About Edward Myers, continued
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Yes and no. I love my work. At the same time, I'll admit that writing can be difficult. Every story, poem, or book presents its own special problems to solve. However, I love the challenge. Sometimes writing a book is like figuring out a puzzle--and one of the reasons I write so eagerly once I've started a book is to find out what happens at the end. I don't always know how it all turns out until I've finished writing the book! Some ideas come to me out of nowhere--what you might call inspiration. However, I also get ideas by reading the paper, surfing the Web, watching movies, and talking with people. Once I get an idea, there's always a long process of developing it until it becomes a completed book.
That depends. For kids' books, I'd say it generally takes about 3-4 months for a first draft, then another 3-6 months for revisions and tinkering. For the books I write for adults, the process takes much longer, generally a year or two. There's one book I've been working on intermittently for over 35 years, but that's unusual.  My outdoor adventures have been great fun, but I don't write my books by basing them entirely what I myself have done. Much of what I write is made up. However, bits and pieces of my own experiences sometimes end up in my books. Climb or Die includes many incidents that have happened to me, although I changed details to suit the story. And all my books include thoughts or ideas I've had about one thing or another. Writing a book often involves a certain amount of experimentation to see what works in the story. Sometimes I just have a strong sense of what the characters will experience. For instance, I knew that in Climb or Die, Jake and Danielle would make it to the top of Mount Remington; I just wasn't entirely sure what they would experience in getting there. Years of writing have convinced me of two things: 1) to trust my intuition (hunches) about what seems right for the story, and 2) to rewrite over and over to make sure it works well. At times this means throwing out material that seemed good at first, or else tinkering a lot to get the details right. For instance, I repeatedly rewrote the compass scene in Climb or Die to see if it was believable and useful in advancing the story. (I'd heard about the make-your-own-compass trick many years ago in an elementary school science class.) After much tinkering, it seemed to work. But sometimes it's a long process of making sure that what the characters' experience adds up right. School assignments are important, so you need to finish them as well as possible. If you find the assignments restrictive, just write what you like in addition to the assignments. Keep a journal or notebook to jot down ideas. Experiment with stories, poems, articles, or whatever interests you. Write for your own entertainment or to explore ideas, events, subjects, or feelings. One of the most important things you can do is write on your own some of the time, without worrying about someone else (your teacher or editor, or whoever) judging or editing what you've written; then you can really flex your muscles and see what you can do. It's the equivalent of playing a sport just for the love of the sport rather than to win a game or get the spectators' approval. (For more information, click Tips for Writers below!) Let's see... I love hiking and traveling of many different kinds. I don't do technical mountain climbing any more (climbing with lots of equipment) but I like non-technical climbs. I'm interested in a number of different countries, mostly in Latin America and Europe. I like music a lot, especially classical music. And I love reading, especially fiction, science, anthropology, and history. While hiking in Colorado and elsewhere over the years, I sometimes got caught in bad situations and had to think my way out. 
Nothing ever happened to me that was exactly like events in the book, but some
situations were similar. (I really did nearly slide off a mountain in a rockslide
when I was 18; I also got lost several times in bad blizzards.) So personal situations
got me started thinking about how teenagers would react in an emergency, and after
that one idea led to another. I thought it might be interesting to see what would happen in a story if two teenagers had to rescue their injured parents following a car accident. Once I got the story started, one thing led to another. I love mountain climbing, hiking, and other outdoor sports, though I don't get to do them as much as I used to before I got married and had kids.  That's a question that several kids have asked me. I don't say anything about Flash at the book's conclusion, and that's probably not a good thing, given most kids' interest in animals. In fact, Flash turned out okay at the end of the book--he survived the ordeal by staying in the car with Jake and Danielle's parents--but I don't state that outright. I probably should have. Sometimes authors goof!
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Some days I write all afternoon, too; other days I do other sorts of activities--I
write letters, take care of financial matters, or visit schools to talk about
reading and writer. Later, I pick up my son from school, then my daughter. Afternoons
and evenings we're together as a family. Sometimes I travel into New York City
to meet with editors or clients, but mostly I work at home.
How long does it take you to write a book?
What are your hobbies?
