Writing Process: Phyllis Root

One aspect of writing that I think is important to share with students and developing writers is the importance of process.  It often works best when you can connect the stories to published authors, particularly those that they read in the classroom, as inspiration.

Via Wordswimmer, an interview with Phyllis Root, author of one of my favorite children's books "The Name Quilt" shares here process and thoughts on writing.

Some highlights:

• Root isn’t shy about admitting that her writing process is very messy. She’ll write pages and pages of the worst writing, she explains, because “all writing is practice,” and practice makes her a better writer ... and a better person. “I’m much nicer when I’ve been writing,” she says, “than when I’ve been avoiding it.”

•  On the best part of writing: "The excitement of a new idea, of trying to make it take shape on the page, of trying this and that to see what happens, to see what the idea might become, how it will change as I work on it, how the writing might change me (a sea change) as well."