Unstuck by Barbara Dee

Happy Monday! I'm thrilled Barbara Dee stopped by Watch. Connect. Read. to finish my sentences. We discussed Lyla, writing, story, screenplays, and more. I wrote the words in purple, and she wrote the words in black . Thank you, Barbara!  Unstuck tells the story of a seventh grader named Lyla who’s dealing with writer’s block as she tries to write a fantasy novel in her ELA class. Luckily for her, she has a fantastic teacher who knows exactly how and when to offer support, and not just with Lyla’s writing. Lyla is the kind of voracious reader of fantasy novels who’s convinced that she needs to do extensive world-building before she can write Chapter One. Of course she realizes that as a middle schooler, no one expects her to compete with Rick Riordan and Kelly Barnhill, but she’s determined to write a story worthy of the genre. That sort of self-imposed stress is one reason her writing is blocked; another is that she’s desperate to impress certain people, especially her cool ELA teacher and a best friend who’s pulling away. Lyla is also pressuring herself to win a local creative writing contest to prove that she can do something—anything—better than her superstar older sister, who is currently stressing about a very different sort of writing, her college essay. Writing is hard, and that’s a good thing. I suspect that if the words come too easily, you’re probably writing something formulaic and superficial, so I try to give myself a different challenge with every book. Sometimes these challenges have to do with content or structure, but usually the challenge is about approach: how to write about a topic that’s “tough” in an age-appropriate way, incorporating humor and hope without sacrificing authenticity. Unstuck is my fourteenth middle grade novel, and while the writing process for this book was never agonizing, I did stall out at times. So one of the reasons I wrote Unstuck was to show kids that even published authors need a few strategies for sloshing through those messy writing quagmires. I wanted to show kids that it’s possible to get “unstuck” from all sorts of situations (including unhealthy friendships and academic stress) as long as you connect with folks who can help you, and are flexible in your thinking. Story is character plus a verb. Everything flows from character—action, setting, tone, voice. I have to say that it drives me nuts whenever people fault a character for not being “likable.” To me it’s more important that a character be real, which can mean flawed, quirky, inconsistent, and unpredictable. When I do creative writing workshops with kids, I always ask them, “What’s the most surprising thing about your character?” Their answers contain the seeds of a story. Haven Jacobs Saves the Planet , Violets Are Blue , My Life in the Fish Tank , and Halfway Normal   are different in many ways, but I think all of them are basically about connection, the need to share your experience with others. In Halfway Normal , Violets Are Blue and My Life in the Fish Tank, the main characters are convinced that their experience is so unique, so weird, that no one can possibly understand—until they find a way to communicate. Haven Jacobs is also stuck in her own head, doomscrolling about the climate crisis, until she figures out how to reach out to her family, her teachers and her friends. Actually, now that I think about it, the struggle to find the right words to help you connect with others is probably the theme of all my books, including Maybe He Just Likes You , Star-Crossed -- and of course Unstuck . John Schu, you should have asked me  my go-to strategy when my own writing gets stuck. I’m always trying different techniques, several of which I mention in Unstuck and collect in a handy list in the back of the book. But I guess my favorite strategy is to pick up a screenplay of a movie or a tv show that I love. All my books have a lot of dialogue, so reading these screenplays helps me “hear” how people talk. The other thing I do is get up from my computer desk and take my dog Ripley outside for a long walk! Congratulations, Barbara!  Unstuck  releases on February 27. Pre-order a copy today!