KOPN’s Jill Sheets, host of Penquin Tracks, interviewed me as part of a series on authors who write for middle grade and young adult readers. My credits include The Feedsack Dress, three YA nonfiction books, and educational materials for various levels.
Sheets broadcast the 25-minute interview in July and again in September, which is One Read Month here. She plans to post it on the radio station’s website (www.kopn.org/archives).
The 25-minute interview covered such topics as my writing process (I think before I write), the differences in writing nonfiction and fiction (nonfiction requires accuracy, fiction demands truth), what I’m writing now for both children and adults, and the best advice on writing I ever received.
Many people—editors, readers, strangers—offer advice on writing, and I listen. I can always learn something new, and I can usually tell what to ignore. Here are three deceptively simple bits of wisdom I’ve heard and said again and again.
- Don’t give up (particularly in writing and marketing fiction).
- Know your readers (particularly in writing nonfiction).
- Read what you want to write.
If you write fiction, take a look at my report from Killer Nashville (a mystery writers’ conference) on why agents and editors stop reading a manuscript. Go to my website (http://carolynmulford.com) and click on News.
—Carolyn Mulford
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