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.
I like the fact that kids are willing to be imaginative and go along with me when I’m telling strange tales.
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.
Sometimes I can spend as long revising a manuscript as I spent writing it in the first place.
There’s something about each of my books that I’m really proud of, and there’s something about each of my books that I cringe over.
I write a book over a period of months or years, and when I’m done with it, usually another year goes by before I see it in print. It’s hard to be patient and wait.
I like playing around with the words; I love it when I feel like I’ve picked the exact right word to describe whatever it is I’m trying to describe.
I started trying to write when I was in second or third grade.
Fail big if you have to, but go down trying.
Amazing, Yetta thought. Back home I couldn’t have chosen my own husband. And here I’m thinking about choosing presidents, governors, mayors, laws...
When writing isn’t 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.
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.
There is nothing more valuable than the printed word.
A ssure you, the more I travel through time, the more I witness, the more I realize that there are things that are both strange and wonderful, far beyond human comprehension.
After Ive 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.
And yet, I felt a surge of exhilaration just thinking about that night. Not just because I’d met the prince and fallen in love and started on my course toward happiness ever after, but because I’d made something happen. I’d done something everybody had told me I couldn’t. I’d changed my life all by myself. Having a fairy godmother would have ruined everything.
I rise up on my tiptoes. He’s already bending his head down, moving his lips toward mine. And then, well, I haven’t exactly studied this, but I’m pretty sure that ours is not the most expert kiss in Sualan history. It’s a little hard to figure out how we should tilt our heads so our noses don’t bump. But this kiss is a promise, a vow. Come to think of it, it doesn’t really matter that ours is not the most expert kiss in Sualan history. It’s still the best.
Sometimes you do your very best and you lose anyway.
The truth is, time travel is hard, and people are lazy.
There was a law against Luke.