A little more on the Write Faster project in a minute -- scroll down in the blog if you don't know what it is -- 

but first:

NPR wants to know what you think are the best YA novels. Fancy pants literary NPR!  So go on over and tell them. 

An addendum to the Write Faster Project. First of all, it was interesting to see on Twitter that Carrie Ryan and Nova Ren Suma did not find the project worked for them -- or else kinda didn't do it, which amounts to much the same thing, as if you find you can't make yourself do a particular approach to writing, then probably that approach isn't right for your creative style. 

Either that, or you are deeply resistant to it because it's the thing that's going to break you through to some creative outpouring of amazingness. I dunno.

Anyway, what I wanted to say is that today, I wrote with my pal Sarah Mlynowski (latest book: Ten Things We Did) and Sarah got me to try her latest Write Faster technique. It's 15 minutes write like the wind, 15 minutes rest. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. 

I was skeptical, as 15 minutes doesn't seem like enough time to get anything done, and all those interruptions can't be good for me -- but I HAD planned out what I needed to do next (in those days of reading over my book described in the previous blog post and in conversations with various writer friends subsequent to that) -- and I ended up not only writing

2700 words

which has never happened to me EVER

but also dealing with a pesky web design problem in the interim 15 minute chunks, paying my library fines, nagging my agent and various other stuff that usually can be used as an excuse for not writing. 

So: Whaddya know?

Sarah was very strict and used a timer and scolded me when I didn't behave. It is possible this had a lot to do with my productivity as well -- though at one point I lay down on the couch and NAPPED for fifteen minutes.  At another point I demanded Sarah fix my scene for me, so I described it to her and she told me how to fix it, and that was awesome. 

Make of it what you will, butu I wanted to share.