When I meet with students, I try to convince them that being a writer is not easy. That I don’t sit down at my desk and words flow from me effortlessly. I also try to convince them that I’m not rich. I don’t have a butler. I don’t live in a mansion.

They don’t always seem convinced.

Mostly I tell them all this because I didn’t know it when I was a kid. I thought authors were magical fairy wizards who lived in castles made of jewels. Or, I guess, mostly I thought authors were either dead or millionaires.

I didn’t know writing was something anyone could do.

Want proof of what the writing life is really like? Here’s a (mostly true) video about how I came up with the idea for Snappsy the Alligator (Did Not Ask to Be in This Book). It involves a lot of coffee, terrible story ideas, and procrastinating.