Andrew asked Jennifer A. Nielsen:

Hi Jennifer Nielsen. I was recommended to read some of your work. I have fallen in love with your work. You write such creative characters and a fun plot. I wanted to ask you, what makes you think of such ingenious ways of keeping up the action without taking away from the plot or giving away the plot points? A lot of juvenile and young adult authors I've read don't really move the plot along as quickly as you do.

Jennifer A. Nielsen Hi Andrew, thanks for your kind words!

I keep my plots moving forward because otherwise I get bored while writing. That said, I generally stick to shorter paragraphs, spare descriptive passages, and I like to keep my characters in constant trouble.

In terms of moving action forward without giving away key plot points, I generally graph my outlines scene-by-scene with columns titled, "What the main characters knows," "What supporting characters know," "What the villain knows," and "What the reader knows." Then I track each layer of plot reveal for each column. That helps me assure that I'm not revealing a key moment too early.

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