I uncovered this month-long NPR series “How Writers Create Their Fiction”, originally run in November 2006. I found many of the ideas presented by the various writers to be informative and inspirational, so we’ll be featuring one writer from the series per day during February.

Today’s writer is Walter Dean Myers:

How He Writes: “After so many books and so many years of writing I have a good idea of my strengths and weaknesses. I love the process of writing and, if I allowed myself, I would write far too much every day. One weakness which I’ve struggled to overcome is my tendency to having my characters ruminate for pages. To avoid these internal monologues, I work from a carefully constructed outline to make sure that some physical things are happening. By restricting myself to five pages [a day], I almost force myself to pay more attention to detail. I begin work by 7 a.m., sometimes earlier, and usually complete my five pages by 10 a.m. I work straight through for the first draft, taking notes as I go along.”

Yet another weakness is my failure to describe scenes and people. So when I finish my first draft, I have either my artist-wife or my artist-illustrator son, Christopher Myers, look at the manuscript with a special eye for where I need to describe a scene.

I do original work in the morning and revisions in the afternoon. That way I can work on more than one project at a time.

I live intimately with my characters before starting a book. I cut out pictures of them for my wall. I do time lines for each major character and a time line for the entire novel: What is going on in the world as my characters struggle with their problems?”

Writer’s Block Remedy: The time I spend in this prewriting stage, often as much as six months, eliminates writer’s block.”

Come back tomorrow at 9AM PST for more writing wisdom.