Questions for One of Our Favorite Authors: Grace Lin
Dear Ms. Lin,
Thank you so much for the bookmarks and your note! We have really enjoyed reading The Year of the Dog, and you are one of our favorite authors! We appreciate you taking the time to answer some of our questions. We are budding authors ourselves, and we want to learn as much as we can.
1. You seem to have so many great stories about your childhood. What advice can you give us about “writing what we know”?
2. We are learning to edit our work, and we write several drafts. How do you know when your work is ready to be published?
3. Sometimes we feel like we don’t have any good ideas, and it is hard to start writing. Do you ever get “writer’s block”? How do you overcome it?
4. Our teacher suggested that we keep a journal at home this summer. Do you have a journal? Does it help you with your writing?
5. We have all published work to share with our class this year. Many of us want to be authors when we grow up. What advice would you give to young writers?
Ms. Lin, thank you so much for visiting our blog and writing back to us. We know that you are so busy, and the fact that you take the time to correspond with your fans means so much to us!
Love,
Mrs. Edmison’s Third Grade Class 
Hello Mrs. Edmison’s Third Grade Class,
Thank you so much for your nice comments and thoughts about my book “The Year of the Dog.” I hope you get to a chance to read the sequel “The Year of the Rat.” Here are the answers to you questions:
1. I think the best writing comes from what you know. When you write what you know it is easier to make all the descriptions and details feel real, because it actually happened! When you write about what you know, think about the memory–how did things smell, look, feel or taste? Those are the details you want to put in your writing.
2. I write several drafts too! It is hard to tell when your work is ready–for my latest book that I just finished (it’s called “Where the Mountain Meets the Moon,” it is a Chinese folktale-inspired fantasy, I hope you will like it as well) I wrote 88 drafts! Sometimes it helps when you have other people read your story. When other people think it is ready, it can help you realize it is ready too.
3 and 4: I used to get “Writer’s Block” but I don’t anymore, every since I started keeping a journal. But I don’t call it a journal, I call it my idea book. I carry this book with me everywhere, so whenever I have an idea–if I’m eating breakfast, walking down the street–I quickly take out my book and write it down. Even silly ideas I write down, no matter what and no matter where. So when it’s time for me to write, I just take out my journal and TA-DA! I have a whole book full of ideas to choose from.
5. My advice to young writers would be to read, read, read! Read as many books as you can–all of them will help your writing. The good ones will show you how to write better and the bad ones will show you how you don’t want to write. It’s the best thing to do…and it’s fun!
Thanks again, Mrs, Edmison and third graders. I am so glad you enjoyed my book. Have a happy summer!
Best Wishes,
Grace Lin
How cool is this website. I congratulate the teacher on a job well done! As I begin the journey that is “blogs” with my students, I value so much the example of good teaching (because as they express they too teach!), writing, and reading (listening) that you are encouraging in your students. Keep up the marvelous work!
Lisa B.
Lisa,
Thanks for your comment! Blogging has been a great experience for my students (and for me). I know you’ll enjoy blogging with your students as well!
Mrs. Edmison
When you refer to your students blogging, what do they actual do? Do you allow them to post or do you control that? Can you go into detail on how you got started with your students? Loved the author questions. My students wrote a favorite author last year an dwe never heard back. I wonder if we would have had more success with a blog.
Hi Kathy,
Thanks for visiting! My students actually post on the blog. Before we begin blogging, we talk about internet safety and the quality of our posts and comments. There is more guidance in the beginning (see our Jack Frost posts for an example). Later, students are better able to take ownership of their posts. All comments and posts must ultimately be approved by me before being seen on the blog. This allows me to filter any outside content (advertisements and spam, for example). The blog has been a great way to correspond with authors and great people from all over the world. We just began a new school year, so my new class is eager to begin blogging and podcasting. Best wishes on blogging with your class! Let me know if I can help you in any way!
Wow! What a great thing to do with your students. You’ve inspired me to try something new! Keep it up, Carrie!
Carrie
This site is great! I’m so impressed by your third graders and their articulate enthusiastic writing.
I’m a seventh grade teacher from Jacksonville Florida. What blogging program do you find the best to manage your class blog? I’m just wondering.as I’ve been testing several and haven’t found the program I like best yet.
Rick crowley
Hi Rick,
Thanks for your visiting. Our blog is a version of Wordpress that our school has set up for us, and it has worked great. One feature that I love about it is that we can upload our podcasts directly to iTunes using Podpress. This is a great feature if you and your seventh graders plan to do any podcasts during the year.
The blog is easy to use. My third graders needed about 30 minutes of guided practice, and now they are pros at posting and commenting. You can set it up so that each child’s name is a category. All of the children’s posts will appear in chronological order on your home page, but parents can quickly find all of their own child’s work by clicking on their child’s name.
Another great site that I have been experimenting with is http://www.21classes.com . This site allows each student to have his/her own page on the blog. This would be perfect for middle school aged students. They can customize their pages to make them unique. The site can be set so that all comments and posts have to be approved by you first (this is how my blog is set up as well).
Let me know how blogging goes for your students. We’d love to comment on their work when it is posted. My class really enjoys seeing what other children do with their blogs.
Have a great day!
Carrie (Mrs. E)
This is a great blog. Having the author answer your students questions is just fantastic.
What a great way to have an author communicate with the entire class! It’s much better than using email. You have given me some great ideas to use with my class. The idea of setting up a class blog is a little intimidating at first, but I bet once you get used to it, it becomes very easy. Thanks for sharing!
Hi Carrie,
I think this is absoulutely wonderful. I can imagine being a student in your class and being so excited about being a part of something like this. I mean how many people can say they have been able to ask questions and get a response from an author that they admire. You have definitely inspired me to become more technologically savvy and blog with my classes at the Lower school!
Thank You!
Awesome Job!!
Hey very nice blog!!….I’m an instant fan, I have bookmarked you and I’ll be checking back on a regular basis….See ya