Marissa chats with Joy L. Smith about her debut YA contemporary - TURNING - as well as finding ways to relate to your protagonist in order to capture raw, authentic emotions on the page, and using humor to balance out your book's really intense moments; choosing first person point of view as a way to manipulate what your readers will see and feel throughout the story; how both YouTube and sensitivity readers can help you get the details right when writing about unfamiliar experiences; developing complex relationships between your characters, and how they often change and deepen over the course of revisions; the simple yet effective advice we should all have posted in our writing space; and some strategies for protecting your own emotions and well-being when delving into difficult topics (musical theater, anyone?). 

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