I'm delighted to host a guest piece on the discipline of writing by Joanna Philbin, author of the YA series, The Daughters (Poppy/Little, Brown and Company).
I asked Joanna to write about discipline because I admire her very much. Her debut book, The Daughters, was released May, 2010. The second book in her series, The Daughters Break the Rules, came out November, 2010, the third, The Daughters Take the Stage, in May, 2011, and the fourth, The Daughters Join the Party, was released November 1. That's two books a year! I'm in awe, and I could use a few tips - which Joanna has generously shared.
To celebrate the release of, The Daughters Join the Party, we're having a book giveaway. To enter to win a signed copy - see below. Open to YA fans in the U.S. and Canada!
On Discipline
Joanna Philbin
As
a writer, I get the same question over and over again when people hear what I
do: "How do you manage to be so... disciplined?"
Discipline. To me, the word conjures images of little children holding out their
knuckles to be smacked with rulers, or dieters carefully measuring out cereal
with a measuring cup. Not exactly
the thrilling, liberating, dizzying feeling I have most days when I'm alone in
my house, writing. I am
addicted to this feeling. And like
any good addict, I'll do whatever I can to feel that way. As Julia Cameron points out in The
Artist's Way, there's discipline and there's enthusiasm, and when we talk about
doing something creative that makes us happy, more often than not it's
enthusiasm - that feeling of "Yes, I love this!" - that gets us to
begin.
But I admit that every once in a while, enthusiasm is a
little hard to come by. Some
days I'm tired, or my brain feels completely hollowed out, or I'm possessed by
the sudden urge to clean out my closet or mop the kitchen floor. So, what, you may ask, gets me to my
desk on days like this?
I remember my deadline. As a YA writer, I am always on a strict deadline. Frankly, I don't know what I'd do
without them. And they remind me
of two very important things: I need to meet my deadlines to get paid, and my
readers want their books, and they want them NOW. No slacking!
I get out of my pajamas. Even if I'm working at home, I try to always shower, get
dressed, and brush my hair before I start to write. I know this makes me sound a little like Tracy Flick from
Election, but if I get ready for work on the outside, it helps me get ready on
the inside.
I light a candle and say a little prayer to the
creativity gods. I try to do this
most days. It reminds me that my
output for the day is fifty percent me showing up, and fifty percent purely out
of my hands. If I can just show
up, that's half the battle.
If my mind is a blank, I write one sentence. This I got
from Anne Lamott's incredible book, Bird by Bird. Sometimes when we sit down to write the amount of what we
want to say is almost overwhelming.
Or we have no idea where to start. Start anywhere, I tell myself.
Just write one line. And
then, just like eating that first potato chip, it can sometimes be hard to
stop. Pretty soon the words are
coming fast and furious and the characters are telling me what they're saying
and then I'm deep inside a scene and boom - it happens. Writing nirvana. Hours pass by in a blur. People call and get my voicemail. On some days, I'll look up and realize
that it's late afternoon, and I still haven't had lunch. And this is when I think, discipline? This isn't discipline. This is the best job on earth.
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Thank you, Joanna, for the inspiration, and good luck with your new release! To learn more about Joanna, visit her website and read her blog, where she talks about the new book she's writing. It's called, The Rules of Summer. Can't wait to read it!
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To enter to win a signed copy of The Daughters Join the Party all you have to do is leave a comment, be a follower of this blog, and live in the U.S. or Canada.
I recently read Rachel Cohn and David Levithan's YA novel, Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List. I picked the book up at SCBWI-LA Writer's Day last spring, where Rachel Cohn spoke about how she and David Levithan tag team wrote this book, as well their earlier novel, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. Their process involved writing alternating chapters from the various POVs of their characters.
Now, I'm reading Why We Broke Up, the new YA novel by Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket), with art by Maira Kalman. I'm captivated by the story, the characters - and the art. A different form of collaboration, obviously, from that of Cohn and Levithan's, but in this case, Kalman's art brings a rich added dimension to the story. I'm a huge fan of Maira Kalman, who has illustrated several books and New Yorker covers, wrote two illustrated blogs for the New York Times, and whose marvelous 2010/2011 exhibit at the Skirball Cultural Center I wrote about here.
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