A Goodreads user asked Laurie Halse Anderson:

You are so eclectic - I love your contemporary novels where you tackle the hard topics head-on as well as historical fiction. How do you approach writing such dramatically different genres? What is a typical writing day like for you? How do you decide what to write about next (beside the catch-all answer of "the story comes to me...")?

Laurie Halse Anderson I've enjoyed bouncing back and forth between contemporary YA and historical fiction because the research and thought-process ahead of the writing are so different.

Typical writing day (assuming I am at home and not on the road):

5am wake up. Build fire in writing cottage if its cold or snowing
Eat breakfast read for a bit
6ish: start writing. Revisions on next book are always the first order of business. Brainstorming for future projects come later in the day.

In a perfect world, I'd write until 4, run or walk for an hour, have dinner, hang out w husband and dogs and read until bedtime. I'm usually asleep by 9. I don't watch much TV.

Since this is SO NOT a perfect world, about half of my day is spent on email, various publicity things, more email, etc. And then there are about 80 days a year on the road....

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