January 4, 2018

Hi Friends, We wish you a happy holidays and a peaceful new year. To kick off a positive 2018, we asked the SCBWI Board to share some words of wisdom about their creative process.

What is one important thing you do to keep your creativity alive and vibrant?

I talk to my friends. I read. I play some jazz. I listen to my kid. I love. I live.  Kwame Alexander

I read poetry and try to draw. Anything that makes me into a beginner again sparks my creativity. Laurie Halse Anderson

I relax. I don't work. I read for pleasure. I watch movies with my teenager. I play the guitar. Smack a tennis ball. Anything that gives my brain a break from "work" allows me to come back to it fresher and eager to re-engage. Arthur Levine

I try and take a good podcast-free walk every day. Some of my best ideas come when I'm walking. Unless I'm listening to a podcast.  Matt de la Peña

Old sketchbooks, new news, dreams, listening to kids or stories  about  kids, the interiors of bookstores, art supply stores, libraries, museums, and books. So many triggers, so little time.  Pat Cummings

Sleeplessness, my steady unloved bed-partner, forces me to dump the worries and doubt and to focus on making something new and worthy in the silent darkness. Intricately plotted, brilliant, and insightful, my insomnia-novels may never see light, which is just as well: they put me to sleep. But they also give me a glimmer of hope, just enough to begin again in the morning. Susan Patron

Two activities: knitting and cooking. Writing is such 'thinky' work: It helps me greatly to do things that not only use a different part of my brain, but also require focused use of my hands. There's a sensuality to both cooking and knitting that writing lacks. Knitting and cooking help balance the delayed gratification we writers have to contend with. Cooking a simple and tasty meal provides near-instant gratification. Knitting the things that I knit (mostly hats and baby garments) takes longer, but I still reach 'the end' much sooner than I do with a novel. As well, both activities have direct connections to my writing. ALL of my novels have food in them. Sometimes LOTS of food. And in Beast of Stone (HarperCollins, March 2018), I finally managed to use knitting as part of a novel's plot! Linda Sue Park

I started writing a poem a day seven years ago as a personal challenge. I didn't expect to be happy with any poem on the first draft.  But I did it for three reasons: 1. Finger exercises 2. Brain exercise 3. Sales: This was an unforeseen plus. I've gotten at least a half dozen picture books out of those poems and sold a hundred or more to journals and anthologies, and used them in books of my own. My writing had taken a huge step forward. I have no plans to stop. Jane Yolen

I hear lots of music, listen to my characters and let myself be 5 yrs old. And I'm always inspired and excited by what I see others create! Priscilla Burris

I draw in my sketchbook while binge-watching animated films. Peter Brown

To keep my creativity vibrant, I try to stretch my senses by reading poetry aloud, listening to instrumental music, looking at paintings and photographs, and cooking savory dishes with lots of herbs or spices. Keeping my senses alert usually inspires bursts of renewed creativity and energy. Emma Dryden

I always have two projects going at once. When I find myself running dry on MS no. 1, I turn to MS no. 2 and see it with fresh eyes. I get excited about no. 2, and the ideas and words start flowing again. When I feel myself slogging on no. 2, I turn back to no. 1! Tracy Barrett

I over-text my children and send them long handwritten letters that I decorate, and that have become a burden to them since I also decorate the envelopes and they can’t open them.  Lisa Yee

I take a hike around the pond near my house or climb a mountain about 30 minutes away. Spending quiet time in nature is the best way to refill my well and spark my creativity. Melissa Stewart

I show up. I sit in my chair. I close my eyes. I take a deep breath and let the tension drain out of my shoulders. And then I reach out to my characters as if I have ESP...as if I'm probing their consciousness to see if they're there and want to talk. I ask them how they are and what they're feeling. Just by listening to them and jotting down a few notes, I move into a creative state -- an awareness of potential and otherness -- that stays with me through the rest of my day no matter whether I'm researching, teaching, or writing.  Kathleen Ahrens

I recharge by tinkering and playing scales (badly) on my keyboard and I cook or bake or read about new morsels to eat. I recharge creativity by asking the godsons (or my wife) what they can tell me from their daily happenings or I reflect on memories from my teaching days - often a snippet of those tales and reflections lingers in my brain before weaving words into my notebook -- SOME writing makes it to my notebooks nearly every day! Christopher Cheng

I would echo what many of my friends on the Board have said—cooking; gardening; hiking with my enthusiastic dog, often on the lookout for the wild horses that frequent our beautiful valley, which is a source of inspiration in itself. But I am also blessed (or “cursed”) to have children in my home, and they are bottomless wells of creativity, from their own drawings/stories to their “artistic" excuses for the unexplainable things that happen here regularly. There is no lack of creative genius in this house! Ellen Hopkins

As often as possible, I try to do something—even a very small something—I have never done before. When I encounter a surprise and a challenge to my expectations, my brain stops in its tracks and re-ignites, and I experience life and see things from a slightly different perspective. Cecilia Yung

In the warmer months, I pull weeds and plant flowers. In the cold months I clean. Amazing what you can find in writing files. Word by word, one letter after another, only 26 of them in uncountable combinations to tell a story.  Judy Enderle

When I totally immerse myself in a full environment of creativity—live theater, a focused museum exhibit, a concert—it’s creative meditation. Time stops. I step away from the world and into art, music, new visions, and out of my head. I can also go back in time, to be inspired by past creators; or forward in time, to dream of what could be; or stay in today’s world but pull back to get perspective, to truly see our world and study it with new eyes, and reassess my place in it all. Laurent Linn

I find that after a certain amount of writing I need to stop and "refill the well"--by which I mean instead of creating stories, I need to spend time absorbing them, in as many forms as possible. Bruce Coville

To keep creativity alive, I limit my time online and often avoid the internet completely. To recharge, I unplug!  Ruta Sepetys