s FB page to see how he was doing. We aren’t FB friends but his page is public. He had a bunch of interests, and under favorite books he had listed a book we read when I taught him in 8^th grade (he’s graduating college next year). That made me happy.

I tend to compartmentalize things and always thought everything was either or. A writer or a teacher. Like somehow doing both would take away from the writing, would make me less of a “real” writer. Or, a better explanation is, I thought staying in the teaching profession gave me fallback, made it seem like I had a backup if the writing thing didn’t work out. It not working out was not an option. Now, I realize it doesn’t have to be this way. I’ve also realized I can’t have just one professional outlet because then it’s too much energy focused on one thing and I go crazy.

Another epiphany? The writing part of me, the part who has a book published and another on the way, will see teaching differently than the girl who thought there was only one way to make a dream happen. I don’t know about going back to public school teaching. For now, I’m content with doing class visits, teaching a few periods, signing some books, helping aspiring writers. But there’s a private school I have been talking to about working part time. I’m also sending out my resume to a university in hopes of obtaining an adjunct position. Just thinking about the classes I can teach at both these venues and the students I can work with and mentor makes me giddy, and that has to be a sign.

It’s funny. I thought having a book published would be everything—the epitome of what I wanted. But it’s opened my eyes to everything I can become. Writer, teacher, more.

I love when authors incorporate food into their novels. Weaving in recipes or delicacies adds layers to the characters and lets the reader know more about them through a topic everyone can relate to.

My debut novel, Inconvenient, often mentions Russian food, and when I wrote about the dishes I was brought back to family gathering with those foods, cooking with my grandma and shaping the cookies just right, bringing the foreign food to school and feeling foreign myself because of this. Food in a novel also adds to the many themes a book already has.

Below are some of my favorite books where food plays a role. Please share yours as well.

1. Tortilla Sun by Jennifer Cervantes
2. The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan (this is not a children’s book but one of my favorite novels, and the first time I read it was in a high school class)
3. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
4. Heidi by Johanna Spyri (who can forget those scenes where Heidi and her grandpa share milk and cheeses)
5. The wonderful If You Give a Mouse a Cookie series by Laura Joffee Numeroff

A Christmas Carol and the poem “A Visit from Saint Nicholas” (more commonly known as “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas”) spring instantly to mind. But over the years, we’ve built up quite a body of literature from different faiths, and with thousands of different takes on the season.

Today I’m fondly recalling The Great Christmas Kidnaping Caper by Jean van Leeuwen, which I read as a child (and reread, and re-reread). It’s the story of three mice who live in a dollhouse in the Macy’s toy department, and how they help solve the kidnaping of the store’s Santa Claus. Not only did the mice have street smarts and a sense of humor, but they brought to life every child’s fantasy of being able to stay in a toy store overnight and have free run of the place.

What are your favorites?

We are writers. We write books. We write about topics that we hope will touch and impact others. Some of us just write to entertain. When it comes to my novels, I don’t write willy nilly with no thought about what is taking place—the opposite in fact. But here is my problem with saying writers with weak female characters are setting a poor example for teen girls. By giving so much responsibility to writers, we are taking away the power from teens.

The reason these conversations and lectures irk me is because they imply teenagers are so impressionable that they will read a novel and want to emulate the heroine. Why not consider that teens will say, “I don’t want to act like her. I will do things differently.”? There are plenty who think this way. Or, how about using the opportunity to start a dialogue with the teen to see how s/he would react in the same situation.

I think those that complain are really pushing their own agenda as opposed to showing true concern for teens. This is obvious when books like Ellen Hopkins’s are banned. She does not glorify drug use, prostitution, or abuse. So how will her books influence teens to partake in these activities?

As writers, we have the responsibility to write good novels. Novels that will make others think or laugh or serve as great conversation pieces. The rest? Let’s give the readers some credit to choose their own paths, love or hate our characters, and the fortitude to show everyone that they have brains of their own.

And now, “alright” has become accepted usage. It’s hard for me to get used to, but the fact is that our language changes. Words fall into and out of fashion; old rules die (You can now end sentences with prepositions!), spelling changes, and new words appear (internet and teh, for examples that didn’t exist when I was born).

Language is something that all of us build, maintain, and develop through an ever-changing consensus. It has its arbiters and authorities, but every day, millions of people adapt it for their own purposes. Sometimes we consult the authorities–say, when we consult a grammar text or a dictionary. And sometimes the authorities consult us, as when new words are added to the dictionary.

It’s exciting to think of books, our current body of literature, as shaping the future, as much as they’ve been shaped by the past.

I had my first book signing yesterday with a great writing community called The Tenners. To say I was nervous is an understatement. We had to prepare a three-five minute presentation. I made mine up on the bus on my way into the city. I was pleased with it; I work well under pressure. But before that, I texted my friends who told me I would think of something. I saw Twitter posts from my agent offering hugs and encouragement. I received phone calls and e-mails from friends all weekend wishing me luck and sending support. Weeks before, my nephew made my swag—vanilla-scented soap butterflies. My friend Shaun Hutchinson, author of The Deathday Letter, designed my bookmarks for me. My husband watched my son this whole weekend and spread the word to friends and colleagues to come to the signing. And they did!

On my way home, my parents called from their vacation (for the third time that day) to see how everything went. And when I got home, I saw a lovely message my husband posted on Facebook.

This realization of community and this social network should have been obvious before but I think we writers focus so much on the writing itself and the need to hole ourselves up from the world—thinking, often incorrectly—that this is the answer to productivity that we don’t take into account how surrounded we are. There is support if we look just a little. There are pats on the back too. Last night, my husband surprised me with sushi, this morning with coffee. To me, these things are better than a tray of cookies or leftover birthday cake at an office cafeteria.

In this post, teacher Risha Mullins recalls challenges to YA books such as Jo Knowles’s LESSONS FROM A DEAD GIRL–and many others–and the chain of events that ultimately cost her her job.

First, she describes students who grew to love books so much that they hung posters for them, recommended them to other students, and swelled the ranks of their student book club to more than 100 members. She describes the process by which she was tracking improvement in literacy and reading skills.

She then describes a scenario in which books were challenged repeatedly, and even when they cleared the hurdles set for them, the rules changed and the process started over. And over, and over.

I recommend reading Risha Mullins’s story to understand why Banned Books Week, which we observed just a week ago, is still relevant.

In the conversations I have had with my writer friends, I found this not to be true. Yes, we all know the importance of diversity, but is everyone comfortable in creating characters of different races, cultures, and sexual orientations from their own? Not so much. In fact, many of my friends confessed that they avoid including multicultural characters in their novels not because they don’t want to, but because they don’t want to mistakenly perpetuate a stereotype or portray them inaccurately on another level, not to mention that some people feel it’s inappropriate for one to write in a POV of an ethnicity not one’s own.

And what about books that do have MCs or different sexual orientations, races, and cultures?Sometimes, this aspect is just one part of the who the character is (David Levithan is amazing at this), but often the multicultural aspect is the point of the book. There is definitely a need for this too, but what about a Jewish, black, or gay teen who wants to read a book about someone like them who just happens to share the religion, race, or orientation, where this is not the essence of the character but just one part? I think we can have more.

I’ll admit I am one of those writers who is wary of writing about cultures different from mine. I would want to do so properly. But I would like to learn more. I am sure others would do too.

I didn’t know that even then there were many kinds of libraries, and they housed more than just books: music, manuscripts, audio recordings, documents of all sorts, artwork, maps, etc., etc. I didn’t yet realize that libraries also serve as community centers: the sites of meetings, lectures, lessons, concerts, tutorials, and other events.

As I grew up, computers became more and more a part of the library. And yet, we still need librarians because not everything is on the computer, and even when it is, we may need help figuring out where and how to look for it, retrieving it, and placing it in context.

There have been libraries for centuries, as people have long recognized the need for places for us to share what we know, think, and feel. Information is useless unless we share it, and libraries aren’t just about storage; they’re about communication. Today, libraries all over the country are suffering from budget cuts, even as they provide services to those hurt most by the economy: those on fixed incomes, unemployed workers seeking work, children whose families can’t afford books. Why not get in touch with your local library or Friends-of-the-Library group and see how you can help?