# Please introduce yourself and your book(s)!
My name is Jenna Greene and I am a YA/ Children’s author. I also co-host “Quill and Ink: A Podcast for Booklovers,” where I interview authors from around the world. In 2019, my YA novel REBORN won the Moonbeam Children’s Book Award. The sequel, RENEW, is being released June 21st 2021.
# How do you deal with creative block?
I think everyone has good days and bad days with writing. I don’t set word counts or page count deadlines, because I don’t want to force myself to produce and then not have quality writing. I aim to open my laptop every day and get something down, whether it be a sentence, a paragraph, or a chapter. If the mood is right, the writing will flow, and if it isn’t, then I will try again another day.
# What are the biggest mistakes you can make in a book?
Not allowing the character to tell their story. Once you’ve developed your characters, they eventually take over. If you fight it, you will not produce good writing. The characters become an innate part of the author and then instincts help make a good story.
# Do you have tips on choosing titles and covers?
I tend to adore one-word titles, and I have no idea why. I think it was just a coincidence that became a habit as I wrote more and more books. As for covers, I have wonderful publishers who arrange to have amazing cover designers make my books come to life with their designs.
# How do bad reviews and negative feedback affect you and how do you deal with them?
Of course, good reviews are flattering. Who wouldn’t want to hear that a book affected them? And bad reviews are no big deal. I guess the book wasn’t their cup of tea. There are lots of legendary authors that I have no great love for, and it doesn’t mean they are bad books. It just means they didn’t speak to me, or I wasn’t in the right zone to read them, or they are not a genre I particularly like. I don’t think Stephen King is rolling across his bed at night with poor dreams just because I’ve never picked up one of his books, and my dislike of Wuthering Heights will never affect its status as a classic.
# How has your creation process improved over time?
I have become far better at editing. I know what can affect the flow of a story and can tweak my writing to improve it. Instead of keeping every word, sentence, and paragraph that I write, I’m far more capable at letting them go if they aren’t needed.
# Do you tend towards personal satisfaction or aim to serve your readers? Do you balance the two and how?
I think it’s a balance of the two. When I’m drafting, I only have my own mind to life in. I have to gauge what I like and what I think reader’s will like as best I can. I write the story as I see it, then get feedback through the editing phases to improve it.
# What role do emotions play in creativity?
I think as a fantasy writer, the “write what you know” statement doesn’t exactly fit. I’ve never had magical powers, nor have I ever fought a dragon or lived in a foreign land. But I have been anxious, happy, annoyed, and brave. Any scene I write taps into an emotion I’ve had.
# Do you have any creativity tricks?
While there are many people who like to write at the beginning of the day, before distractions hit them, I don’t think I can wake up any earlier than what I already do. Writing at 4:30 a.m. doesn’t really appeal to me. Anyway, I like to write at the end of the day, when every other task is finished and I am winding down for the night.
# What are your plans for future books?
Well, the sequel to REBORN is being released June 21st 2021. The third book in the trilogy is in the editing phase right now, and will probably be released in another year. While I still have the IMAGINE series to wrap up, I also have a few short story and picture book projects in development.