Ask the Author: Sara Zarr
Answered Questions (6)
Sara Zarr
Hi! I'm so glad you were into it :) And aaaactualllyyy, if all goes according to plan*, my next book is about Kyra. So, in the same world with most of the same characters, but with a focus on her. *(It's in final edits now but with publishing I never like to say something is 100% certain!)
Sara Zarr
1. Starting a new book
2. Going from first draft to second, which is there the writing really takes place for me
3. Just getting to be in the business of stories!
2. Going from first draft to second, which is there the writing really takes place for me
3. Just getting to be in the business of stories!
Sara Zarr
Read WIDELY. That is, don't just read the kinds of books you want to write. Because if your influence is all one specific type of book, that's really all you're teaching yourself how to write. If you read all kinds of books, you can pick up a variety of tools and tips and see all sorts of examples of structure, voice, style, pace, etc.
Sara Zarr
For me, "writer's block" is usually some combination of fear, resistance, procrastination...just basic avoidance of discomfort. Getting started on a writing session is ALWAYS discomfortable. That is not a word, but I like it. So I just remind myself it's always hard to start writing cold, accept the discomfort, and try to warm up. Which could mean reading what I've already written on the book, looking at notes, or doing a simple writing warmup. (Like writing down every word I can think of that starts with the letter G, for example.)
Sara Zarr
Right now I'm doing the final edits on what will be my middle-grade debut. It's a semi-autobiographical story about divorce and dads and moving and new friends and old friends and sisters and change.
Sara Zarr
My most recent YA, Goodbye from Nowhere, started when I was listening to a friend tell me about this "cousin camp" she ran every summer for her grandkids. Immediately I stopped listening (sorry, Paula) and started imagining. What happens when those kids become teens? Do they keep all coming to grandma's house in the summer? What if there's a split in the family? A divorce? An....AFFAIR? And I started thinking about affairs, and how sometimes parents have them, and sometimes you're a teen who KNOWS your parent is having an affair and...aaaaaggghhhh, the book was born. (This is not a spoiler; the affair is in the first line of the flap copy!)
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