Author, I Never is a new segment in which I interview fellow authors about the writing process, breaking into the industry, and breaking rules. I try to mix it up a little and ask some hopefully novel questions along with some of the old standards, and finish it up with a round of I Never (kid friendly version) to find out what cardinal writing rules we've broken.

Question the first: Laurie, when did you first know you wanted to be a writer?

I always loved reading and writing, but it wasn’t until I was in my mid-twenties, when I started teaching middle school English, that I realized I wanted to write novels. As I got to know my seventh and eighth grade students, I remembered my own middle school years in vivid detail, and I remembered the books that had comforted me, thrilled me, and shaped me at that age. The summer after my first year of teaching, I started to write a story about a seventh grade girl, and I was hooked!

Author, I Never is a new segment in which I interview fellow authors about the writing process, breaking into the industry, and breaking rules. I ask some hopefully novel questions along with some old standards, and finish it up with a round of I Never to find out what cardinal writing rules we've broken.

Question the first: Lindsay, when did you first know you wanted to be a writer?

I was a creative kid, always working on a bunch of projects at once (please, please, please don’t let those tapes of my living radio show surface). At first, I thought theater was my thing, but I always had a notebook that I’d fill with ideas for stories and plays. It wasn’t until I took a writing workshop in college that I realized writing was my true love, and it’s even more fun when I’m writing about music and theater and art and all the other stuff I love.

Author, I Never is a segment in which I interview fellow authors about the writing process, breaking into the industry, and breaking rules. I ask some hopefully novel questions along with some of the old standards, and finish it up with a round of I Never to find out what cardinal writing rules we've broken.
 

Question the first: Jen, when did you first know you wanted to be a writer?

Third grade is the first time I remember both saying and exhibiting my desire to be a writer. That’s when I decided that I wanted to write a play—it was short, and about a girl who had to rescue her best friend, who’d been kidnapped by a witch. But it had a narrative, and my teacher even had my class perform it! Ever since then, I’ve been writing in some form or another, but it wasn’t until my oldest daughter was born five and a half years ago that I got serious about writing and starting working on a book during her naptimes.

Author, I Never is a segment in which I interview fellow authors about the writing process, breaking into the industry, and breaking rules. I ask some hopefully novel questions along with some of the old standards, and finish it up with a round of I Never to find out what cardinal writing rules we've broken.

Question the first: A.B., when did you first know you wanted to be a writer?

A few years ago I stumbled upon the Snowflake Method for starting a novel. A vague idea came to me and I was bored one afternoon. I sat down to work on it and when I looked up, it was dark outside. Four hours had passed without me even noticing! I was terrified but it was also kind of fun. I decided to do it again the next day and the next day and…here we are. 

Author, I Never is a new segment in which I interview fellow authors about the writing process, breaking into the industry, and breaking rules. I ask some hopefully novel questions along with some of the old standards, and finish it up with a round of I Never to find out what cardinal writing rules we've broken.

Question the first: Lianne, when did you first know you wanted to be a writer?

When I wrote a book, I guess. It started out as something I mostly did for fun. The real motivation to finish (and sell) it came from the crushing pressure of student debt. Yay, real life. It took years to write and sell NICE TRY, JANE SINNER, but by the end, I finally let myself think 'yeah, I could do this again maybe'.