I struggled with the pool game scenes because in the early drafts they sounded boring, but the breakthrough came when I started seeing the game scenes as a dance that I needed to choreograph. That added a rhythm to it. I could feel the characters move around the table, point their cues, hit the balls. The other complexity in writing Sticks for me was trying to sound like a ten year-old boy. So, I had no choice but to drive my husband crazy.
Nothing is insignificant here.
My husband Evan is the archetype for Arlen Pepper, the ten year-old math visionary in the book. There have been and none of them, to date, have panned out. I do tend to think visually learned to do even more of that during my stint as a screenwriter. I always visualize my books happening. The character in Squashed is overweight.