Ask the Author: Maria Grace Dateno
Answered Questions (2)
Maria Grace Dateno
Since I write for children, my nieces and nephews (of which I have 23) really inspire me. They love to read, and they remind me of all the kids out there who I'm hoping will read and love my books. I'm also inspired by meeting kids who have read all my Gospel Time Trekker series and who ask if there are any more. I tell them I'm working on it, but it takes longer to write a book than it does to read one!
Maria Grace Dateno
One suggestion I have for aspiring writers is to try participating in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo.org). This is a month-long writing challenge that is so much fun! You get a deadline and a whole community of people trying to do the same thing--write a 50,000 word draft of a novel during the month of November. It's not a competiton--you don't give in your novel at the end. It's just a way to encourage yourself to write. And write and write and don't stop to edit until you have a complete rough draft. (Which will be very, very rough.)
I wrote the first draft of my Gospel Time Trekkers series during NaNoWriMo 2009. It took three years of editing to get them ready for publication, but having that basic draft to work with was so helpful.
I wrote the first draft of my Gospel Time Trekkers series during NaNoWriMo 2009. It took three years of editing to get them ready for publication, but having that basic draft to work with was so helpful.
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