Tag: writing
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June 23, 2020
If you want inspiration and ideas for writing, I can’t think of a better resource than Jason Reynolds’ series of video writing prompts ( https://guides.loc.gov/jason-reynolds/grab-the-mic/wrr). Jason is the current National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, and I got to talk with him last week through the Open Door Sessions at Brookline Booksmith. During the conversation,…
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February 27, 2020
I get asked (a lot) for writing tips and I’ll always give the same answer: read (as much as you can, as widely as you can), write (find a routine; a way to commit to doing the work), rewrite (again and again and again and again and again), keep a notebook (and take the notebook…
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September 3, 2019
In between writing sessions, I’ve been down in the basement, gathering books and artwork and rough drafts, boxing it all up to go to the Kerlan Collection at the University of Minnesota. Every rough draft I pick up and put in a box is a reminder that telling stories is work—a notion that I find…
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August 8, 2019
I love pencils. They speak to me of possibility (of writing and working and making something), but pencils are also forgiving—I mean, there’s the eraser, right at the top, implying by its very existence that you won’t get it right the first time. On a recent visit to Parnassus Books in Nashville, I was delighted…
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July 30, 2019
Last week, late in the afternoon, I was heading into the post office. I had spent the morning writing and writing and rewriting; and I was very much in my head, thinking about this little story I was working on when I walked past a woman who said, “Are you Kate?” This woman, it turns…
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June 4, 2019
When I talk to kids about writing—about becoming a writer—I show them a picture of me in my Brownie uniform in second grade. I tell them that it never occurred to me at that age that I could be a writer. I was a kid who loved to read. Books to me were magic. Where…