From A to Z: Imagination as Empathy


Mohsin Hamid empathy quoteSometime in the early 2010s, I heard an interview with a woman who was homeless. She lived in a car with her children, and she said the worst part was at night when she would try not to wake up the children with her crying.

This story stayed with me and eventually became the very real inspiration for a fictional story. Instead of writing the mother’s perspective, I imagined the experience of one of her children. In my mind, this teenage child was not sleeping but rather pretending to sleep while listening to his mother’s tears.

Writing is an intimate exercise in empathy. I would never claim to know the exact dimensions of another person’s experiences, but through writing, I can take what I know of life and use it to imagine others’ lives. For example, I have not been homeless, but I have slept in a car. I know the stiffness that comes from spending the night at crooked angles. And I have not faced food insecurity, but I have skipped meals. I know the dull ache and distracted attention that come with hunger. The specificity of the details is what creates the illusion of reality, so I start with my own experiences and extrapolate from there to create the landscape of my characters’ lives, inside and out.

And when it comes to the important things, to fear and jealousy and love and longing, I don’t have to stretch too far. I have felt all of these emotions myself, and although the reasons might differ, the result is the same. Much as an actor draws on her own personal history—her own moments of shame and pride, of joy and sorrow, of anger and calm—I unearth my own deep wells of emotion to reveal these feelings in my characters.

So when my main character, Ben, hears his mother crying in the car at night, I can feel not only the pain of being crammed sideways in the passenger seat of a car but also the pain of witnessing another person’s grief and being unable to do anything about it.

And if I have done my job properly, my readers will feel the same.

ElizabethCooke 200x200

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From A to Z: Surviving the Query Trenches



I’d planned on writing an article about being in the query trenches, and how hard it was to keep motivated when the rejection rate is so high. But then I got an offer from the wonderful Caitie Flum, so I wondered if that topic was still relevant.

Friends, it is. I’m FRESH out of the trenches, so a lot of the feelings are still there. Querying authors know what I mean. The fear, anticipation, and hope that comes when sending out a new query. Then the paranoia! Rechecking the sent email, praying no typos snuck their way into the email mid-send! And then the waiting. Some agents respond quickly, some take a while, some not at all. And it’s such a roller coaster of emotions. I went through a myriad of them while in the trenches, to the point of “quitting” several times. The beauty of quitting a thing like this, though, is that the next day you can start again.

I’m very lucky. I have several writing communities and friends that helped me through the rough spots. Allowing me to step away when I needed to, for as long as I needed to, but gently encouraging me not to give up. And it worked. I survived the trenches long enough to sign with an amazing agent.

So now that I’m out of the trenches, here are a few things that kept me going, and still do:

  1. Community, community, community. Having safe people and spaces where I could vent my frustrations, my insecurities, my worries, and fears is so important to me. They are a shoulder to cry on, a pillar of support when I just want to crumble. I doubt I’d be here if I didn’t have that.
  2. Remembering who I was writing for. Every time I got determined to throw in the towel, I remembered little me, desperately reading anything and everything, trying to find even a little bit of myself in those characters. I don’t want any more little girls and teens to feel that desperate and erased.
  3. Plain old stubbornness and persistence. Being determined to make it no matter the odds. And the odds are so much harder for a black woman writing about black characters in publishing, especially when those characters are outside of stereotypical lenses. I simply refused to let the rejections completely wear me down.
  4. Comforts. Every time I got a pass, especially if it was on materials, it stung. Every single time. Even if I could nod along with the feedback and think, “OK I get that.” Some of the sting was because I felt like I should’ve known better. Some of it was guilt, feeling like I wasted that agent’s time. And of course, despairing if I had what it takes on many levels, to keep going in this business. So, I’d chat with my writer friends, pull out a Harry Potter book or movie, and eat junk food. Self-care is definitely important, but even more so when feeling rejected and vulnerable.
  5. Keeping it in perspective. Especially at the query stage. When I go to a bookstore and pick up a book, read the jacket, and think, “Nah, not for me,” and put it back, it’s no reflection on the author or the author’s talent. That story just isn’t my jam. I do this with NYT bestsellers all the time. Obviously those stories are resonating with a lot of people if they’re selling that many copies, but again, it might not be my jam. And that’s OK. When I think of a query rejection that way, it helps ease the sting. It really is subjective.
  6. Having a strategy. Some people send out queries in batches of 5, test the waters, revise/rework, and try again based on feedback. Others send a huge load at once and hope for the best. There are some who send a new query as soon as a rejection comes in. I was one of the send 5 at a time lot. I tried to be very deliberate, and I ended up querying fewer than 30 agents over the course of my year in the trenches.
  7. Distractions! Most people start work on another book while they’re waiting. I was worried I’d be a one-trick pony (even though I’d written full novels in the past, many times), but somehow, I began brainstorming 2 books! I also worked a LOT. Working a 9–5 plus freelance jobs keeps one busy. Also holidays, family, Netflix, day-to-day life, and a major surgery kept me distracted enough so I wasn’t refreshing my inbox over and over or stalking Query Tracker. Much. Also, I made a commitment to keep learning the craft. There are so many free writing resources out there. Pinterest has a plethora of links to explore, and there are even agents giving query and writing advice. Filling my life kept me from obsessing about query/submission status.
  8. Patience. That’s the hardest part. You’re excited about your work, and you want to move forward NOW. But, publishing is SLOW. At least to outsiders. Why does it take 2 years from announcement for a book to come out? Why do some agents take several months to respond to materials? The answer: Everyone is swamped! On the inside, there’s never enough time to do everything that needs to be done . . . but somehow, it all comes together in the end. Keeping that in mind helped me reflect on really pursuing this. As a matter of fact, I’ve come to embrace publishing’s slow burn.

I queried Caitie on August 2, 2016, and officially signed with her March 1, 2017. I’m excited and thrilled. She gets me and she gets my book, and her passion, her smarts, and her dedication makes me think we’ll be a great team.

The point of all of this is: Don’t Give Up. Every no, every hiccup, is a nudge toward the right agent. Keep going, keep working hard, and keep believing. And in the meantime, there’s chocolate.

This post is brought to you by Ronni Davis at

From A to Z: Writing Diversely in YA





Why diversity in YA?




Who should write diverse literature?










Representation. Matters.


Now I’ll answer a few more questions about Diversity in YA.

What is #ownvoices?



What’s so great about #ownvoices? 





Who’s with me?





This post is brought to you by Ronni Davis at

From A to Z: Negotiating with Your Muse


teaThere are days when my vocabulary and creativity slip through pores in my skin, leaving me a thin, hollow husk of a writer. There are days like these and, sometimes, these days stretch into a week, two weeks, longer.

For me, worse than facing a blank page is facing a half-full one. An empty page leaves me alone with my thoughts—an unfinished one presents perfect rows of words I must’ve written in another life, all of them taunting.

Before I know it, my ideas are dusty and stale. Then the guilt settles and becomes, itself, suffocating. That’s when chores, errands, and freelancing start to feel like a balm. Anything to avoid the blinking cursor.

I’ve found a few tricks that moderate this slide into writer’s block, and I hope they might be helpful to you, too. For me, the hardest part is taking the first step:

Forgive yourself. Don’t let this turn into “I forgive myself for not writing today, and I’ll start tomorrow,” as I certainly have. Instead, make a quick-but-special treat (a fancy tea in a fancy cup is one of my favorites), sit down in front of your closed notebook or computer, and acknowledge that you’ve come further than the day before. Then forgive yourself for taking the time needed to get here, open to the waiting page, and get started.

If thirty minutes later the words still aren’t coming, I switch up my tools. Personally, I find writing longhand lets me be less critical of the words coming out, so sometimes I’ll power down the computer and give myself the freedom to write total crap and the pleasure of scratching it out and trying again.

For advanced stages of writer’s block, I get a change of scene. This is great to do on any given day, but can be especially helpful when you’re struggling to write. Take a brisk walk and think only about your story or character, or pack it all up and go to your favorite coffee shop. Exercise can also get creative juices flowing, and I’ve found hitting the gym for an hour helps relieve frustration and anxiety while sparking new ideas.

For truly advanced stages, I’ll bribe my muse. After 500 words I get to take a 15 minute break and read blogs, watch Netflix, or tidy the kitchen.

Finally, there’s one method that always works for me: Set up a brainstorming date with a friend whose opinion you trust—preferably someone who knows something about writing, editing, and/or work in your genre. Before you meet, take the time to summarize your project. Explain the things you hope to achieve and the questions you want to answer. Explain, also, the loose threads and worries that are swirling in your brain and keeping you from writing. You’ll untangle some things for yourself while doing this preparation, and will untangle many others thanks to your excellent friend.

Go into the conversation with an open mind and no ego: be willing to change anything in the project, to kill off a character or erase a plot twist—to start from scratch if you really have to. As you talk, jot down the specific points that get you excited about the project again. Collect your changes or next steps in one place and reiterate them at the end, treating them like a deliverables list that closes out a business meeting. Talking through your hopes and worries will help you see the project more clearly, give you new ideas you wouldn’t have thought of on your own, and lay out specific steps for moving forward.

I try to treat conversations with my muse like a negotiation, since I’ve personally never had luck with bashing through writer’s block by forcing myself to put down words. Everyone is different, though—if you have other tried-and-true tactics, please share in the comments!


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