How I Write: What We Left Behind by Robin Talley

By Jen On November 4, 2015 · 1 Comment · In Author Feature, Blog Tours

Please welcome Robin Talley, she’s here today for a How I Write feature as part of her blog tour for her What We Left Behind! Check out my Q & A with Robin below, and be sure to enter the giveaway!

About Robin Talley

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I grew up in Roanoke, Virginia, and escaped to Washington, D.C., at the first opportunity. I now live with my wife, our antisocial cat, and our goofy hound dog on Capitol Hill and work for a progressive nonprofit organization. I spend my nights and weekends writing young adult fiction about queer characters, reading books, and having in-depth conversations with friends and family about things like whether Jasmine’s character motivation was sufficiently established in Aladdin.

My first novel, Lies We Tell Ourselves, was released in September 2014 by Harlequin Teen. It’s set in 1959 Virginia, and it’s about a black girl who’s one of the first to integrate an all-white high school, and the white girl with whom she ultimately falls in love. My next book, What We Left Behind, follows a high school couple — Gretchen, who identifies as a lesbian, and Toni, who identifies as genderqueer — whose relationship is tested when they’re separated for their first year of college. It’s coming out in November 2015.

Are you a planner (outline, etc.) or do you “pants” it?

I’m very much a planner. I obsessively outline in spreadsheets, and often halfway through a draft, if I’m stuck, I’ll rip up my outline and rearrange it. That nearly always un-sticks me.

Do you write daily or sporadically when you’re inspired?

I write daily most of the time, in the evenings after I get home from work and all day on weekends. I wish I could wait for days when I’m feeling particularly inspired, but alas, deadlines make that tough!

What time of day do you find you write best? Or you enjoy more?

On weekends I like writing in the morning, because then by the time I take a break, I feel like I’ve really accomplished something. Then I go back and keep writing in the afternoon. By the end of the day I feel good about the time I’ve put in, even if I don’t necessarily love every word I’ve written.

What tool(s) do you use to write? Microsoft Word, Pages, Scrivener, typewriter, pen and paper, and/or napkins/toilet paper?

I write in Microsoft Word with a navigation pane set up that lets me click between chapters (this is similar to the standard Scrivener setup, but I find Word way less cumbersome than Scrivener). I keep Microsoft Excel open in a different monitor with my outline. I also keep a legal pad and pen on my desk and use them to jot down notes on each new scene before I start writing it.

What resources do you recommend for new writers?

There are a lot of great writing advice books out there, but the one that helped me get started when I was totally clueless was The Writer’s Guide to Fiction by Elizabeth Lyon.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve received for writing?

My favorite advice comes from the writer Elmore Leonard: “Try to leave out the parts that readers tend to skip.” I.e., don’t write the boring parts.

What types of writing events have you participated in (NaNoWriMo, conferences, workshops, etc.)? Which was your favorite?

I’ve done NaNoWriMo a couple of times and I always got a ton out of it, even if I’ve never actually ended up with a publishable novel. (Twice I wrote first drafts that I was later able to revise into publishable form, though!)

What We Left Behind
Publication Date: October 27, 2015
Publisher: HarlequinTEEN

Toni and Gretchen are the couple everyone envied in high school. They’ve been together forever. They never fight. They’re deeply, hopelessly in love. When they separate for their first year at college—Toni to Harvard and Gretchen to NYU—they’re sure they’ll be fine. Where other long-distance relationships have fallen apart, their relationship will surely thrive.The reality of being apart, however, is a lot different than they expected. As Toni, who identifies as genderqueer, falls in with a group of transgender upperclassmen and immediately finds a sense of belonging that has always been missing, Gretchen struggles to remember who she is outside their relationship.

While Toni worries that Gretchen, who is not trans, just won’t understand what is going on, Gretchen begins to wonder where she fits in Toni’s life. As distance and Toni’s shifting gender identity begins to wear on their relationship, the couple must decide—have they grown apart for good, or is love enough to keep them together?

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Thank you for visiting, Robin! Readers, follow the tour for more chances to win, and be sure to enter the giveaway! You can find more How I Write features by clicking the image at the bottom of this post.