“When I finish a book, I'll go to that file and look through them. And I'll say, these are three that really excite me and I want to do them next. You have the business part; of those three, is the publisher excited about one? Is the agent?” WantLooksBookThreeNextExcitedAgentsPublishersFiles Author:Matt de la Pena
“All that matters to me as a reader are characters. I want characters to be real, authentic, and rounded. I will be digging into characters for at least a month. Who they are. What they are like. Outside of the story.” WantRealMatterCharacterStoriesMonthsReaderBeing RealDigging Author:Matt de la Pena
“Whenever I teach writing I tell them to never revise as you go. Finish the first draft. This is my writing advice. I can't do that myself. I'm lying to everybody. I write a paragraph, and then I rewrite that paragraph. I want to feel like I'm standing on firm ground before I move on to the next paragraph. Mentally, I have to do that.” WantFeelsWritingFirstsI CanMovingLyingNextTeachAdviceStandingFirmWriting AdviceParagraph Author:Matt de la Pena
“I only know what it's like to be an author with social media. I can't compare. I do think we lose the mystery of the author. Today, I get tons of e-mails and Facebook messages from readers, and my goal with Twitter and Facebook is, if someone reaches out to me, I'm going to respond to them. I don't want to be an elitist author who is untouchable. I'm just a regular person, too. I will always respond to everybody.” IfsThinkingKnowsWantPersonsI CanTodaySocialGoalLosesMysteryMediaReaderMessagesSocial MediaCompareReach OutMailElitistUntouchablesTwitter And Facebook Author:Matt de la Pena
“I guess I don't really know what I want to do, either. Sometimes I feel like a shook-up bottle of soda. Like, I have all this passion that wants to explode, but I don't know where to aim it yet.” KnowsWantLifeFeelsSometimesPassionAimBottlesSoda Author:Matt de la Pena
