Webcast with Author Kate Messner

Today third grade got to take part in something very special!  Because of National Writing Day, author Kate Messner did a webcast in which she got to talk to students from all over the U.S. and answer questions about how and why she writes her books.

More information about who Kate Messner is and what books she writes can be found here:
http://www.katemessner.com/

We had such a blast learning about her as an author as well as what it's like to go through the writing process as a professional writer!  I think we learned a few things.

Some things that were memorable that she shared was:

• When deciding on when to start your story, "Begin with a day that's different." Think about what is different about that day, and start there.
• When she outlines her stories sometimes her stories don't go the way she intended.  She calls that "re-routing" like how a GPS does when you go a different direction then they wanted you to go before.
• When she knows the plot of her story she writes down the "known issues." These are the things she knows her characters have to work through (ex: Ranger gets homesick).
• She said that, on average, she writes 4 drafts of her story before her editor even looks at it! Then the editor will make even more revisions.
• She doesn't get discouraged by comments or revisions from her friends or editor.  She looks at them as a "gift" because they allow her to make her writing just that much better.
• When she feels overwhelmed by a big revision list she turns her revisions into a "to do" list.  That way the "job feels smaller."