PLEASE FORWARD ALL QUESTIONS TO ILANA’S FORMSPRING!

Q. How do I get rid of writers block?

A: In my experience the longer I stay away from my manuscript the more terrified I become of it. The key to not experiencing writers block is prevention. Never leave your manuscript closed for more than 24hours. Even if you’re only going to write one page, one sentence or one word: don’t stop!

If you already have, try deleting the last page you wrote and going in a different direction.

Q.  What are some good books I can read to inspire me?

A.  I’m a big fan of prompt books. Why not check out The Pocket Muse by Monica Wood? I also learned a lot from the book “The Writers good to Fantasy Literature” by Phillip Martin. (Which is weird, because I don’t even write in that genre.)

Q. How do I start my own website/blog?

A. First you’ll need a hosting company. I switch around a lot, but right now I’m with Godaddy.com. You can call up one of their representatives and have them walk you through the process. It costs a few bucks a month, but if you update, advertise, and design well—the money is worth it!

Q. How do I find stuff to write about?

A. Writing from experience is the go-to advice for this question. You can also listen in on other people’s conversations, try and make up stories by looking at pictures, or read the newspaper’s crime sections.

I wish I could go into this further, but the novel writing process for me is usually as follows:

1. Eat a lot of skittles.
2. Pass out at around 3 AM.
3. Have an outrageous dream.
4. Wake up at 6:37 AM and write it all down.
5. Go back to sleep.
6. Find that slip of paper I wrote the dream on three days later under my nightstand.
7. Think: HOLY CRAP THAT WOULD MAKE A KICK-ASS BOOK.
8. Profit.

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