Monday, June 2, 2014

The Writing Process Blog Tour Continues!

Keila Dawson, author of the delightful picture book The King Cake Baby, invited me to participate in this Writing Process Blog Tour. When I met Keila at our local SCBWI, I knew she'd be a writing success! Be sure to check out her responses to the writing process questions on her blog.


And here are mine:

What am I currently working on?

Tackling Tough Topics with Faith and Fiction just came out so I'm working on promoting the book. It's funny how much time that kind of thing takes!

I'm also working on a middle grade novel about a spunky girl nobody wants. Progress is slow because I work on it sporadically, and I'm experimenting with writing without an outline.

How does my work differ from others of its genre?

There are lots of great faith-based values education materials, but Tackling Tough Topics is different in that it uses fiction. Kids connect with stories in a different way than they do with nonfiction. They get emotionally involved, relate to the characters, and wonder how things are going to come out in the end. All that opens them up to receiving the good message you're trying to get across.

Why do I write what I write?

I was a special education teacher for many years, and I view writing as another way to teach. I hope to help kids lead better lives, make good moral decisions, and grow up to be the people they want to be.

How does my individual writing process work?

It's a torturous process of writing then deleting then rewriting then rephrasing then moving along a while then realizing what I'm doing is not going to work and deleting then rewriting and so on and so on until I "rassle" the story into submission and feel really good until I start the next project! It's not pretty.


To continue the Writing Process Blog Tour, I'm tagging writer and illustrator Virginia Wright. (She is a fascinating person. Read about her below!) Virginia's answers to the writing process questions will appear on her blog on June 9.

Besides writing and illustrating, Virginia loves taking photographs of everything that catches her eye -- oddities, nature, and food. (Yup, she's a foodie, too, and has a recipe blog). She stated that she had hundreds upon hundreds, no, into the thousands now, of photographs and illustrations on her computer files. One of her favorite hobbies is creating artwork from her photographic images--combining real life photographs with digital painting. (She calls this "digital artistry.") Her current WIP, writing and illustrating, is a book for toddlers titled: Wild Animal Sounds.

Follow and friend her here: Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/virginiabrownwright







5 comments:

Virginia Wright said...

Thanks Diana for tagging me...I look forward to continuing the writing process blog tour. I gladly accept the torch...

dj said...

I can't wait to see your responses, Virginia!

Keila V. Dawson said...

Great post Diana, thanks for the mention and your kind words. May the rings be with you Virginia Wright! Keila

Sherry Ellis said...

It's tough rassling manuscripts into submission. Your process sounds just like mine.

Is Sugar the middle grade novel you're referring to? I'd love to read it when it's done!

dj said...

Yep, Sherry, that's the novel! It may be a long time before it's finished, but I'd love to have you read it!