Schools

Author Speaks to Brooks Middle School Students

Young Adult Author Gina Damico spoke to Brooks Middle School students Monday.

Editor's note: The following press release is from Valley View School District 365U. 

“Don’t give up” and “don’t feel bad” when what you write isn’t very good.

That was the advice author Gina Damico gave to Brooks Middle School classes Monday during conversations in the school library.

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“It’s hard to get started writing something,” the author of the young adult paranormal novel Croak said. “Sometimes it flows. Sometimes it’s just agony like crawling through the desert. Don’t be discouraged.”

Damico, who is on a midwest tour promoting the release of her new book, Scorch, which is the second in a trilogy she hopes to complete by next fall, told students “anyone can write. Writing comes from life. You can do it whenever and wherever you want. Just try it. Get the words on the page.”

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Asked if she ever gets writer’s block, the upstate New York native who now lives in Boston suggested the best way to avoid writer’s block is to do something that takes your mind off it. (She prefers long walks.)

“Every writer has had their problems,” she said. “Just keep going. Don’t quit because if you quit, you’re done.”

Damico suggested to the would-be writers that they let other people read their work. “You don’t necessarily have to change anything but it is very easy to get lost in your thoughts and someone else will see it in a different way.”

The author, who was at Brooks courtesy of Naperville and Downers Grove based Anderson’s Book Store, compared writing to doing a puzzle or directing a movie.

“There are a lot of moving parts and a lot of problem solving,” she said. “But it’s worth it in the end. It’s a huge accomplishment if you write a book whether it gets published or not.”


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