AvantGuild Member of the Week: Shannon Okey
Age: 30
Location: Cleveland, OH
What are you working on now?
My two Interweave Press books (one on spinning your own yarn and one on felting, which I’m co-writing with my friend Heather Brack), a book proposal with samples for another publisher, knitted samples for my Knitty Gritty appearance, planning a spring book tour with my fellow Watson Guptill author Kim Werker…and the occasional book signing.
What has been your most difficult project of late and how did you deal with its challenges?
Editing Knitgrrl 2 – not the text so much as the art changes and additions. My text is fairly clean — I like to make the editor’s job as easy as I can. However, syncing up artwork and instructional text can be tough, especially when you’re trying to teach a new skill using pictures. Things I take for granted aren’t always immediately obvious to the reader, so we’ve had about 6 weeks of back-and-forth on this project. I try to deal with each problem as it comes in, and turn it around as quickly as possible, because there will always be something else. Always. I’ve learned not to let things sit too long!
What’s the most helpful thing you’ve learned about writing?
Keep at it. Cliched, but true. I probably write at least one item a day, whether it’s a blog post or a book chapter or a story. I consider it mental exercise — it’s easier to stretch when you’re always warmed up. Believe it or not, I wrote the final manuscript for Knitgrrl in under a week. (Although I did lock myself away at my aunt’s house in Maine to do it!) I probably couldn’t have done that if I was “out of shape,” so to say…
What’s been the worst advice you’ve ever received about writing?
I can’t consciously remember being given advice about writing since I’ve been doing it for so long! I even used to write and bind little books for my mother when I was 5 or 6 (the one about monsters was NYT bestseller list material, I’m convinced). I will say, though, that the worst writing I’ve noticed (which means SOMEONE is giving these poor beleaguered writers the same bad advice) is the tendency to jump on the bandwagon and all write the same thing at once. Really, how many chick lit / sad childhood memoir / my boss was insane tell-all / etc books can you read in one season?
What advice do you have for writers on multitasking when writing books without losing your focus?
Sometimes you just have to take that break. I reached a point during Knitgrrl where I couldn’t read, write or even think about that book one second longer. So I turned off the phone, put away the computer, and ended up watching Buffy DVDs for about 10 hours straight. Voila. Instant brain refresher. (Buffy’ll do that for you). If you’re not quite at that “wall,” switch over to another project where you feel you can make some progress and then come back with a fresh eye.
Join Baratunde Thurston (left), The Onion’s Director of Digital and author of How to Be Black, for an entertaining look at creative social media campaigns in our 
