Heather Haylock
Children's Author
Why I Write
I love to write. It gives me joy. If I couldn't write down the ideas in my head, I would feel I was missing a part of me.
I write my ideas in notebooks so I don’t forget them. Sometimes I write ideas on the back of envelopes or supermarket receipts if a notebook isn't handy.
I keep paper and a pencil beside me at night in case I have a writing idea while I’m sleeping. Once I woke up in the night and there was no paper and no pencil. I walked down the hall into the dark kitchen. I knew there was paper and a pencil on the table. I wrote my ideas down and went back to sleep. In the morning I woke up to find I hadn’t written on the paper at all – I had written all over the tablecloth, and I couldn’t understand any of it!
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How I Write
I like to write my first drafts on paper. Some authors type their stories straight into the computer, but I prefer playing with words and sounds on a page with a pencil first.
As you can see from these very first notes I wrote about Granny McFlitter, the writing process can get messy!