In the latest installment of "Book Keeping," a series of interviews in which authors describe how they got from a blank computer screen to a book deal, Melissa Walker struts her stuff with the behind-the-scenes story of Violet on the Runway, the first novel in a YA trilogy about a small town girl thrust into the modeling scene. "After I started writing for magazines, I could hardly process anything over 1,000 words, so writing a book seemed daunting," Walker confesses. "I honestly think it was the ElleGirl audience who inspired me: They were such smart, funny girls, and I got to the point where I wanted to write more for them." She spent three years editing features for the magazine; now, following a short stint at Seventeen, she's full-time freelance, which shaped her writing schedule: "I ate breakfast, then wrote," she says. "I didn't allow myself to have lunch until I had 1,000 words on the page. They didn't have to be good words, but they had to be there. I did that five days a week; afternoons were spent working on magazine stories. At that rate, you can get your 60,000 words in just 12 weeks."

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