Thursday, September 15, 2011

Anne Mazer - "Scrawling Notes"

My best thinking is usually done when I least expect it. So I'm often either walking, talking on the phone, or shutting down my computer when I get bombarded with ideas. I grab the first piece of paper I see and start scrawling.

Below are a couple of pages from some ABBY HAYES brainstorm phone sessions with my editor, Kate Egan. We were chatting about the book OUT OF SIGHT, OUT OF MIND.



I have no idea what the interesting mess below is, but I'm guessing it's also an ABBY HAYES brainstorm (the name "Tiffany Crystal" is the tip-off).


Here is the notebook I used to jot down thoughts for SPILLING INK. I can't make any sense of these notes, which may explain why they never made it into the book!


I've been known to write on the back of bank deposit slips....


When I'm done scrawling notes, I either type them into my computer (rarely), or shove them in a pile where they sit for months (more typically). My husband helps me sort through the chaos. Here he organized all the little papers I had floating around my desk.


I just found out that my husband, and engineer, also keeps a notebook. The entries in red are things he needs to do; the blue checks indicate that they're done.


My notebook pile. Packed with ideas, both good and bad. They are balanced precariously on the very top shelf above my computer. Every now and then, I look up and hope they won't fall onto my head.


Anne Mazer is the author of over forty books for young readers including the award-winning THE SALAMANDER ROOM, the SISTER MAGIC series, and the bestselling THE AMAZING DAYS OF ABBY HAYES series. With Ellen Potter, Anne is co-author of SPILLING INK: A YOUNG WRITER'S HANDBOOK and the SPILLING INK creativity blog.

3 comments:

  1. Just found this through your poetry friday post. It's great. Thank you for sharing all the different ideas!

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  2. Welcome! I'm so glad that you found your way here...there will be lots of notebook pages here in the near future, and I welcome those of your students too...this is my next goal. More student notebook pages! A.

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  3. Hey! I'm a new author. I'm doing NaNoWriMo, (If you even know what that is) and starting my first novel. I want to get in touch with as many authors possible so I can kind of get some help with this novel. I'm really young, like only in the preteens (I'm not saying 11 or 12) and this is really fun. I hope I can find a lot of authors to turn to!

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