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Susan Taylor Brown is the author of Can I Pray with my Eyes Open?
(Hyperion Books for Children, 2004), Oliver's Must-Do List (Boyds Mills Press, 2005) and Robert Smalls
Sails to Freedom (Lerner Books, 2006). She has also authored several early readers, ESL texts, and has a new Middle Grade
novel in verse, Hugging the Rock, out this Fall from Tricycle Press. Susan Taylor Brown also runs three blogs—
Once upon a time there was a girl who wanted to write, Write on Right Now, and Oliver's
Must-Do List
The Edge of the Forest: How does blogging fit with your writing? Do you find it adds to or detracts from your
creative life and writing?
Susan Taylor Brown: Blogging is a natural extension of my writing into a new (virtual) space. Even though I usually
write my blog posts in the evening, blogging is a great warm-up for my other writing. It gets my mind turned on and tuned in
to the business of writing. I can say that I am "always writing" because I am always either actually writing or at least
thinking about a current WIP but there's a lot of transition time in my life. I have a day job so I wake up in the morning
thinking about writing (usually because I have given myself a writing suggestion before bed) and within an hour of getting
up, I am on the road to work. Driving is good thinking time and I often find myself thinking about what I might write in my
blog that day. Usually related in some way to my current WIP or the writing process or what it is like to be a writer. So I
guess blogging fills some of the writing holes and writing fills some of the blogging holes and together they make up my
writing life. My blog lets me think out loud about writing and lets other listen in on my thoughts. The advantage to this,
of course, is that there is often a synergy that results that can help me solve a creative problem. Usually this isn't a
back and forth blog brainstorming session (though sometimes it is) but more likely I will blog about a writing concern, a
plot point, or a character and people will respond and afterwards (sometimes days later) I will get a totally unrelated idea
that completely solves the problem. It's a new dimension to thinking out loud and the challenge of thinking and creating in
near-real time helps to improve my skills as a writer.
I know a lot of writers don't want to blog because of the time it would take them and they fear it would detract from their
writing time (and hey, it will) and I know others who don't blog because they don't want to share all their good stuff in
their blog—they want to save it for what they can get paid for. For me, the additions outweigh the distractions.
Sometimes after work I am tired or cranky or just plain not in the mood to write but I can blog. And then, wonder of
wonders, after I blog for a bit I am ready to write.
The Edge of the Forest:You run two blogs. One about your writing process and books, and another with writing promps. Why did you decide to run two different blogs?
Susan Taylor Brown: I never intended to have multiple blogs but now that I do, I really like their different
personalities. My first foray into the blog world was on Google's Blogger (
Write On Right Now) I spent WAY too much of my writing time dinking with the design until I got it just right. My
early posts were not writing prompts though. They were thoughtful posts about living a literary life. I felt I was on my way
to developing the blog personality I really wanted. But of course there's the old question of just because you write a blog
does that mean anyone actually reads it? I wasn't so sure. Then I read a couple of blogs on Live Journal which led to
reading a few more blogs and I soon discovered a booming children's literature community. All at once I had serious
"friending" issues. It seemed so much easier to find people (and keep track of them) who were interested in the same
things I was on Live Journal so I made the leap. (Once upon a time there was a
girl who wanted to write) By that time Write On Right Now had already been syndicated on Live Journal and had a few "friends". I was getting emails from people thanking me for the
prompts so I didn't feel right about just dropping it. I am a big fan of writing prompts and writing exercises (there's a
whole page on them on my website too at Writing Exercises
). I thought it might be fun to blog just writing prompts on one blog and let the other blog go into more details about
the day-to-day writer sort of thing. It seems to be a nice, natural separation for two important areas of my writing life.
Of course two blogs weren't enough (can we say I have a slightly obsessive personality?) and I now have a third blog for
the character who stars in my picture book, Oliver's Must-do List ( Oliver's
Must-Do List). I had a stuffed
Oliver made and in the great tradition of Flat Stanley, Oliver's blog will chronicle his adventures as he travels to visit
readers all over the country.
The Edge of the Forest: What about blogging has been surpising for you as a writer?
Susan Taylor Brown: If I was fairly new to computers and the Internet I might find a lot more of it surprising than
I actually do but I'm an Internet junkie from way, way back (think 1200 baud modems and your local BBS) so I actually have
fairly high expectations of what the Internet is capable of when handled correctly.
What is always fascinating is the speed in which a blogger can create a virtual universe where weeks before, there was
none. I didn't keep track but I know that the first few months my friends list on Live Journal continued to double and
triple in size, partially from people seeking me out and partially from me actively looking for people with shared
interests. I suppose that a pleasant surprise is how quickly you can build a support system. The same rules apply to the
blogging world as anywhere else, scams and spam travel fast but so does good news. The writer me loves to people watch. The
regular almost-but-not-quite-scared-of-her-own-shadow me is astonished by how much personal information people will share
in a blog. I mean, really, be careful people. There are a lot of wonderful people out there but there are also a lot of
wackos just waiting to take advantage of people if given half a chance.
Another thing I find interesting and have played with doing (but haven't yet) is the idea of creating a blog for a
fictional character from a book. I know of a few writers who have done that, never mentioning that it is a made-up person.
It has been interesting as well as educational to watch the fictional character develop through the interaction with the
public.
The Edge of the Forest:Has blogging helped you market your writing? Do you think your blog has raised your profile
as a writer?
Susan Taylor Brown: I haven't had any young readers visit my main blog yet though
Oliver's Blog has had some. I don't
think the picture book readers are as inclined to blog as perhaps (I hope) the readers of my forthcoming middle grade novel
might be.
Has blogging helped me market my writing? Well, to editors, no, not that I am aware of but for publicity, sure. I don't
think you would have asked me to do this interview had it not been for you reading my blog and me reading yours. Publicity
was one major reason I decide to jump into blogging. (Lack of writers with shared interests within a close physical
proximity was another.) I love working on publicity for my books and, like I said, I believe the Internet is capable of
great things. When I sold my middle grade novel, Hugging the Rock, I knew that I was going to have to really work
on getting myself as well known as possible before the book came out. Tricycle Press is a fabulous publisher but they are a
small independent in a world of giants. They are doing their job in bringing out a beautiful book and I have I felt that it
was my responsibility to do all that I could to get my name out there, to let people get to know me so they would want to
read my book. I knew that a blog would be one of the quickest (and hey, let's face it, least expensive) ways to do just that.
I believe that readers want to buy good books. That's number one. But they also like to buy books from someone they know,
even if it is just in the virtual sense of knowing. There's a lot of talk about about "branding" for writers. I don't
necessarily think of that as becoming a household name but I do believe it means getting your name known. Getting your name
known for writing for children, writing novels for children, writing verse novels for children—the depth of that
branding might change based on the circumstances but in any event, people are simply more likely to pick up a book in a
bookstore if they recognize the name and feel a connection of some kind and blogging can help that. Most children's authors
are not going to land on the Bestseller list or have huge ads or movies made from their book. Most children's authors are not
going to be recognizable by their photograph but their name should, and can with the help of a blog, conjure up a picture of
a story well-told that one wants to hear again.
The Edge of the Forest:Do you have any advice for writers thinking about beginning a blog?
Susan Taylor Brown: Start with just one blog, at least for the first six months to a year. Pick a single focus and
try to stay within (generally) that focus. By that I mean, if you are writing children's books and blogging about books you
write and books you read, that's great. But if you also try to address your political views and track all your favorite
family recipes as well as your essays on cannibalism, well, it's simply too much. Pick a passion and start there. You can
always start another blog to follow a different topic but it is easier to build a readership based on common interests. Try
to be fairly regular. I would love to blog every day but I accept that I can't do that and work full time and keep up with
my regular writing commitments (notice there is no mention of cooking or cleaning in there). I want to blog three times a
week but the only absolute for me is to try to always have something for Poetry Friday. If I blog more, that's great, but I
am trying to not put too much pressure on myself.
The other thing, perhaps the most important thing, is practice the Golden Rule. If you want to be read, read others. If you
want others to comment on your blog, comment on theirs. Not everyone has a site meter that shows how many visitors read
their page. You never know but your feedback may be just what the writer needed to unlock a closed door in their current
project.
The Edge of the Forest:Thanks again for talking to us about blogging and writing!
Susan Taylor Brown's Books
Can I Pray with my Eyes Open? Illustrations by Garin Baker. Hyperion Books for Children, 1991.
ISBN: 0-7868-0328-2.
Oliver's Must-Do List. Illustrations by Mary Sullivan. Boyds Mills Press, 2005. ISBN: 1-5907-8198-8.
Robert Smalls Sails to Freedom. Illustrations by Fel icia Marshall. Millbook Press, 2005.
ISBN: 1-5750-5872-3.
Forthcoming August 22, 2006: Hugging the Rock. Tricycle Press, 2006. ISBN: 1-5824-6180-5.
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