Who: Nic Stone

Claim To Fame: Nic Stone is a bestselling author of young adult fiction and middle grade fiction. Her debut novel Dear Martin was an instant New York Times bestseller, as well as a finalist for the William C. Morris YA award.  Along with her books, Nic writes essays, which have appeared in HuffPost, The Washington Post, and Teen Vogue, among others.

Where To Find Nic: Her Website, Amazon, Twitter

Praise For Nic: [On Dear Martin] “A powerful, wrenching, and compulsively readable story that lays bare the history, and the present, of racism in America.” – John Green, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Turtles All the Way Down

When and where do you like to write? Are you the same-thing-every-day kind of writer or can you write anytime, anywhere?

I can write just about anywhere at any time. Lately I have been writing on my couch (where I am at this very moment, in fact) during the day while my kids are at school, but I’m certainly not a same-thing-every-day kinda writer. Probably would be more productive if I were, lol.

Do you have any pre-writing rituals or habits before you sit down to write?

Not really. Sometimes I answer emails.

Do you struggle at all with that dreaded enemy of writing: writer’s block? Do you think such a thing exists?

Oh absolutely, though I wouldn’t say I believed in the dastardly villain’s existence until this year, believe it or not. Global pandemics have a way of making it difficult to get words down. (Who woulda thunk it, right? Lol.) I’ve combatted it by just working on whatever my brain feels like working on in any given moment. Could be an in-progress draft. Could be a new concept. Could be edits on something.

Deciding on a great idea to write about can be the most challenging aspect for a writer. How do you come to find the stories and lives that become the subjects of your books? Are there daily habits or practices you use to think about book ideas?

Honestly (and this won’t be helpful at all, sorry in advance!): I genuinely have no idea. I guess I just…stay open to being inspired by anything? I have a lonnnnnng list of ideas waiting to be pursued because the moment I get one, I jot it down. I think a lot of the *inspiration* piece for me is just a function of my overactive imagination and tendency to ask two questions: 1. Why? 2. What if…?

How do you know if something you’re writing isn’t working? Are there signs you look at to tell you that you’re going in the wrong direction?

Intuition, I guess. The one thing I think people overlook when it comes to storytelling is the importance of story intake. Reading a ton and watching TV and films helps to really build the story-muscle and will make your intuition stronger when it comes to telling your own stories. For me, I can tell when I’m headed in the wrong direction if I can’t get something to work. Like if I’m trying different ways of getting to a plot point and none of them is sufficient, there’s probably something off there and I need to recalibrate.

What does a successful writing day mean for you? And how do you finish out a day of writing? Do you have a process, or is it just that you know you’ve hit a natural stopping point?

This is tricky to qualify for me simply because each day is different, you know? When actively drafting, I try to knock out one chapter per day from my outline. Sometimes I get there, and sometimes I don’t, but getting any words down at all is a mark of success in my books. No pun intended, lol.

What books or writers have most influenced the way you think and the way you write?

I’ve read quite a few books on writing craft from different writers—Stephen King’s On Writing was tantamount as well as Robert Olen Butler’s From Where You Dream. But most of my inspiration comes from my contemporaries. People like Brit Bennett and Jason Reynolds and Angie Thomas.

What is your advice to aspiring writers?

1. Read a ton

2. Write without trying to makes things perfect or “get them right” on the first try.

3. People watch and eavesdrop. Teaches you a lot about humanity. Which is good because at their cores, all stories are about humanity.

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