What's the biggest consistent obstacle in your writing process? How do you overcome it?
"For me the hardest part is just sitting down and actually writing. I’m pretty lazy about this. Some days I get really excited and HAVE to write, but ousually I have to force myself. Once I’ve actually opened the document and typed a bit it’s not a problem anymore." - Stefan Bachmann, author of The Peculiar.
"Distraction. It takes a lot of discipline for me to quit surfing the internet/ folding another load of laundry/ baking another batch of cupcakes and just sit down and type. Even though I tell myself the story is simmering in my subconscious while I’m doing other things." - Robin Bridges, author of The Unfailing Light.
"The hardest part of writing for me is mid-first draft when new story ideas tempt me and try to pull me away from what I’m working on. It’s always those shiny new ideas that attempt to seduce us when the writing gets hard. They promise us happier times, when in fact, all they really accomplish is putting off reaching our current goals." - P.J. Hoover, author of Solstice.
"I have trouble not re-working every sentence until it’s perfect when I should just move on in the story. I have to tell to myself, it’s all right, you can always come back." - Lara Avery, author of Anything But Ordinary.
"Distractions. My method: On writing days, when I wake up in the morning I forbid myself from looking at the internet. No news, no email, nothing until 3pm. Also, I forbid my wife from speaking to me (she loves that), and I don't take any phone calls. I don't write that whole time, but I write some, listen to music, read, take walks. Everything conducive to getting my imagination revved up." - Adam Gidwitz, author of In a Glass Grimmly.
"The lack of time is always my biggest obstacle. If only I could do nothing but write! Learning how to manage my time in a different way and keep all the juggling balls in the air has been an interesting challenge." - Sharon Cameron, author of The Dark Unwinding.
"The biggest consistent obstacle is my brain, which tends to drift off and make a list about all the other things I need to get done. Ignoring housework, childcare and walking the dog makes the list a lot shorter." - Suzanne Selfors, author of The Sweetest Spell.
"Lack of time. I'm a full-time writer, but a significant portion of my day is taken up with non-writing things such as responding to business email, writing blog posts or doing promotional interviews, and other administrative tasks. I like to write for at least a few hours at a stretch, and sometimes that can be really hard to fit in. I sometimes deal with that by consolidating all my administrative tasks to one day a week, although that has its own challenges. I'm also starting to deal with it by saying no. Unfortunately there just isn't the time in the day to do everything that I'm invited to do, even though I love being invited to do things." - Malinda Lo, author of Adaptation. 
"I’d have to say self-editing. I write very quickly and become so absorbed in a story that I can’t see the big picture mistakes right away. I almost always have to have someone read it and point it out to me. Like my agent or editor will come back with notes and mention something I honestly did not even notice in the least and it will change everything as far as helping me shape an early draft into a decent book. I’m not sure if I could do that alone, but then again, I’m still a fairly new author and growth happens at every stage." - Julie Cross, author of Tempest. 
"My biggest obstacle is time. I don’t have a lot of it. I overcome it by prioritizing my workload and working every minute of every day when I have to. I try to stop when my kids are around and enjoy them. They will only be young once. But once they go to bed, I start to work again and work until my eyelids fall." - A.S. King, author of Ask the Passengers.
Find out Tuesday if the expanding audience for young adult fiction has affected the way the authors write.
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