HarperCollins

A HarperCollins editor offered Tish Rabe a topic, and she pitched a rhyming version. The editor offered Rabe the topic Huff and Puff for Cat in the Hat's Learning Library. She pitched that she could write it in rhyme, which the editor had not considered.

The offer was a subject, and the rhyme format came from the author's pitch.

How I Write

Rabe moves her HarperCollins deadlines earlier to leave a buffer against writer's block. She has a HarperCollins book due in June and treats it as due in May. She says she gets writer's block 100 percent of the time, so the early date leaves room if she cannot think of anything.

When stuck, she stops forcing it, steps away for a couple of days and comes back. Quote: "if you've got a deadline move it so that there's a gap."

How I Write▶ 1:13:18