Photo by Martin Criminale/Creative Commons
This week Wendy Shang is up to bat on the writing process tour. Wendy is the author of The Great Wall of Lucy Wu, and you can usually find her blogging about middle-grade books at From the Mixed Up Files. Her next book, about boys, girls, brothers, life, death and Little League, comes out next year from Scholastic. We’ll post the cover here when there’s one to share. And now I’ll turn it over to Wendy:
What am I currently working on?
As Madelyn mentioned last week, we are working jointly on a historical middle-grade novel. It takes place in the 80’s, so we have to call it historical even though saying that makes me feel ancient. I’m sure it’s cosmic payback for when the TV show Happy Days made the 1950’s all the rage during the 1970’s and I thought it was unbelievably prehistoric.
I am currently awaiting edits on a different historic middle-grade that will come out next year (that book takes place in the 1970’s), and I also have a project on am working on by myself. It’s all just a bit more than I can handle, which is probably a good thing.
How does my work differ from others of its genre?
Part of this question depends on what genre you’re talking about. Within the genre of Asian/Asian-American fiction for kids, I don’t think of my work as different so much as one more piece in a very rich mosaic of experiences.
Why do I write what I write?
I write what I write because I hope that I have something to say to a kid out there, something that will let that reader know that he or she is not alone in their experiences or beliefs. One of the most rewarding parts of writing LUCY has been getting letters from kids, saying that they identify with Lucy, even if they are not Chinese.
How does my individual writing process work?
Um…painfully? I’m terribly slow. If I had to come up with an analogy for my working style, it would be that of a nearsighted person with a 5,000-piece puzzle and a pair of tweezers. I take one piece and try to connect it with another piece. Is it perfect? Maybe that piece is a better fit? But maybe I should take the puzzle apart and start over. I have a very hard time moving on before I’m happy with what I’ve already written.
You can see why Madelyn would want me to just blurp it out.
Thanks, Wendy!
Haven’t read enough about different writers and the way they write? Hop over to Alicia Potter’s blog to read more!