Shaun Tan: The Exclusive Pre-#NY13SCBWI Interview

Shaun Tan with some feathered friends

From the first time I opened "The Arrival," I was blown away by the artistry, the narrative, and how I felt I was in the hands of a master storyteller.  I stood there in the book store and read the entire thing, cover to cover!

Shaun Tan grew up in the northern suburbs of Perth, Western Australia, and currently works as an artist, author and film-maker in Melbourne. Books such as "The Rabbits," "The Red Tree," "Tales From Outer Suburbia" and the acclaimed wordless novel "The Arrival" have been widely translated and enjoyed by readers of all ages. Shaun has also worked as a theater designer, feature film concept artist, and wrote and directed the Academy Award-winning animated short "The Lost Thing."  In 2011 he received the prestigious Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award in Sweden for his body of work. His most recent publication is "The Bird King."

Shaun will be giving a Keynote address the Saturday February 2, 2013 of the upcoming 14th Annual SCBWI Winter Conference, titled "Internal Migrations."  I'm delighted to share with you our discussion...

Lee: You've written about your work opening "a passage between familiarity and strangeness" (when you were discussing "The Lost Thing") and I also see that same space explored in "The Arrival." Is that space magical for you?

Shaun:  Yes, it certainly is, magic in that it partly makes sense, but not entirely. There's the craziness of imagination, which can sometimes be a bit too crazy to communicate anything meaningful (as with dreams), but when it's anchored to other familiar, very real and studied things, it can present a kind of alternate reality on the page. It shifts subtly from ordinary to extraordinary. I think all of us are vaguely aware that the 'real world' we live in happens to be just one of many possibilities. We might have been born anywhere, at any time, and maybe even in any universe! So what then makes us who we really are? The Arrival plays with that idea a little bit, that we have to make sense of ourselves within a world that can shift and change radically, and taking the point of view of an immigrant in order to examine this.

Lee: I've read that many of your characters and moments in books are taken from sketches you've done over time in your notebooks. I imagine you walking around your life, always ready to doodle something that catches your eye or inspires you. Do you have a system where you go back and look through your old sketchbooks to find images and re-new inspiration?

Shaun:  No, I wish! My note-keeping is extremely haphazard. However I've found that the act of sketching is enough to plant an idea in my mental library, it's a form of study that lends itself to easy retrieval. Then when I'm in a creative emergency, I can just remember that little thing I might have sketched a couple of years ago. If need be, I might then look it up physically, if I can endure my terrible filing system. On rare occasions I will actually thumb through an older sketchbook, and be reminded of new ideas that may in fact generate fresh inspiration, or provide 'missing ingredients' for a current project.

Lee:  You also wrote that "my concern is to involve the reader by the use of their own imagination, in trying to make sense of the 'unfinished' stories that I'm presenting to them." But there must come a point where a story is so 'unfinished' that it isn't satisfying. And your stories often have a numinous resonance that stays with me long after I've put them down. (Like the ending of the short story "Eric" in "Tales From Outer Suburbia") Can you talk about crafting the end of your stories?

Shaun: Yes, basically a story is finished for me when it feels satisfying, so I keep working on it up until that point. Interestingly though, that feeling of completeness comes from a story or image feeling a bit incomplete, by which I mean it doesn't reveal too much about character, motivation or meaning, but the direction of all these things is implied. I usually over-write or over-draw my stories, spelling things out in a little too much detail, and then spend a lot of time stripping them back to their bones. Sometimes - including on the advice of editors - I have removed a final paragraph from the story, and that's often improved it a lot... it's as if you are left with a footprint or wake of an idea, and the reader can then fill that little vacuum themselves, in a personal way. The physical constraints of picture books, and animated films - limited page numbers or screen-time - has also been instrumental in helping me learn how to edit carefully this way. The fact that drawing and painting just takes so long to do is also helpful, a good discipline. It forces me to think very carefully about how little I can get away with, and still convey a good story.

Lee:  I like that question - how little can I get away with, and still convey a good story! "Distant Rain" also stayed with me (the image of the massive ball of poems hovering over the neighborhood!) That story's fusion of words and drawings was - not seamless - but seeing all the seams made it even more beautiful. Having both words and pictures in your 'toolbox' presents a challenge: how do you best express what you're going for. So, in telling a story, how do you choose the moments to illustrate, the moments to use words?

Shaun:  That's the question! I know with that story in particular, I changed my mind a lot and I still wonder about alternative presentations. In the end, to use that as a good example, I always return to a fundamental concept, asking what is the story really about? In Distant Rain, it's really about forgotten poetry and mismatched experiences, the chaotic detritus of ordinary life. So the story is predominantly a written one, torn into little scraps, and the illustrations take a back seat. Elsewhere, such as in The Arrival or The Lost Thing, the central concept involves a failure of language or communication, and in that case the illustrations carry almost all meaning, because they can show things that can't be named. Generally speaking, words are good for interpretative concepts, such as identifying a creature as 'lost', and other things too tedious to show in pictures. Pictures are great for presenting much more ambiguous ideas, and have their own economy. The companion creature in The Arrival would take an entire page to describe physically, and even then we would not quite 'get it', whereas a picture is just so instant and matter-of-fact: look, here's a creature. You can also hide things in pictures, go off on little tangents, offer optional things to examine, which might be harder to do with a page of text.

Lee:  As a writer, I'm familiar with the revision process for words. What's your revision process for images?

Shaun:  Very similar actually, like moving paragraphs around, rewording sentences, adding and subtracting here and there. For images, I tend to do equivalent visual adjustments by drawing over the top of previous draft sketches using a lightbox. I keep the bits I like - trace them off - and rework the bits I don't like. I'll sometimes use scissors and tape to cut out and rearrange parts; since working digitally, I can do a lot of this in Photoshop too. In fact, although almost all my final art is hand-made, there's a lot of digital editing that goes in in my preliminary sketches.

Lee:  That's fascinating! What have you learned over the course of your career so far that you wish you had known when you started?

Shaun:  I think to just relax and have more faith in my intuition. As a younger artist, I worried too much about where my work fit in, its significance and so on, not to mention the problems of generating income. Most of those issues resolved when I just trusted in my own ideas, beginning with a picture book 'The Rabbits', where I more or less thought, to hell with it, I'll just do whatever I want and not care if it all falls in a heap or even gets published. As it turns out, that book was the turning point in my career as an illustrator, doing something nobody else had really seen before (including me!).

Lee:  Excellent advice - be yourself!  Okay, Bonus Speed Round:  Coffee or Hot Chocolate?

Shaun:  Coffee - I'm not a morning person!

Lee:  Pencil or Pen?

Shaun:  Impossible to decide: enjoy pencil, but hate stopping to sharpen. When sketching I usually use a cheap ballpoint.

Lee:  Karaoke Song?

Shaun:  Anything instrumental that requires no actual singing. Sparing you all from needless misery.

Lee:  Thanks, Shaun!

Shaun:  Thanks, see you soon.

And if you want to see Shaun's keynote, there are a limited number of spaces still available for the Saturday and Sunday of the 2013 SCBWI Winter Conference (the Friday intensives have sold out.) You can find out more details and register here.

Françoise Bui: The Exclusive Pre-#NY13SCBWI Interview

Françoise Bui

Françoise Bui is executive editor at Delacorte Press, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books. She acquires manuscripts for middle-grade and young adult readers and greatly appreciates stand-alone novels.

She will be giving two breakout workshops on the Saturday of the upcoming 14th Annual SCBWI Winter Conference in New York City, February 1st-3rd, 2013, WHAT HOOKS ME. 

I had the opportunity to find out more about Françoise in the lead-up to the conference...


Lee: First lines reveal so much. The opening of “Orchards” by Holly Thompson

Chapter 1
Because of You

One week after
you stuffed a coil of rope
into your backpack
and walked uphill into
Osgoods' orchard
where blooms were still closed fists

my father looked up
summer airfares
to Tokyo

promises a very different journey than Rob Buyea’s first lines for “Because of Mr. Terupt.”

Peter

It's our bad luck to have teachers in this world, but since we're stuck with them, the best we can do is hope to get a brand-new one instead of a mean old fart.

If a writer is unsure where to start their story, what would you advise?

Françoise: A strong opening—whether a single sentence or a paragraph—should set the tone of the story, and be intriguing in some way. If you’re really stuck, it might be worth trying an action scene.

Lee: Both of those are also great examples of voice.  Do you have a working definition of what makes a voice "work?"

Françoise: Not really a definition. For me, a great voice awakens my senses. With Orchards, I smell the blossoms that have yet to open. I hear a plane take off and see the lights of Tokyo’s skyscrapers. I feel the texture of the rope, and the whole of the opening makes me sense that something tragic is going to happen with that rope. With Because of Mr. Terupt, Peter’s narrative clues me in to the fact that he’s likely a class prankster—someone who gives teachers a hard time. I see him creating mayhem in the classroom.

Lee: To a 15 year old, anything before 1997 is historical. (I just made myself feel really old!)  In terms of the world-building needed to make the novel feel “real,” do you see similarities between fantasy and historical novels?

Françoise: I recently had dinner with a librarian who lamented that young readers have a hard time connecting with a historical setting. She claims it’s because cutbacks mean far less history is taught and readers don’t have the proper context with which to understand the past. Sad and probably true. But I would hope that character driven stories transcend time periods. If a character faces challenges —whether in a fantastical or historical story—that feel familiar to a reader, I think this bridges any time gaps.

Lee:  The opening of the publisher’s description of “Mystic City” by Theo Lawrence reads: “For fans of Matched, The Hunger Games, X-Men, and Blade Runner comes a tale of a magical city divided, a political rebellion ignited, and a love that was meant to last forever. Book One of the Mystic City Novels.”  If you were being queried by a writer, would those kinds of comparisons be useful or off-putting?

Françoise: While it’s best not to make claims that aren’t true, or that over-hype a manuscript, it’s helpful to have comparisons. I certainly try to come up with just the right X meets X meets X when I present a new manuscript to our marketing, publicity and sales folk. It’s easier for them to grasp where the project will fit in the market place.

Lee: Can you share your advice for a writer hoping to have you as their editor for their debut novel?

Françoise: I’m drawn to character driven stories. And though I’m certainly open to trilogies, there’s nothing like a memorable stand-alone novel. In fact, I think the latter gets overlooked by aspiring writers these days.

Lee: How about words of wisdom for a mid-list author hoping to take their career to the next level?

Françoise: That’s a tough one. Depends on the type of story the author has been publishing. If previous novels have gotten strong reviews but have had soft sales, a bigger, bolder concept is probably the way to go.

Lee: On the future of publishing – is the pie shrinking or expanding? Are you optimistic?

Françoise: While the publishing landscape is rapidly changing, editors will continue to look for compelling content.

Lee: speaking of pie… Speed Round!  Pie or cake?

Françoise: I like tarts—the French variety.

Lee:  Crosswords or sudoku?

Françoise: Crosswords.

Lee: Karaoke song?

Françoise: Bohemian Rhapsody.

Lee:  Excellent!  Thanks very much!

While the Friday Intensives are sold out, there are a limited number of spaces still available for the Saturday and Sunday of the 2013 SCBWI Winter Conference.  You can find out more details and register here.

Yolanda Scott: The Exclusive Pre-#NY13SCBWI Interview

Yolanda Scott

Yolanda Scott is the editorial director at Charlesbridge. She has edited over 150 titles, working with authors such as Eve Bunting, Tony Johnston, Kathryn Lasky, David McPhail, Linda Sue Park, Jane Yolen, and the late Martha Alexander. She is a former executive board member of the Foundation for Children's Books and the founder of Pubs in Pubs, a networking organization for children's publishing professionals. She has been a children's literature speaker and mentor at Boston College and Simmons College and has judged the Boston Public Library Children's Writer-in-Residence Program (2008-2011).

Yolanda will be giving two breakout workshops on the Saturday of the upcoming 14th Annual SCBWI Winter Conference in New York City, February 1st-3rd, 2013, WHAT HOOKS ME.  In it, she promises to share "what makes her run, not walk, to the contracts department."

I had the wonderful opportunity to ask Yolanda some questions before the conference..

Lee:  Tony Johnston, Linda Sue Park and Jane Yolen sound like members of a dream team. What makes a writer a dream for you to work with?

Yolanda:  I’ve been very lucky to work with such talented people, and there are some incredible people on the Charlesbridge list who are just starting out in their careers, too. When I think of my favorite authors, I can see that they have several qualities in common: they are all talented, hard-working, collaborative, passionate, and curious.

Lee:  You’ve been a mentor, so with that hat on, I’d love to hear your advice for writers hoping to be debut authors at Charlesbridge.

Yolanda:  It’s always so exciting to find a book from a first-time author! I just love that. Getting published is so, so hard, and it takes a special person to handle all that rejection without losing faith in one’s own abilities. Resiliency and a positive outlook are key. And of course, good, old-fashioned hard work. You have to be a reader to be a writer, and it goes without saying, you also have to write. A lot. And be willing to cast most of it aside. You have to be at peace that you will never get “there,” whatever that means. You just settle for being better tomorrow than you are today.

Lee: What would you suggest mid-list authors do to build their careers?

Yolanda: Well, I think the term “mid-list” gets thrown around a lot and can mean different things to different people. But for the sake of this question, let’s say it refers to published authors that are neither household names nor people at the onset of their career. And there are a whole lot of people like that, so it’s easy to get lost in the shuffle at any publishing house, I think (though less so at the smaller indies like Charlesbridge—to toot my own horn for a moment). So, you have to be proactive about letting your editors know what you’re up to. Let them know that you’re a good self-promoter, that you’re going to conferences, that you’re trying your hand in a new genre, or whatever. Don’t spam them, but keep consistent, positive contact. If you have a strong relationship with someone at your publishing house, see if you can have a frank talk with them about your track record. What’s sold, what hasn’t, and why? And sometimes you’re going to have to move on to greener pastures. These days, very few people work with one house. Diversification is helpful. But the main thing I would say is not to try to jump through hoops to be someone you’re not. Write what you want to write. Stick to your principles. Believe in yourself.

Lee:  Great advice for all of us!  Can you share your perspective on an author who wants to publish a variety of genres and/or age ranges? Do authors need to wait until they get to a certain point in their career to branch out, or are there no rules?

Yolanda:  Interesting question. If there’s a rule book for publishing, I’d sure like to see it. I think most publishers and writers are just trying to muddle through the best they can, especially in these challenging times, when the economy is so poor and the digital publishing future is upon us. In short, I think it depends on the individual situation.

Lee:  About that future of publishing… Are e-books and apps just another way to get our stories to our readers (like audio books and movies) or are they really the end of physical books as we know it?

Yolanda:  E-books and apps are new formats for storytelling, and there’s a whole heck of a lot of variety in what these e-books and apps do. Some are more akin to the traditional printed book than others. One of the key roles of an editor is to identify and develop promising work according to a generally accepted set of standards. The electronic publishing industry definitely needs those functions, and I think the standards for quality are still evolving as we understand more about the format and what makes a “good” app or e-book. Personally, I love the printed book and all its peculiarities: the paper stock, the trim size, the act of the page turn, and the limitations and opportunities of the four-color printing process. A printed picture book is a unique art form that cannot be duplicated electronically. And it still has a place in children’s lives; of course it does. I believe the picture book and the e-book can coexist peacefully, though. And I’m excited about the editorial challenges that working in a new format presents.

Lee:  I like that image of peaceful coexistence!  With the number of publishing houses offering self-publishing packages growing, and the ever-rising tide of self-published material, is the role of editor as gatekeeper going to shift to editor as vetter of what’s worth reading?

Yolanda: Hmm, I never really thought of my main function as being a gatekeeper, though of course I know what you mean. But most editors I know aren’t trying to keep people in or out of the kingdom—we’re just trying to find good writers to develop and good books to make better. There’s always going to be a need for that. And I think there’s real value in a writer working with an editor who isn’t being paid by the writer herself. Not being in the direct employ of the writer gives the editor the objectivity and autonomy that’s needed to shape the work properly.

Lee:   Speed Round!  Desert Island or Times Square New Year’s Eve?

Yolanda:  I misread that as “Dessert Island.” Can I pick that? Which segues nicely to . . .

Lee:  Vanilla or chocolate?

Yolanda:  Chocolate. The darkest, richest possible. Not too sweet, not too bitter. I could go on, but I’ll stop myself before . . . sorry. Just went downstairs to break off a few pieces of my Trader Joe’s 75% bittersweet Belgian chocolate bar. And no, I would *never* take a chocolate bribe from a writer. J

Lee:  Karaoke Song?

Yolanda:  Ah, I’m a performer in my non-editing life, so there are many favorites to choose from. But when you get right down to it, anything by Pat Benatar works for me. I generally play “All Fired Up” before an audition. That or “Hit Me with Your Best Shot.”

Lee: Thanks very much, and I look forward to meeting you in New York in February!

Yolanda:  Likewise! I’ve heard about the NY conference for years and am thrilled to be attending at last.

Now I'm "All Fired Up" to learn more about what makes Yolanda run to the contracts department!

If you're fired up, too, registration for #NY13SCBWI is open, and space is still available (the Winter conference sold out last year.  And the year before...)  Find out more details about the 2013 SCBWI Winter Conference schedule, faculty and registration here.

Illustrate and Write On,
Lee