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I found Judy Blume’s site from a twitter friend of mine.

Once I got on the site, I noticed her “On Writing” link so I clicked on it.

I enjoyed reading her advice to a fellow writer who told Judy she had read over 70 books on writiung but still felt she couldn’t write. Judy advised her to read those books she really enjoyed and that would give her more inspiration for her writing. For this writer to write the best she could.

While on this page, I noticed she had more links:

My Trusty Notebook – Judy writes down story ideas, characters, backgrounds, and dialogue in a notebook before she starts writing.

This is very interesting to me because I am about to begin writing a children book series and have not decided the best way for me to start. Perhaps this will work for me too but maybe not.

Writing from the inside – On this page, Judy discusses about being a writer because you have to not just because you want to write. She adds becoming emotionally involved. If you don’t care about your characters, your readers won’t either.

I write because I want to and have kept it “hidden” for too long. There is a lot joy for me when I write. And I do understand what she is talking about being invested in your characters. For my first book, I have chosen to make it loosely based upon a true story.

Write Your Own Style – She writes about there not being a perfect formula for writing. Find your own style of writing.

Immediately this gives me comfort. The fear of not being a perfect writer is what was stopping me from starting to write my first novel. Once I let go of this fear, I wrote 23,000 words in 30 days…WHOOHOO! I am so excited for this accomplishment. And you can do it too.

Rewriting – Here she shares that for her the rewriting process is the most creative part for her. She also recommends to read the draft out loud so you, the writer, can hear the flow of the story.

To tell you the truth, the rewriting process scares me a little bit because I am afraid by trying to rewrite the draft, I will get off track and then it may mess up my progress. I am aware that it will take three or four more rewrites until I get to the final draft.  I realize if I don’t move forward, I don’t go anywhere. So I will do the rewriting. I guess it is how you look at it. Look at as a way to make things better for the reader. There you go.

Love the idea of reading the draft out loud too. Will do Judy!

Rejection – Confesses for the first two years she received nothing but rejections. Also, get used to rejection because no writer has come through it without getting rejected at least once and most of time several times. Keep moving forward! Determination and hard work are just as important as a writer as the talent you possess.  Keep writing.

Noone enjoys getting rejected however, just like finding a mate, not everyone works for everyone else. You have to be a good fit for the other person and vice versa. Your book has to be a good match and the publisher has to be a good fit for your book. It is part of the process.  I will try and remember this upon receiving those rejections.

Teachers – Judy didn’t have the support as a young person to write however, she states writing came easy to her.  She encourages young writers to find support by teachers and other adults around their writing.

I believe this is one place where the internet helps writers because there is many places to receive encouragement, support and inspiration for writing.

Thanks Judy for having such great stuff on your site!

P.S. You can read her blog too. I recommend her latest post about losing her purse.