Avi Blog

Rewrite! No one ever writes anything well the first time. The first draft cannot be the last draft. (I rewrite my work fifty-sixty times—or more). Here’s a tip: read your first draft, and if you think it’s good, you are in trouble. But, if you read it and you see it’s not that good, you are in great shape—to get going. The more you rewrite the better your writing will be.

Write for readers. Maybe you understand what you have written, but the writer’s job is to have the reader understand it. Keep in mind: writers don’t write writing, they write reading.

Listen. Read your work out loud (pencil in hand) and it will let you hear your own writing. It will almost improve itself.

Ashley from Temperance, MI writes:

When did you first know you wanted to write?

I made up my mind to be a writer when I was seventeen years old in high school.

Nathan from Cincinnati, OH writes:

What is your favorite place to read?

I have an old wingback chair in my office. It is very quiet there, and except for my reading lamp, rather dark and gloomy, which I rather like. I just lose myself in my book.

Mercedes from Delaware OH writes:

Where did you go to school?

In Brooklyn NY, where I was raised, I went to the local public school (PS from kindergarten to eighth grade. Then I went to a private high school (Elisabeth Irwin HS), also in NY. For college, I started at Antioch College (in Ohio!) then finished at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Ted from San Francisco CA writes:

Do you have any pets?

Our family pet is McKinley, an Alaskan malamute. He’s a big dog (112 pounds!) rather like a gray bear. He’s very sweet, loyal, and loves to eat bread. When he hears a fire siren, he howls. I used him as a model in my book The Good Dog.