20 Questions: 'Dear Younger Me...'

By Elisa Boxer and Kjersten Hayes

Welcome back to our series, 20 QUESTIONS!

This is the place where we here at the Soaring ’20s answer questions about our debut picture book process.

We’re one month into 2020 (gasp!), looking ahead to all that awaits us during our debut year.

But we’re also looking back, taking stock of what we wish we’d known before this whole journey began.

Today’s question:

“What’s your best piece of advice for your younger author/illustrator self? “

Rajani LaRocca

Rajani LaRocca, author of the picture book SEVEN GOLDEN RINGS and the middle-grade book MIDSUMMER’S MAYHEM: “Lean into the stuff that makes you weird. It’s also what makes you and your writing interesting! Also, just when you’re thinking of giving up on something is when the breakthrough comes.”

Kjersten Hayes

Kjersten Hayes, author of THE ELEPHANTS’ GUIDE TO HIDE-AND-SEEK: “Please, younger self, stop sabotaging by rarely submitting. It can be just as painful to hide as it is to share. Also, make a fool of yourself more often — boldly saying YES to your adventurous, risky, beautiful efforts, even when they fall horribly short. Those failures are likely the exact opportunities you need to build on to make your work better. Stop being scared of your mistakes.”

Mary Wagley Copp

Mary Wagley Copp, author of WHEREVER I GO: “Keep at it! It is a roller coaster of a ride, and while the lows ARE low, the highs ARE high — and worth working toward. It is okay to feel discouraged, but don’t stay in that place. Get up, dust off, and write!”

Lindsay H. Metcalf

Lindsay H. Metcalf, author of BEATRIX POTTER, SCIENTIST and FARMERS UNITE!, and co-editor of NO VOICE TOO SMALL: “Patience, young Padawan. Don’t submit work that’s not the best thing you’ve ever written. Would you want to make a mediocre book? No. So don’t send mediocre submissions just because you’re tired of futzing with them.”

Kelly Baptist

Kelly Baptist, author of THE ELECTRIC SLIDE AND KAI: “Don’t wait! Don’t let life get in the way of your passion. No matter how busy or complicated life becomes, you MUST make space for writing. Dreams are great, but you have to wake up and work to achieve them. Time doesn’t wait, so you shouldn’t either!”

Hope Lim

Hope Lim, author of I AM A BIRD: “Your best story ideas come from personal experiences, described and retold from your own unique perspective.”

Kirsten W. Larson

Kirsten W. Larson, author of WOOD, WIRE, WINGS: EMMA LILIAN TODD INVENTS AN AIRPLANE: “It’s OK to write what you love. For me, that’s true stories. There is tremendous creativity and craft in writing nonfiction, and lots of challenge too, because you have to stick to the facts.”

Anna Crowley Redding

Anna Crowley Redding, author of RESCUING THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE: “Keep going. Don’t give up! Go to as many workshops and classes as possible!”

Abi Cushman

Abi Cushman, author/illustrator of SOAKED!: “Put in the work and then put it (and yourself) out there. Doing the work is the only thing you can control in this industry, plus you’ll gradually improve as you build and build upon your skillset over time. Putting yourself and your work out there allows you to develop lots of long-lasting kidlit friendships, in addition to a nice thick skin.”

Qing Zhuang

Qing Zhuang, illustrator of HOW LONG IS FOREVER: “Invest in craft-based art classes and trust your instincts on which medium to focus on. Don’t give yourself so much pressure — You have the right to practice art in a joyful, carefree way as much as anyone else. Take care of your mental and physical health, and try not to take on too much in student loans!

Vicky Fang

Vicky Fang, author of INVENT-A-PET: “Write lots of stuff! Experiment, push, and find great partners.”

Melanie Ellsworth

Melanie Ellsworth, author of CLARINET AND TRUMPET: “Just go for it! And stick with it. Listen to the critiques and edit — a lot! But don’t change your story so much that it loses its heart.”

Susan Kusel

Susan Kusel, author of THE PASSOVER GUEST: “Somebody really is going to want to publish your story based on an obscure Yiddish folktale. It will take about a decade, but don’t give up. One day you’ll see it in print. No kidding.”

Kelly Carey

Kelly Carey, author of HOW LONG IS FOREVER?: “Be patient and trust that the hard work and tentative steps outside of your comfort zone are going to bring you rewards beyond that published book proudly clutched in your hands. You’ll enjoy the long road to publication and you’ll find like-minded friends who will enrich your journey more than you can know.”

Candy Wellins

Candy Wellins, author of SATURDAYS ARE FOR STELLA: “‘Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never…’ It comes from a speech Winston Churchill made during World War II, but it’s the best encouragement I’ve ever heard for doing anything that’s tough. You want to be a writer, but are scared of rejection. Ideas come easily, but you struggle plotting them. Your story has been on submission for months and you still haven’t heard anything. It’s so easy to give in. But if writing is your passion, you have to stick with it and weather all the storms.”

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Now . . . over to you! What’s your best piece of advice for your younger author/illustrator self? Let us know in the comments below.

Goal Setting for Writers, from Bullet Journaling to the Ship’s Log

By Angela Burke Kunkel

I started bullet journaling in mid-2016, the same year I began seriously pursuing writing for children. In my mind, the two are absolutely connected. Admitting that I wanted to write was a big thing to say out loud, and committing the steps to paper made it real.

If you’re not familiar with the bullet journal method, it’s a “DIY planner” but also a mode of thinking developed by Ryder Carroll. And while there are millions of Pinterest and Instagram posts of pretty bullet journal pages, the essential thing is that a bullet journal is a place to think intentionally about your goals — to track, reflect, and plan in both the long term and the short-term. (I’m indebted to Kate Messner’s fantastic post on how she uses a bullet journal as a children’s author, which you can see here).

One of my earliest goals was to get over my fear of perfectionism by sending out work and accumulating 100 rejections a year (inspired by this post by Kim Liao). In case you’re wondering, I got lucky and only made it to 33 before I signed with my agent. And yes, I tallied up those rejections in my bullet journal:

Angela’s rejection tally

And you know what? It was honestly great. It kept my mind focused on that goal of getting work out there, and as I was marking off rejections in my bullet journal, I was also collecting bits and pieces of feedback from agents. It was a message — and a written reminder — to keep going.

As I built my bullet journaling habit, I also began thinking in more concrete terms about writing goals. Mapping my writing journey on the page helped me to reflect on progress I had made, what I wanted to do next, and what was left to be done. It also helped me let go of things and shift goals. And, importantly, it’s helped me with writer’s block. Once I signed the contract for DIGGING, my old friend perfectionism reared its ugly head again, and I had a very hard time moving forward with the necessary edits. In my bullet journal, I made a mental map of all the tools I had at my disposal:

Writer’s block? Bullet journal to the rescue!

Did I use them all? Of course not. But articulating what I could do helped me get unstuck. And, when I inevitably got stuck again, I’d return to this page and try another revision method.

While I now use a Passion Planner (mostly because I was wasting too much time my bullet journal pages pretty), the idea remains the same. I keep a weekly habit log where I track how often I’ve written and how many picture books I’ve read. I have a space to write and reflect on monthly goals and projects, and I also have running lists in the back — a Gantt chart (thanks again, Kate Messner!) for ongoing projects, a running list of random writing-related things I need to take care of, ideas I want to research and/or pursue, and more. Here’s a page from my Gantt chart, marking off all of the steps I need to take before I feel ready to show a manuscript to my agent:

Angela’s Gantt chart for tracking progress on her manuscripts

And, starting in 2020, I’m structuring my goals slightly differently, inspired by the book The Art of Slow Writing by Louise DeSalvo. Like most authors, I have a full-time job and family commitments in addition to writing, and I do, indeed, go slowly. In her book, DeSalvo recommends two practices I’m instituting in the coming year: first, a “ship’s log,” rather than a goal, is a place to record what you actually accomplished during your writing session that day. Can I say how much I love this? Because as much as bullet journaling has been helpful for me, it’s sometimes been a hindrance as well — I sometimes make so many lists that (once again) the perfectionist in me freezes and can’t decide what to tackle next. A ship’s log asks the brain to stop and recognize and reward the accomplishment of the moment, the work done — rather than speeding on to checking off the next thing on the list.

The second practice I’ll be borrowing from DeSalvo in 2020 is approaching goals in twelve-week increments. A few weeks ago, I brainstormed a giant list of writing-related thoughts. I then circled what was most important to me, looked for connections or themes, and tried to separate goals out by 1) actual craft/writing goals, 2) publicity and “author” duties for my debut year, and 3) ways to keep my creativity flowing that may (or may not) involve actual writing. I broke this down into a five-year, one year, quarterly (twelve week), and monthly goals. And, because the list is long and lofty, I’m layering this with the ship’s log. Will I accomplish EVERY single thing I wrote down, EVERY month or EVERY twelve weeks? Probably — almost certainly — not. Do I need to acknowledge, record, recognize what I DID and what I WANT to accomplish? Absolutely.

I also fully expect those goals to shift, and that’s OK. Reflecting on what went well, what didn’t, how I can refocus my time, what I want to let go of, or what I want to work more on — it all counts. Here’s to a productive — and positive — relationship with our writing goals in 2020. Happy New Year!

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Mei Lin Barral photography

Angela Burke Kunkel is a school librarian, picture-book author, and stationery enthusiast. When she’s not reading or writing, you can probably find her walking her dogs or looking for the perfect planner and pen. Her debut picture book with illustrator Paola Escobar, DIGGING FOR WORDS: JOSÉ ALBERTO GUTIÉRREZ AND THE LIBRARY HE BUILT (Random House/Schwartz & Wade) will be published in September 2020.

Follow author Angela Burke Kunkel: 

Website: angelakunkel.com
Twitter: @angkunkel
Instagram: @angkunkel

No Prompt Needed

Or, How Teens Showed Me to Embrace the Open-Endedness of the Writing Life

By Angela Burke Kunkel

Pixabay

As I write this, we’re smack in the middle of #NaNoWriMo, something I’m participating in daily with a group of high school students. NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month, takes place every November, and participants try to write the first draft of a novel, roughly 50,000 words. When you sign up for NaNoWriMo’s Young Writers Program, they send you lots of neat swag, including a deck of prompt cards to get those creative juices flowing. The interesting thing, though, is that the teens have emphatically waved those cards off. More than a writing prompt, this group is looking for community, encouragement, support — something all writers crave, regardless of age or grade level.

The group’s rejection of prompt cards got me thinking about ways to teach craft without putting too many restrictions on students. This is likely more of an issue for self-conscious adolescents than younger children, but it’s worth thinking about students gradually picking up the belief that they’re not writers. Writing and creativity are habits that can be learned and expanded with practice. And I don’t want these teens — or my own children, or any child — to lose it.

So, regardless of what creative path you may choose, or, if you’re a teacher, what curriculum you might be bound to this year, here are five things I think I important to make space for in the classroom:

1) Provide Non-Evaluative Writing Time

The teens I write with are busy, over-scheduled, stressed, and yet they show up daily to write — not because it’s required or graded, but because it’s NOT. #NaNoWriMo is fun because it’s a challenge for themselves, not for an authority figure.

Because teachers have so much pressure to teach a variety of forms, as well as the writing process, there’s a danger of treating non-evaluative writing as “extra.” I’d make the case that non-evaluative time is what keeps kids motivated to write.

All writers need to write to explore. I have pages upon pages of scribbles in notebooks that will never become final drafts. But I had to write those pages in order to arrive at the idea that did work. Our young writers need the same! Whether it’s daily journaling or simply opting not to grade a certain piece, let’s make sure students aren’t in a constant cycle of evaluation.

2) Provide Models

Students benefit from models in terms of structure, word choice, imagery, word play, even genre . . . the more teachers and their students read widely, the more students are able to put those conventions to use in their own writing. Many teens in our NaNoWriMo group read fantasy, and that’s what they’re writing this month. Imitation is a step towards mastery.

Another most important model is YOU! Let them see their teacher write. If you’re not a confident writer (although, if you’re reading this blog, you’re likely at least interested), try a challenge like Kate Messner’s Teachers Write!. Give yourself the same non-evaluative time, too. Write alongside them. It’s encouraging for children to see adults struggle with ideas, attempt something, and return to the page again. 

3) Provide Community

For adults and kids alike, writing can feel like a lonely endeavor. From pairs to small groups to whole class or whole school, celebrate writing by giving students the time to talk and share their work, formally and informally, with each other and with the adults in their lives. 

4) Provide the Opportunity to Share (Or Not)

At the same time, allowing students to opt out of sharing work is part of a safe and encouraging writing community. Not all pieces will be final drafts or published work, and not all pieces need to be shared. Also, who says a whole piece has to be shared? Maybe it’s a great sentence. Maybe it’s a way the writer came up with an idea. Maybe it’s a favorite word they used.

5) Provide PLAY

I know this seems to contradict the idea of providing models, but a healthy balance of both is important! I’ve had the most success with prompts that feel playful rather than assigned. Twitter and Instagram have an endless number of accounts with photos that can serve as interesting prompts. Found poetry inspires children to play with language. Book spine poetry encourages them to explore the library. And, I’ll close with a favorite prompt from the group of teens I meet with: We each chose a book at random from the library, selected a sentence from a given page number, and wrote for ten minutes, using that sentence as the beginning of our own writing. As one teen put it, “We had a start, so we knew were we were going, but we were all going in different directions, and that’s what made it interesting.”

Let’s keep it interesting, for ourselves and for our students.

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Angela Burke Kunkel is a school librarian, picture-book author, and somewhat conflicted #NaNoWriMo participant. When she’s not reading or writing, you can probably find her walking her dogs or scouring secondhand stores. Look for her debut picture book with illustrator Paola Escobar, DIGGING FOR WORDS: JOSÉ ALBERTO GUTIÉRREZ AND THE LIBRARY HE BUILT (Random House/Schwartz & Wade) in September 2020.

Follow author Angela Burke Kunkel: 

Website: angelakunkel.com
Twitter: @angkunkel
Instagram: @angkunkel