Author’s success in her jeans:

Tells teens power is in their purses

By RUTH MOON For The Sun

Author Ann Brashares asked teens to recognize their power and use it wisely in an appearance Wednesday in Downers Grove. About 100 teen girls and their moms met the woman behind the popular “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” movie and book series at the event, sponsored by Anderson’s Bookshop, at the Tivoli Theatre in Downers Grove. Brashares, author of the four-book “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” series, including the newly released “Three Willows: The Sisterhood Grows,” spoke about her life, read a portion from her book and answered questions from the audience.  Read more about her advice about teens, power, writing, and doing what you love…

I received this letter from Charlotte in Sweden the other day, and was given permission to post it here.  It is EXACTLY what I am hoping to get as comments from readers of Mayden! Listen to HER courage, then read her question and my answer. 

Hej Robin!

This is Sweden/Stockholm calling! I am following the adventure of your Mayden Chronicles…and I soak up every wise word you have on the subject of process and creativity/writing. I grew up with an full-time artist mom, which was magical in itself, but since I decided that she was such a wonderful artist, I would never dream to think of myself as one. Painting was out of the question, but writing…? Read the rest of this entry

Okay, so I’m rereading chapter two, and I like parts of what are showing up. Intro to Mayden’s friends, good start on Anna… but what about MAYDEN? That is what is screaming at me.

Who is she? Who, Who, Who? I’m going to create some videos from her point of view, which will help me know her, and I’m going to need a few other tricks, too. For now, this very cool excercise got me going! Read the rest of this entry

So…. We started this with a video edit, but it didn’t have great sound~ so back to the drawing board on those videos!  In the mean time, here are my thoughts in writing…

1) Mayden chapters needs to be about 1600-1800 words for a 40 chapter book to have the length I’m shooting for, about 70,000 or so. This has 1200, so it is a little shy.  I’m not worried about it at this early stage, but it is something to keep note of.  Whatever I do, I have to leave the reader wanting more… Read the rest of this entry

Okay, so I wrote chapter two after about 2 hours of dreaming/musing, and three hours of actual typing, reviewing, and rough “first blush” editing. (By the way, it took me 20 years to be able to write a chapter in three hours. Not I can pretty much do it on demand, in just about any location, so long as I have a keyboard I like–my laptop is no good for this.) If the first draft  isn’t up to par, let’s blame it on the fact that I broke the glass coffee pot this morning (thank you Nan for just having to happen to have an extra you wanted to get rid of–no new purchase required–go green lifestyle!). Yes, I wrote that without Saturday morning coffee. Crazy, to be sure.

Now, looking at the chapter, I just want to say a few quick words. Later this week I’ll do a longer video edit post. Read the rest of this entry

The video I just posted with Charlie Rose interviewing author Malcom Gladwell, author of “Tipping Point,” “Blink,” and “Outliers” is so rich!  You want to know what it takes to be an exceptional writer? It’s all there, matching my sentiments on the process.  Here are some key thoughts:

Summarizing Billy Joy,  computer genius: “I have found the thing that has captured my imagination and I have the faith that will take me somewhere meaningful.”  That’s it! If your writing captures your own imagination, it will take you somewhere meaningful! Read the rest of this entry

Want to be an exceptional writer? Charlie Rose gets the goods from Malcolm Gladwell, author of Outliers. 30 minutes, but very worth applying every morsel to the writing process. I’ll comment in detail in another post.