Ask the Author: Nicole Quigley
Answered Questions (2)
Nicole Quigley
Hi, Daphne. Thanks for the question! On a visit to my hometown, I was remembering what it was like to be bullied back when I was younger, and how God helped me overcome it. I wondered what would happen to a girl if she went through similar things, and then what if a guy moved in next door to her? In the book, the main character gets busted night swimming in her neighbor's pool. Everything changes from there.
Nicole Quigley
James Scott Bell offers great resources for writers, and so I often turn to his books for help. One that I love is, "Plot & Structure." One exercise he encourages to help avoid writer's block is to carve out some time and ask yourself, "What if?" What if this or that happened. It's a great exercise that helped lead me in part to my current manuscript.
Nicole Quigley
My best advice for aspiring writers is to write and set word goals for your writing. A lot of writers have manuscripts they have begun but not finished. Completing a full-length ms takes discipline, and you will find out very quickly if this is a passing interest or a real love affair for you. I found the best way for me is to set weekly writing goals by word count. A full-length YA novel, for example, is going to run around 70,000-90,000 words on average. There are always exceptions. But that would be a good target. Happy writing!
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