All Your Twisted Secrets, written by Diana Urban, is a young adult contemporary thriller/mystery novel that was released on March 17, 2020. Published by HarperTeen, this novel will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Bonus: US Giveaway and Book Excerpt inside! 🙂

This amazing tour is hosted by The FFBC Tours. Thank you to the publisher for the free copy of the book!

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I’ve always loved reading about other authors’ writing process. Being an author is often so solitary, and there’s no one right way to write a book. Because of that, it’s often hard to know whether you’re on the right path.

Unlike my various day jobs doing marketing at startups, in the early days of writing and revising a novel, I don’t get daily validation from coworkers — at least, not until I’m ready to share my work with critical partners. So articles like these, where authors offer a glimpse behind the curtain, have been my guiding light. And now I’m thrilled to share my own process!

Again, keep in mind that there is no one correct writing process or routine. But this is what has worked for me, and I hope that other find this helpful and/or interesting!

My writing process

To be honest, my process ends up being a bit different for every novel, so I’ll talk specifically about what it was like for All Your Twisted Secrets.

Despite how complex this story is, I didn’t start with an outline. And what made this book unique in terms of process were the dual timelines. In the story, six characters have an hour to choose who to kill, or else they’ll all die. And one hour is a pretty limited time to get to know each character. I thought integrating flashbacks into the locked-room narrative would kill the tension, so instead, I alternated real-time chapters with flashback chapters — all from Amber’s POV over the past year.

When I drafted the novel, I started with the real-time chapters (as the teens question their predicament, try to escape, and start panicking). But I still hadn’t figured out the ending — I needed those flashback chapters to flesh out the characters first. So I backtracked and determined where the real-time chapter cliffhangers should be, and then wrote flashback chapters to correspond with each cliffhanger. These flashback chapters get to the heart of the story: the characters’ relationships and how they deal with many of the pressures teens face today, from bullying to college admissions to losing a loved one — all while dropping clues about whodunit and who the victim will be.

It would have been delightful if the flashback chapters seamlessly wove together with the real-time chapters, wouldn’t it. Alas, this was not the case.

Since this book is so complex, I needed to have an outline before I dove into revisions — a guide map for how everything would fit together. That’s right; I created an outline after drafting.

Just like you wouldn’t solve a jigsaw puzzle by pulling pieces from the box and setting them down in order — from left to right, one at a time — I didn’t outline this way, either. Instead it was like I scattered all the pieces on the table and started building the edges of the puzzle, working my way toward the heart of the story. I used notecards to accomplish this so I could easily (and literally!) move around the pieces of my puzzle.

Then I tackled one section at a time (one plot thread, or one character arc, or one red herring — those are the colored tabs you can see on some of the index cards), building and building until it all finally fit together. It was incredibly overwhelming to try to conceptualize this novel at once, but when I broke it down like this and took one element at a time, it was easier to manage.

Once I figured out how everything fit, I was able to dive into revisions!

My typical writing day

It took me years to figure out my ideal writing routine, but it’s this: I wake up at 5:30am, brush my teeth, make a cup of coffee, and immediately get to work, writing or revising until around 7:30am when I have to get ready for my day job. On weekends, if I’m on a roll, I might keep going for a bit longer. That’s it! I work full-time as a marketing manager at a startup, and by the time I get home at night, I’m usually too pooped to get into a creative mindset enough to write.

Promotion is also a big part of my writing life though, especially as the All Your Twisted Secrets launch date approaches. So many of my writing mornings lately have been replaced with promotional activities, like answering interviews, writing guest blog posts (like this one!), or taking photos for Instagram and writing out the captions, or planning email marketing campaigns. Sometimes I’ll do those things at night since it doesn’t take as much brain power for me as drafting or revising does.

The key, at least for me, is to set aside 1.5-2 hours each day for my author life. Whether I spend that time writing, working on marketing, or even reading, it’s a habit I’ve built that keeps me motivated and on track. And if I miss a day or two (or ten), that’s fine; sometimes you have to prioritize other things in life. But I know that when I’m ready to dive back in, I can set my alarm for 5:30am and get back into my routine!

I hope this glimpse into my writing process and routine was helpful. It’s different for everyone, and different for every story, but knowing that can be a comfort — there is no “wrong” way to do it!

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All You Twisted Secrets By Diana Urban – SYNOPSIS

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Excerpt-All-Your-Twisted-Secrets-by-Diana-Urban-Chapter-1-2-3

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About the author, Diana Urban

I’m Diana Urban, and I write dark, twisty thrillers for teens including All Your Twisted Secrets (HarperTeen, March 17th 2020). When I’m not torturing fictional characters, I’m a marketing manager at BookBub, a leading book discovery platform. Outside the bookish world, I live with my husband and cat in Boston, and enjoy reading, video games, fawning over cute animals, and looking at the beach from a safe distance.

GOODREADS | WEBSITE | TWITTER | INSTAGRAM | FACEBOOK | PINTEREST

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US GIVEAWAY

Prize: Win (1) of (2) copies of ALL YOUR TWISTED SECRETS by Diana Urban (US Only)

March 17, 2020 – March 31, 2020

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