A Panel Discussion with Stephanie Black

This is part 2 of 5 covering the awesome panel discussion. Part 1 is here.

I had the opportunity to visit with Stephanie Black over dinner with her friend, Gregg Luke, at Storymakers 2010. They both were very personable and open. A Whitney Award Winner, Stephanie is the author of several books, including Methods of Madness.

At the panel discussion, Stephanie said to “give yourself permission to write a lousy first draft. It means freedom.” When she writes, she presses forward, writing to the end of a manuscript. Then she goes through it three times before using her test readers. “It’s all about the rewriting.” In her recent blog post Finish Line Jitters on June 23rd, she opens up about some of the angst she feels in letting go of her manuscript.

She needs “something of an outline to get going.” When her children were young, she wrote during naps. They were “golden. Nothing else got done—unless it was an emergency…like my mother in law coming over.”

Writers must “give up TV or whatever and squeeze that (writing) time in.” She subscribes to the idea that you don’t have time for everything, so make time for the things that matter by eliminating the things that don’t.

In regards to a writing career and getting published, Stephanie advises “make sure you do your research so you can go about it the right way. Don’t just stumble around.”

I was impressed by how she maintained an air of professionalism about her while still coming across as a real, down-to-earth, nice person.

Have you come across any cool action filled novels that are clean like her books? Which are your favorites?