I have been involved in many “diversity in literature” discussions over the couple years, and it has been an emotional roller coaster to say the least. Between writing and parenting I don’t spend a lot of time reading the newest and latest books (I’m still catching up on the newest and latest books from two years ago..) One thing I always worry about: should I speak up about problematic elements in books when I read them? Is there a point in speaking up if it’s a book that ha

Hi everyone! It’s been a long while since my last blog post. I’ve been busy this summer with my family, my writing projects, and my volunteer projects. My family’s been busy this summer, going to museums, the beach, hanging out at the neighborhood pool, playing video games, and of course, reading a million books. My younger child is now 3 and has camp 3 days a week over the summer (not every week), so I’ve been enjoying spending time with her while my 6yo is at camp. Unfortun

For those of you who attended (and those of you who didn’t!), here are the links I included in the handout at my Part Time Writer, Full Time Mom workshop this past weekend. Some of these I mentioned specifically in the talk, and some are just for further reading. (A big thank you to author Pooja Makhijani for helping me with some of these links!) Books I’ve enjoyed: 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think by Laura Vanderkam (her interview with author Yvonne Ventresca) Bu

I attended a CBC Diversity event last night where a recurring theme seemed to be fear. People are afraid to publish books in case they get things wrong and there is a backlash or they draw criticism. And it led me to think about my own fears as a writer. I am terrified to blog this and admit my shortcomings to the world, but here goes. Something I haven’t shared with a lot of people: The reason diversity in children’s literature has become so important to me isn’t because I’m

Before you get any weird ideas, let me clarify that the word I’m talking about is the word “oriental,” and at the outset I want to admit that I used to use this word. My excuse is that I grew up in the South (as in Southern United States, not South India where my parents are from :) ) and I didn’t come across many Asians, East or South or otherwise, so I gleaned the appropriate vocabulary from books and TV. And according to books and TV, East Asian people were described as “o

“Where do you get your ideas?” This is one of the questions that authors dread because it comes up so frequently, pretty much every time they take questions at signings or other events. I went to an event with Jane Yolen once where she addressed this issue first thing before opening up the discussion to questions from the audience (though someone who I guess hadn’t been listening still asked anyway). But when a stranger asked me this recently after hearing me read my writing,

My short story/flash fiction piece, “Locked In”, has been published in the latest issue of Luna Station Quarterly, an online magazine for female speculative fiction writers. Check it out here (in regular website format) or here (in online magazine format). P.S. Read the story but didn’t get it? Try this: it’s a Sleeping Beauty re-telling where Sleeping Beauty isn’t asleep, but has locked in syndrome (and maybe even Stockholm syndrome?). Now try again. Get it now? #writing #sl

All this talk on various blogs about whether or not writers should be posting negative book reviews has got me thinking about my own fears as a writer. It’s so scary putting your work out there. What if people hate it? So I thought–why not write out what exactly I’m afraid of? Below is just a snippet of what my nightmare book review would look like. What would yours look like? —- Dear Amazing Author: No offense, but I just finished reading your book and man was it bad. I mean

And even though I didn’t get around to the full 50k, I got a lot done. Writing a novel takes a lot more effort than just writing words on a page. Here are a few examples of what else accomplished this month: I researched backstories, sketched several new characters, did some plotting, was crippled by writer’s block, got over writer’s block, filled in more of my outline, realized what the story is *really* about, recognized some key areas that will need further development, an

I’m participating in NaNoWriMo this year! The point of National Novel Writing Month is basically to take one month to write one new full novel of at least 50,000 words. While I will be taking a novel I’ve already started (I already had 8,000 written of Landwalker, so my goal is 50,000 additional words), I’m hoping to use this time to actually finish a whole first draft. Since I’m pretty sure the quality of my writing when trying to make deadlines like this probably won’t be s

After almost two and a half years of writing full time, I’ve finally realized that I need to write. It’s not about being published for me, it’s actually about the stories and the writing process. If I go several days without writing anything, I get antsy. I feel like something is missing, like I’ve forgotten something, left something behind. This Saturday morning, after nearly three days of going without writing something meaningful (by which I mean something that wasn’t a bl

I miss the good old days before the baby (writing-wise, at least). I’d roll out of bed, eat breakfast, and then write until I was finished for the day. I was pretty good at setting goals and getting work done, until I became pregnant. Then writing was very difficult. I had trouble thinking and forming sentences. My creative brain was gone. Thankfully it came back when the baby was born! To say it’s been tricky getting work done while watching my 7 month old is a bit of an und

Here’s a little writing exercise for you: Take a look at the picture above and try and describe it to yourself. Once you’ve described it scene, go back and figure out which details matter and really say something about the character and which ones don’t. For example, Holly Golightly’s nameless cat lounges on her back as she sleeps = important. Holly’s pillowcase is white = not important (though maybe it would be if it were smeared with last night’s makeup). Also pay attention

All right, so last time we talked about characters. Today, let’s discuss plot. Here are some questions to ask yourself when watching TV to inform your own writing: 1) Why did they choose to end the scene there? (And where do you think they are going to pick up when the commercial starts?) This is what you should wonder when the show skips to commercial, or at the end of the show. Did the scene end at a cliffhanger? Do you still feel interested enough to keep watching, or coul

I’ve gotten a bunch of emails about my “How to Write a Hospital Scene” guest post from writers curious about how to fix their manuscripts. I’m working on a followup blog post, but until then–got a medical fiction question? Email me! amitha [at] amithaknight dot com. I’ll do my best to answer them (if I don’t know the answer, I’ll look it up) and I might even post your question to my blog! (note: Be aware that I will not respond to emails asking for personal medical advice. I’

Head over to  the GLA blog to check out my guest post called “How to Write a Hospital Scene in Your Novel“! Let me know what you think. #writing #writingtips #blogs #medicaltips #Medicine

My twitter followers will have seen this link already to writing rules from famous authors, but I just can’t help sharing some of my favorites: From Margaret Atwood: “7 You most likely need a thesaurus, a rudimentary grammar book, and a grip on reality. This latter means: there’s no free lunch. Writing is work. It’s also gambling. You don’t get a pension plan. Other people can help you a bit, but essentially you’re on your own. Nobody is making you do this: you chose it, so d

I love Project Runway. Drama + high fashion + catty fighting = Awesome. But probably the most fun part about this show is watching creative minds at work. But what lessons can a writer take away from this show? #1) Be original and true to yourself. Sounds corny, but every season, someone learns this lesson the hard way. What happens is, the designers are often given a challenge to make something for a particular brand or for a specific famous designer’s line. And there is at

So now you have a co-author and you’ve figured out how you’re going to write together, but chances are, you won’t get very far without some sort of disagreement. But how can you prevent these disagreements from escalating? 1) Give constructive NOT destructive feedback As you’re revising each other’s work you will find that your co-author will make mistakes in word choice, sentence structure, grammar, spelling, etc. and sometimes, their writing will seem just plain wrong (i.e.

Now that you’ve picked a co-author (see previous post), how exactly do you get the work done? Step 1) Create an outline What is your story about? Who are your characters? What’s going to happen to them? When you are writing by yourself, it easy to make things up as you go along, but when you are writing with a co-author, it’s hard to cooperate when you’re both going off on different tangents. You should draft an outline together to get you started. You don’t have to get too f