Nova Ren Suma

Nova Ren Suma is the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling The Walls Around Us, among other YA novels. Her new novel Wake the Wild Creatures is forthcoming from Little, Brown in Summer 2025.

Novel Writing

Burn It All Down and Start Over

This is about a book that almost didn't exist... and how I almost gave up on it and walked away.

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Monthly Writing Prompt

Writing Prompt #1: Trust the Universe

September's writing prompt might involve a pair of scissors and an openness to discovery.

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Writing Practice

The Writer You Wish to Be

Want a new beginning? Here's an opportunity to change your writing practice—to keep what works, and let go of what doesn't.

Novel Writing Featured

WAKE THE WILD CREATURES: My New Novel Is Coming

New book in Summer 2025! Here are 25 truths about it...

News Featured

Introducing The Words Around Us

On creating a new author newsletter and what I want this place to be

From the Archives

The Waiting Room

The liminal space between book projects. Taming ideas. Embracing the wait.

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Alien Landscapes

The changing landscape of publishing. Book fears. Finding the wonder again.

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Haunted Houses

Bad dreams. Working in publishing. The fear of the unknown.

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Conversations with the Other Side

Spirit boards. Playing with danger. The struggle to finish a novel.

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Tell Me My Destiny

Premonitions. Scams. The precarious dream to become an author.

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Omens

Literal dumpster fires. Publishing pitfalls. What authors can still control.

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Unidentified Flying Objects

Birthmarks. Not belonging. The selves we insert into our books.

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Fear of Falling

Fears. Unhappy accidents. Writers following their own timelines.

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The Book That Got Me Unstuck

So-called writer's block. Creative breakthroughs. Writing for yourself again.