Angie asked Catherine Ryan Hyde:

Many authors who write so many books tend to get sloppy and lose their spark. How do you keep your writing fresh? I have reviewed your last two books and have enjoyed them. I find them to be fast reads but there always seems to be a lesson learned from the book. I found Bea to be an exception character.

Catherine Ryan Hyde Hi Angie. It's a hard question to answer. (A good question, just a little hard to dig into.) I definitely see the trap sitting there. I'm not a hundred percent sure how I keep avoiding it, especially since I only know I've successfully avoided it when readers like you read the new books and tell me so.

A few thoughts: I tend to write more from my gut, from pure imagination, and less from my head. If I were mapping plot and character situations out on paper with my little human brain, I'd probably find that the organ is finite in its ideas. Also, I learned through the hard knocks of writers groups and early reviews to put the voices (other peoples') out of my head as I write. It's awfully easy to get tangled up in what readers liked last time and what you think they want next time, but I stay far away from those voices until it's time to revise.

I hope that's a good enough answer. Because I will be the first to admit that the creative process is well beyond my ability to understand or explain it.

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