Meet the Author

Daria Snadowsky shares about the writing process

 

Sitting. Waiting. Feet tapping. Waiting. Daria Snadowsky’s mind wanders as she waits for her name to be called. Her fingers itch for something to do, something to create. A jumble of thoughts spin in her head. Slowly, they start to form a coherent sentence, and her fingers now have something to do. They write down everything as the sentences form paragraphs and the paragraphs form a story.

And thus, the first book in the Anatomy series – “Anatomy of a Boyfriend” – was born. Shortly after graduating from Emory University, Snadowsky started writing to fill the time in between job interviews.

Although Snadowsky was hired as a criminal defense lawyer and no longer needed to fill in the time between job interviews she continued to write. Her favorite spot to write the sequel, titled “Anatomy of a Single Girl”, was the Coffee Bean with its comfy chairs and power outlets for her laptop. Snadowsky spent two years in the Coffee Bean clicking away on her keyboard writing the book Anatomy of a Single Girl. Six weeks after finishing it, “Anatomy of a Single Girl” was accepted to be published.

Snadowsky had a specific vision for the message and content in her books. Her inspiration was Judy Blume. Snadowsky first discovered Blume in “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret” when she was 10 years old.

“(The book) shook me to the core because it felt so real,” Snadowsky said. Two years later Snadowsky read Blume’s book “Forever”. The Anatomy series is a homage to “Forever”, which showed Snadowsky that sex can be written about without being gratuitous or sensationalized.

“Readers appreciate [The Anatomy Series’s] realism,” Snadowsky said, “Reality doesn’t fade to black after a kiss, and what follows can be alternately wonderful, disappointing, awkward, painful, and funny. I tried to show all those highs and lows and in-betweens,”

While Snadowsky wasn’t ashamed to have written what actually goes on when most books fade to black, she was embarrassed to have her family read it. Snadowsky never let anyone in the family read the book until after the publisher had bought it and she knew she couldn’t hide it any longer. Fortunately, her family was supportive.

Snadowsky gained a fan who was equally supportive–her inspiration, Blume. Blume e-mailed Snadowsky after she read the manuscript, saying “Anatomy of a Single Girl” was “so good” and she “had trouble putting it down.” Blume has even gone as far as comparing “Forever” to “The Anatomy of a Single Girl” on a blog.

The affirmation from Blume was a dream come true considering the book endured a few bumps along the way. Snadowsky lost her two first editors during the economic recession after they lost their jobs. Her third and final editor had a different vision that included taking out a main character. In the end, Snadowsky and her editor struck a compromise, having the character introduced near the end.

“I couldn’t be happier with the end result,” said Snadowsky.

Snadowsky said this book’s writing process was tough because at times she loved what she was creating and at other times struggled to embrace it. Once finished, she was happy with how it turned out and, of course, relieved to be finished.

“If you’re not happy with your first draft, don’t despair—there’re probably a lot of good ideas there. So just treat it as raw material and embrace revision.”