Archive for the writing process

CULTIVATING CREATIVITY, Part 3: Tips & Strategies Featuring Diana Murray, London Ladd, and Jeff Mack

November 4, 2024 / / No comments

–

Inspired by my bumbling attempts to teach an online writing class for Gotham Writers, I recently called upon a number of children’s book authors and illustrators with a basic question:

What do you do, if anything, to cultivate your own creativity? 

Amazingly, some of them responded.

Today we’ll look at the terrific answers I received from Diana Murray, London Ladd, and Jeff Mack. 

Previously I featured responses from Travis Jonker, Paul Acampora, and Michelle Knudsen. Stomp on this link and it will magically transport you there like a portkey in some Harry Potter book.

 

DIANA MURRAY

I enjoy actively brainstorming. I open a google doc and write any idea that pops into my head, no matter how terrible. Sometimes I’ll highlight titles with colors if I think they’re particularly promising. Other times, I’ll make notes next to them like “not relatable” or “cute but needs tension” or I’ll gray titles out if they’re particularly bad. I also add to this list when I get spontaneous ideas while doing other stuff, like walking the dog. If I don’t write an idea down, I invariably forget it, and that drives me nuts! When I want to start a new project, I refer to my list. It’s a single list which is currently 97 pages. If an idea really strikes me as interesting, I experiment with a few lines. If it goes well, then I break it out into its own document.

 

If you like stories about unicorns, witches, pizza chefs, sleepy veggies, or adventures in the city, Diana Murray is the writer for you. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

—

LONDON LADD

 

Probably the most essential thing for continuing my creative passions is to wake up early, between 4-5am, at least five days a week,  open my sketchbook to doodle . . .

–

–

–

–

– 

–

. . . and maybe surf the internet looking for artwork that interests and inspires me to see and think in ways I may not have considered before. My happiest place is my sketchbook because it’s my most authentic artistic expression—where I can liberate myself from the world’s cares, experiment, have fun, and discover new and exciting things.

Getting up so early often is probably not suitable for my long-term health, especially if I go to bed late, but that’s an essential factor in pushing myself out of my comfort zone because staleness is scary. Other factors like deadline crunch may cause me to skip it for some time, too, which could lead to anxiety, depression, fear, doubt, and imposture syndrome creeping into my mind, which could hinder my creativity. And so could sleep deprivation, too. It is a double-edged sword, but I can’t think of any other approach that works for me. 

 

 

London Ladd has been a rising star for so long, I half-expect to look up and see his face in the night sky. The rest of the world is catching on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

–

JEFF MACK

–

I store my ideas in Notes on my phone. It lets me forget stuff, then rediscover it.

I don’t tell anyone about my story before I’ve written a few drafts. If I share my story before I write it, then I won’t feel the need to write it.

I work on many stories simultaneously. For me, writing is like solving puzzles with many possible solutions. The solution to one puzzle may be waiting for me in a different story.

I often take parts of one story and add them to another. Characters are especially interchangeable.

Writing is an uncomfortable process. I’ve come to accept that there’s no way around it. I like to daydream, but eventually I have to sit down and work.

There’s rarely a better time to write than when I don’t feel like it.

The need to earn a living can be a useful motivation for creativity.

 

Jeff Mack’s most recent book — um, I think it’s his most recent — Jeff is a busy guy — has been getting Caldecott buzz. But don’t mention that to Jeff; it makes his knees itch.

–

 

 

 

–

–

Share Share Tweet Follow Share Print Email
Category: Cultivating Creativity, the writing process / Tags: , , , , , , ,

CULTIVATING CREATIVITY, Part 2: Tips & Strategies Featuring Travis Jonker, Paul Acampora, and Michelle Knudsen

October 30, 2024 / / One comment

–

As outlined in a previous post, I called upon a variety of children’s book authors and illustrators with a basic question:

What do you do, if anything, to cultivate your own creativity? 

Today we’ll look at the answers I received from Travis Jonker, Paul Acampora, and Michelle Knudsen.

–

TRAVIS JONKER

–

Well, I didn’t think I would ever share this with anyone, but since you asked . . .

Whenever I begin a new notebook, I write the following in the back:

–

–

It’s a reminder to myself that I don’t have to do a whole lot to express my creativity.

–

Readers should run (don’t walk) to pick up a copy of Travis Jonker’s new picture book, illustrated by my pal, Caldecott Medalist Matthew Cordell.

–

–

–

PAUL ACAMPORA

–

My “creativity practice” is embarrassingly simple: I take notes. I am constantly writing down snippets of conversations, song lyrics, descriptions of found objects, occasional historical facts, and funny names of people, places, food, and dogs. My notes are not particularly noteworthy, but for some reason they catch my eye. Once a week or so I review what I’ve collected on scraps, post-its, and notes apps. I jot them onto a page in a dollar-store composition notebook for possible use at a later date.

–

–

I’m usually disappointed to learn that my observations are painfully mundane, but then I remember Eleanor Rigby picking up rice after a wedding or a moocow coming down the road or how much depends upon a red wheelbarrow or a dog named Winn-Dixie, and I keep taking note of the simple things that might be the seeds for my next story.

 

Paul Acampora’s most recent middle-grade novel is the achingly beautiful (and funny), In Honor of Broken Things. 

–

 

–

MICHELLE KNUDSEN

–

Three things that help me with writing are walks, music, and Post-It Notes.

Walks are good for having ideas, for thinking through tricky plot points, for shaking up my mind after too much time at my desk.

Sometimes music and walks go together. Sometimes I make playlists that I only listen to when writing or thinking about a particular book. Sometimes one song will get associated with a book, and then I’ll just listen to that song on endless repeat.

Music usually only works for novels though. I need quiet for picture books.

Post-It Notes work for everything. I have lots of colors and sizes, and I love how low-pressure they are. I can write a word or a phrase that seems to have potential and just stick it somewhere around my desk. Sometimes those turn into something more; sometimes they end up crumpled into little paper balls to amuse my cats. Either result is acceptable.

–

Michelle Knudsen’s most recent picture book features a reunion with illustrator Kevin Hawkes, the team that created the all-time classic, Library Lion. 

–

–

PLEASE COME BACK ANOTHER TIME FOR MORE TIPS & STRATEGIES FROM SOME OF THE BEST MINDS (and creative spirits!) IN CHILDREN’S LITERATURE. 

–

And while you are still here, I guess I ought to say that I first started working in children’s publishing in 1985 and never had the good sense to find alternative employment.  Here are my two new books from 2024: 

 

         

Share Share Tweet Follow Share Print Email
Category: Cultivating Creativity, the writing process / Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

CULTIVATING CREATIVITY: Tips & Strategies, Part 1

October 28, 2024 / / One comment
–
Once upon a time, I sent a message to a variety of children’s authors and illustrators. People who are my friends. And I asked a favor. As someone who purports to “teach” writing — much more guide on the side than sage on stage — I had begun to think that being creative — thinking & living & breathing creativity — was a very important part of it. But what do the best in the business do to cultivate that creativity within themselves? I was curious to learn any tips or suggestions. 
–
Unfortunately, I dropped the ball for a variety of reasons, months pushed past, leaves budded and fell, but I’m here to say that I have recovered the fumble!
–
To get things rolling, here is the letter I sent . . . 
–
–
As you may know, I sometimes teach a zoom class for adults interested in writing for children. In fact, many authors and illustrators have generously volunteered to spend time with my students over the past few years, sharing, inspiring, and supporting these aspirational writers and dreamers. 
One theme that we’ve returned to a lot this year is Cultivating Our Creativity. 

It’s not just a matter of waiting for the magic. 

Many writers will actively do things to help prepare the ground for creativity. They start each morning by free writing for five minutes. They keep lists of possible book titles or themes. They do yoga, they take walks, they create stacks of index cards, they visit bookstores, write a haiku, seek out a favorite book, whatever. 

What do you do to help keep those home fires burning?

I would love to create a series of blog posts that gather together different tips & strategies that REAL AUTHORS & ILLUSTRATORS (that’s you!) employ to help your creative process along. 

I think it would be fascinating & helpful & inspiring to read.

So I’m asking a you to submit your thoughts, 25 to 150 words or thereabouts, nothing too onerous, outlining your personal methods. Maybe it’s just one quick tip. Maybe your have deeper thoughts to share. That’s your call.

Thanks for playing along. And I totally understand if you’d rather not bother. It’s okay. 

Many thanks. 

—

NOTE: I received answers and will be sharing responses from the following (generous, kind, talented) authors (in no particular order):

Lizzy Rockwell

Travis Jonker

London Ladd

Paul Acampora

Nick Bruel

Vikram Madan

Diana Murray

Matt McElligott

Jeff Mack

Eugene Yelchin

Michelle Knudsen

 

And who knows, maybe more authors & illustrators will jump aboard! 

–

–

Share Share Tweet Follow Share Print Email
Category: Cultivating Creativity, the writing process / Tags: , ,

Edits: The Last Few Lines of BEFORE YOU GO

September 27, 2024 / / 2 comments

–

I came across this document from my only true YA novel, Before You Go (Macmillan, 2012), which even got a kind review in The New York Times of all places, and landed with a thud in the marketplace. My idea for this book came when I was confronted by the Pink Wall of a YA display in a bookstore. It just seemed so extremely female-dominated. So I decided to try to enter that world from a male perspective. I always strongly disliked the cover. But the book’s shortcomings in the market surely has more to do with my own failings, or predilections, as a writer. What I liked, what I tried to do, did not fulfill the desires of the reading audience.

I guess, I don’t know. Too slow, possibly. Too male? That’s what I was trying to do. 

We go through these questions, as writers, after books die on the vine. We wonder why and search for answers. And if you are me, the easiest and most obvious target — once we move past the disappointing cover and the harsh publishing world where almost nothing gets promoted vigorously — is me. The fault is mine. It might be as simple as what I like, in this case, is not what the majority of readers wanted.

Anyway, I still like the book a lot, always have.

—

This snippet (below) is from the final revision I did in the copyediting process. The book was typeset and just about ready to go to press. I was still fiddling with words, working that last scene, Jude at Jones Beach, alone, waiting for the sun to rise, possibly in love, throwing a stone into the ocean.

–

–

Okay, thanks for listening. I’m not sure about the availability of this book. It’s a strange publishing world out there now. Books can be “available” but “not in stock,” which is confusing and not gratifying. It might be completely out of print. At the same, you can usually find books in libraries or secondary markets if you are willing to click around for two minutes. I think it’s a good read. 

Thanks!

 

Share Share Tweet Follow Share Print Email
Category: Before You Go, the writing process / Tags: , ,

Huckleberry Finn — Archetypical Boys — and a Scene from My Upcoming Novel, SHAKEN (ages 9-13)

August 1, 2024 / / No comments

–

I’ve been on a good reading streak lately. You know the feeling. These times when you keep picking up good books and your mind feels engaged, buzzing with ideas and perceptions. I read Percival Everett’s new novel, James, which is Everett’s version of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, told from Jim’s point of view. A brilliant book. It led me to reread Huckleberry — it had been decades — which was also profoundly interesting, a book  wholly deserving of its place in the canon of American Literature. Not perfect, nope, but foundational in so many ways. 

Jim and Huck on a raft on the river.

It’s all right there.

Sidenote: 2007 saw the publication of Jon Clinch’s debut novel, Finn, which focuses on Huckleberry’s father. I remember loving this dark, gritty tale when it first came out — we meet Huck in this one, too — and now I feel that I need to revisit it again.

Anyway, that’s three supremely talented writers, like gold diggers seeking riches, working the same deep vein: that great fictional character, Huckleberry Finn. The distilled spirit of the American boy. Or, at least, one version of that boy.

In a similar way, I think of Ramona Quimby as a classic type of American girl. A powerful archetype, for Ramona is the most imitated character in all of children’s literature.

 

 

 

 

Inspired thus, and perusing the internet, as one does, I came across this illustration of Tom Sawyer by Norman Rockwell:

 

–

–

The image jarred something loose in me, because I have a similar scene in my middle-grade novel, Shaken (Macmillan, September 2024). There’s a boy sneaking out of a bedroom window late at night. Sure, I could look no farther than my own childhood to come up with that idea. But there was something else at play. Something deeper and more resonant. 

I should note here that the neighborhood boy in Shaken was inspired, directly, by my childhood friend, Jimmy Kuhlman, AKA, Jimbo Ku. But I now realize that the “Jimbo” in my story was also inspired by Twain’s depiction of Tom and Huck. All those characters (living and fictional)  flicker around the essence of the archetypical American boy, the mischievous & resourceful rapscallion. In my book, I wanted that character to represent a sense of freedom, which was something missing from Kristy’s mindset: a wildness, an openness . . . a touch of Huckleberryness.

Looking back, I understand that I treasured those qualities in my old (and still current) friend. He had an undeniable energy and rebellious intelligence. A rule-breaker. I wanted this character to enter Kristy’s world and leave her enriched and transformed. He’s just that kid in everybody’s neighborhood who is a little bit different. More alive, more free, more daring.

I sensed that those qualities were absent from Kristy’s highly-scheduled, goal-oriented routine. Today I look around and suspect that those qualities are missing from the life of so many young people. There’s just not enough time to muck around. Which is too bad, because so many good and valuable lessons are learned from just mucking about.

Here’s an excerpt from the moment when Kristy first notices — really notices — her next door neighbor. It is late at night and she is sitting on her front porch while the world sleeps. Or so she thinks:

–

This was where Kristy sat huddled under a fleece blanket late one evening long after her parents had gone to bed. Sleeping was still a problem—it never got back on schedule—especially since she no longer exerted herself physically with sports. Kristy used to fall into bed dead-tired; now she had become nocturnal, like a bat or a bandicoot. On this night, Kristy wasn’t doing anything in particular. Just being. Enjoying the silence, the body’s quiet, late autumn’s brisk, crisp, sharp aroma of decay.

This was something new, the post-concussed version of herself, Kristy 2.0. Up all hours of the night, not busy, not active, not even restless really. The fall fragrances soothed and comforted her in a way they never had before—the smell of rotted plants and leaves and acorns: dark, rich, woody. Kristy sat content as an owl perched on a limb: watchful, alert, still.

A soft noise came from the neighbors’ house to her immediate right. The Sullivans. A second-story window shivered up almost soundlessly, but not quite. Dark curtains billowed. And a black-booted foot stepped out onto the front roof. A bent figure hunched through the opening and, once outside, carefully lowered the window shut. It was the skinny boy next door, the youngest of them all, sneaking out of his house. Interesting. Kristy felt like a spy, as if she were witnessing a minor felony, something that she wasn’t meant to see. The night whispering a secret into her ear, the moon lending its stolen light.

What was he up to?

His name, she knew, was Jimmy. They had never talked, not much anyway, though his family had moved in nearly two years ago. Though roughly the same age, their paths rarely crossed. He wore a private school uniform and rode the bus to get there. There were four or five Sullivan children—it was hard to get an accurate census—one of those sprawling families with an ever-changing assortment of cars cluttering the driveway. Teenagers coming and going. Young adults. Sometimes they even parked on the front lawn. The family had moved up from the city, Kristy believed. Two and a half hours on the train and a galaxy away.

The boy moved to the edge of the roof, rubbed his hands against his jeans. Then he leaned dangerously out over the black nothingness and, with one hand, grabbed hold of a drooping tree limb. He swung so freely, so effortlessly—like a gibbon brachiating through the forest. Kristy took a sudden intake of air when he dipped to a lower branch, wrapped his legs around the trunk for momentary purchase, then dropped to the earth as if he’d done it a hundred times before.

A lone car traveled down the empty road, casting long shadows with its headlights. The boy stepped close to the house into the shadows. The beams swept across the grounds like searchlights in a prison movie. The danger passed.

Even if the boy glanced in the direction of Kristy’s porch, he almost certainly would not have seen her, wrapped in the deep-blue fleece blanket pulled up to her neck. He furtively moved to the sidewalk and into the street, long strides and calm confidence. He carried something in his right hand. What was it? In answer to her question, the boy lowered a skateboard to the street and stepped onto it. He pushed off—one, two— smooth as silk over glass. With a practiced gesture, he pulled a hoodie over his head and disappeared into the night.

Where was he going, now in the witching hour, while all the world slept? To meet his friends? To party in the woods? To see his girlfriend? Or maybe he was like Kristy, awake because he was lured outside by the autumn air, a nocturnal creature of the dark. A fellow bandicoot. Maybe he couldn’t sleep. Maybe home was too hard. It was a puzzle that Kristy couldn’t solve. Not yet, anyway.

She longed to follow him into the dark.

–

–

For 7th-grader Kristy Barrett, soccer is life. It has always been at the center of Kristy’s world. Her friendships and self-worth, her dreams and daily activities, all revolve around the sport. Until she suffers from a serious concussion and has to set soccer aside for an uncertain amount of time. Kristy begins to struggle in school, experience stress, anxiety, and panic attacks which ultimately bring her to some questionable decisions . . . and the care of a therapist as she suffers from post-concussion syndrome. It’s a story about identity, therapy, new friendships, making mistakes and, finally, coming true to one’s ever-evolving self.

 

SHAKEN will be published on September 10th, 2024. It is available for pre-order. Thanks for reading.

 

Share Share Tweet Follow Share Print Email
Category: Readings, Shaken, the writing process / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
« Older Entries   Recent Entries »
Website Hosted by Web Instinct