TLS: The best writing advice I ever got was from my father. He was critiquing a paper I had written in college and telling me he was missing my point regarding a particular sentence. I told him if he could just be patient, all would be clear further down the page. He told me that unless it was an intentional literary device and suspense was what I was going for, I could just forget it. Readers aren't going to be that patient--especially kid readers. Clarity, especially in nonfiction, is essential.
8. SR: Please describe a typical writing day.
TLS: A typical day? Well, I'm a Mom of two small children, so that's a major factor. On a day when they both have school, I am able to write from about 10 am to 2 pm. Those are my power-writing days! Once they're home from school, I don't even try, I focus my attention on them. On a day when my youngest is home with me, I write during however long she naps. I'm also a bit of a night owl, so you can often catch me at my computer, sneaking in a few extra hours between 10 pm to 12 am. Also, and I think it's important to talk about this, if I'm having a day when the writing is just not coming, I still spend the working hours I have doing something writing-related. Sometimes that's revising a piece that's nearly finished. It can also include talking with my agent, doing research for a new topic, seeing what editors are acquiring what manuscripts, critiquing a fellow author's manuscript, working on a talk, or reading children's books. I read a TON of children's books--picture books, mid-grade, and YA.
9. SR: Can you please discuss your methods of research and how do you organize your material when you begin to write?
TLS: My organizational process varies depending upon the book or series I'm working on. I usually tend to begin with an overview of the topic, which is more for the purpose of getting an overall sense of the topic before honing in on something specific. Once I start to get specific, I'm a leave-no-stone-unturned kind of gal, no pun intended. I use the Internet, the public library, university libraries, journals, interviews, and so on to gather as much information as I possibly can. Once I begin to write, I am constantly making parenthetical notes in my manuscript that tell me what the source was of a particular fact or figure. When the manuscript is finished, I make a copy and then go through and delete all of those notations. But of course I keep a copy of the notated manuscript for myself. That way, if an editor needs to know where I found something or wants additional information it's immediately at my fingertips.
